I am writing this letter to clarify erroneous information published by the Tribune in a letter to the editor by James Ward on Dec. 24. While I would not presume to take a position on Mr. Ward's animosity toward any individual board member, I must conclude that his negative attitude toward the entire board and toward the Levittown School District is without merit, and appears to stem from these personal animosities. I am compelled to write the Tribune at this time because I believe that Mr. Ward has allowed his personal animosities toward individual board members to cloud his judgment about the school district and has led him to make and publish negative and false conclusions.

It is necessary, for example, to correct Mr. Ward's erroneous conclusion that elementary school students in Levittown scored poorly on the New York State 4th grade English Language Arts tests last spring. To the contrary, Levittown elementary schools have been cited by the state as "high-performing" schools based on these tests. Unfounded perceptions regarding the level of student achievement and quality of education in the Levittown School District still linger among some members of our community from conditions that existed over 20 years ago, at a time when Mr. Ward was more active in the governance of the school district. The facts, however, are clear and they negate any such negative perceptions. In recent years, student achievement in all schools in the Levittown School District has increased continuously and significantly. In fact, state testing records reveal that student achievement in the Levittown Schools has far outstripped that of almost all school districts in the entire state, increasing the district's relative status from the bottom quarter in the state to the top ten percent, and from the bottom ten percent in Nassau County to above the county average. Furthermore, the Levittown School District has achieved these high standards while maintaining among the lowest per pupil expenditures in Nassau County.

While there is always room for inprovement (and, in fact, improvement, itself, is the single most important mission of our school district), Levittown residents have every reason to be very proud of all of our schools. None of our schools are second-rate as Mr. Ward might believe. Rather, every school in Levittown is a first-rate, high-achieving institution. Relative to the 4th grade English Language Arts tests referred to by Mr. Ward in his letter, for example, all six of the Levittown elementary schools were recently cited by the New York State Department of Education for being among the highest achieving schools in the entire state. This citation was also made relative to Levittown performance on the fourth grade math tests.

Another erroneous perception that Mr. Ward espouses in his letter is that the board of education has added a new expenditure to the budget by contracting with BOCES to handle public relations. It should be noted that no additional funds or new monies have been allocated or are necessary for this purpose. The district has always included funds in the budget for publication of newsletters, school calendars, etc., as well as personnel to do this sort of work. The funds for BOCES public relations work already exist in the budget and will no longer be spent on personnel, but have instead been redirected toward purchasing services from BOCES. Additionally, these expenditures are now aidable, and as a consequence, the district is saving thousands of dollars by contracting with BOCES. Relative to the merits of spending money on public relations, the erroneous perceptions and negative opinions expressed in Mr. Ward's letter attest to the need for improvement in the district's public relations efforts.

Members of the Levittown Board of Education serve without pay and devote countless hours to the professional governance of the school district and to the continuous improvement of student achievement in all our schools. I urge Mr. Ward to turn his intelligence and energies into productive contributions towards these goals rather than generate unfounded and unnecessary negativity.