Each year, since the late 18th century, migrating swallows have returned to the San Juan Capistrano Franciscan Mission Chapel on March 19 (Feast of St. Joseph). It is also the time of year some 2,500 miles to the East, when Herman Sirois and Levittown's school board dust off their debunked school tax thesis. Levittown's inordinately high school tax rate, according to Herman and the board, really translate into lower overall property tax payments than those of surrounding communities. They are, of course, being disingenuous with Levittown's hard working taxpayers who proportionally pay one of the highest tax bills in Nassau County.

This year, however, Herman and the boys have outdone themselves in attempting to obfuscate their inept management of Levittown schools. Consider, for example, their comparison of Cold Spring Harbor's average tax bill of $9,000 vs. Levittown's "modest" payment of $3,400. Any fifth grader, in one of our nearby parochial schools, would quickly tell you that Cold Spring Harbor is located in Suffolk County and the comparison meaningless. I'm not sure Levittown's current fifth graders, one third of whom scored poorly in last year's NYS English Language Arts examination, would know where Suffolk County is located. Levittown, you see, no longer teaches geography to its students!

I'm also sure that Division Avenue High School's current crop of ninth graders, using a 12" ruler and map, couldn't calculate the distance between Levittown and Cold Spring Harbor. Last year, as Wisdom Lane Middle School eighth graders, nearly 60 percent of these same students failed the NYS mathematics examination and over 50 percent scored poorly on their English Language Arts test. The Commissioner of Education, incidentally, named Wisdom Lane one of New York's worst performing middle schools.

Wisdom Lane Middle School, for Levittown residents not familiar with the location of our schools, can be found on Center Lane. The building is easily distinguishable by its vacant nine-classroom addition and empty 16 screen multi-plex theatre sized auditorium.

Newsweek magazine (March 13) ranked Cold Spring Harbor School (grades 7-12) as the 37th best performing (out of some 500) high schools in the nation. Kennedy (Bellmore); Wheatley (Old Westbury); South Side (Rockville Centre); Great Neck North and South; Valley Stream South High Schools were also listed among the top 100 high schools. Unfortunately, there was no mention of Levittown's high schools. It is something you might want to contemplate upon as you enter your polling place to vote on another of Levittown's bloated budgets and bond issues!