In recent Letters to the Editor Mr. Ward has made false claims regarding actions taken (or not taken) by the Levittown Board of Education, has misrepresented testing data, and has insulted the citizens of Levittown and their neighbors who volunteer their services on the board of education. Last month he claimed that the Levittown School Board ignored the award of a prestigious honor to a Levittown student (Intel Science Research semifinalist) when, in fact, the board had already presented the student with a special recognition at a public meeting. In the past he has made knowingly false claims in the Tribune, stating that the school district fabricated official reports from the State of New York citing the high performance of Levittown students. A couple of weeks ago, he repeated these false statements, and again, misrepresented data regarding the performance of Levittown students, claiming that our students were performing worse than our neighbors. He made these claims even though the source of the data itself (Standard and Poor's, S&P) disavows the accuracy of its data, and specifically advises against using the data in the way Mr. Ward did, stating that using S&P data "out of context to create a ranking is a serious misuse of the data."

Students graduating from the Levittown Public Schools in 2004 and 2005 have had to take at least 14 different state exams from grades three through high school. The fact is that students in the Levittown School District scored higher than Nassau County averages on 12 of these 14 tests; a very different picture than Mr. Ward would want us to believe. Levittown students scored higher than the county average on all of the following state tests: English/Language Arts Grade Eight, Mathematics Grade Four, Mathematics Grade Eight, Science Grade Four, Science Grade Eight, Social Studies Grade Five, Social Studies Grade Eight, Regents Comprehensive English, Regents Global History & Geography, Regents US History & Government, Regents Living Environment (Biology), and Regents Earth Science. Additionally, the Regents diploma rates at both of Levittown's high schools have been above the county average for several years. It is a malicious disservice to our community, on the part of Mr. Ward, to misrepresent the achievement of our students by singling out a few tests in which other districts may have scored higher, and misrepresenting these tests as indicative of our overall performance.

Lastly, Mr. Ward often uses the Tribune to make personal attacks on our neighbors who generously volunteer their time to serve on PTA, the board of education and other community committees. His attacks are usually petty and unsubstantiated, and reveal more about his own shortcomings as a human being than they do about the fine individuals he criticizes. In his latest letter, he labeled members of the Levittown School Board as "functionally illiterate." In making this remark, Mr. Ward is only showing his own ignorance and malice. Most of the current members of the Levittown Board of Education have served for several terms. They have had the intelligence and courage to have made decisions that have transformed the Levittown School District from mediocrity to excellence; from uncontrollable school taxes to current school taxes that are lower than most of our neighbors; from financial instability with tax spikes every few years, to financial stability, with stable and lower-than-county average tax increases, now and projected for at least the next five to 10 years. Mr. Ward should be ashamed of himself for insulting the citizens of Levittown with such false and malicious attacks.

Dr. Herman Sirois

Superintendent of Levittown Schools