Levittown Board of Education member Pat Parsekian received a standing ovation at her last official meeting as a member of the board, last Wednesday.

Parsekian chose not to run for re-election last month, after suffering serious health problems. Gina Interdonato was elected to fill Parsekian's seat and she will be sworn in next month.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Herman Sirois commented that board of education members are not thanked often enough while on the board and really only receive proper recognition when they leave, which is a shame, he said. Sirois went on to thank Parsekian for her years of service to the school district. Board of Education President Michael Moriarity also thanked Parsekian, not only for her three years on the board, but for her many years of dedicated PTA service.

Following regular agenda of the meeting, the issue of the bond that the district had been considering was raised. The board and administration had established an ad hoc bond committee to consider the possibility and a possible timeline. The committee had been asked to make recommendations to the board of education so that the board could take action at the June 13 meeting, because they had been considering putting the bond up for a vote during July.

According to Sirois, the bond committee had two concerns: one, that the amount of time it took for the information to be gathered and the process and the general concern that a bond issue over the summer "might not be the wisest thing to do." The committee asked for a delay in the report and only gave their recommendations to the board less than a week before the meeting. Sirois said this would preclude a decision by the board at the June meeting. He went on to advise the board that if they wished to have a vote in July, before the tax rate is set, a decision would have to be made that evening. Sirois added that the administration concurred with the committee that a decision be postponed until the committee has had an opportunity to meet with the board at the July 2 organizational meeting. He added that he expects the administration to have some sort of revised timeline by that date as well.

"From the standpoint of a timeline, we just pushed through a $20 million budget, it took two votes to get it through, if we have a bond issue we need to sit down and discuss it because we are going to need time to digest this material," said Moriarity. "And I don't anticipate something as fast as you are."

Sirois responded that the administration is not pushing for an early bond, "not in July, maybe not in August." Assistant Superintendent for Business Dr. Alan Groveman stated, "No later than September."

Sirois concluded, "The needs are there and we have to address the needs so at some point we're going to have to talk about it. We will discuss it over the summer."