I knew we were in trouble as soon as our school board made its appearance at their scheduled Aug. 23 Planning Session. A packed board room soon discovered that a Special Meeting would precede the Planning Session and public comments were limited to Special Meeting agenda items. Two board members didn't bother to show up and those members of the public, unfamiliar with meeting protocol, quickly railed against the remaining members who were present. Aside from providing a quorum, they should have stayed home as well since they provided little or nothing toward the "hot button" items on the agenda. As a matter of fact, one of them never opened his mouth all evening.

It was close to 8:20 p.m., after nearly 20 minutes of catcalls and verbal barbs, that the Special Meeting got underway. One speaker, presumably from the PTA, was in a tizzy over the ongoing Salk/MacArthur traffic study. On several occasions she demanded immediate answers to her questions so that she could report back to her unit. As a veteran, I served in several units and am not sure whether she was referring to a nearby WAC detachment or possibly a neighborhood shelter. Unfortunately, she was nearly skinned alive by an angry audience when she baited them for their lack of knowledge about school board protocol.

A representative of Nelson & Pope, Levittown's traffic expert, provided a very detailed aerial view of five models for alleviating the traffic and parking problems on the Salk/MacArthur campus. From my vantage point, in the audience, I could clearly observe their delineation of the streets surrounding our schools; namely, Wantagh Avenue, North Jerusalem Road and Wander Lane. Wait a minute! North Jerusalem Road begins nearly a quarter-mile to the west of Old Jerusalem Road. I wonder if these traffic experts earned their degrees at Matchbook Cover University?

During his 30 seconds of questioning by our superintendent of schools, our assistant superintendent for business candidly admitted there is insufficient parking available for the Salk/MacArthur faculty and staff. Why, I wonder, are we simply exacerbating the problem by creating additional student parking facilities? I'm unaware of any requirement that our school board provide student parking in light of the fact Levittown taxpayers already pay dearly for an extensive school transportation program. Ban student parking and the district, at no additional cost, would free up 142 parking spots at the corner of Wantagh Avenue and Old Jerusalem Road. Of course, I'm sure this would never happen since we live in an era of instant gratification.

The second "hot button" item on the agenda, which I'm advised is no longer being considered, and the primary reason for such a large citizen turnout was billed "Process for Answering Questions on the Swimming Pool." As expected, our school board sat like mutes while the superintendent of schools outlined his recommendations for creating several committees to explore the pool's feasibility. Silly me! I thought we elected a school board to openly discuss issues, such as this, and then formulate a plan to be carried out by the superintendent of schools.

It's been a while since I attended a Levittown School Board meeting. However, I left the meeting with a sense that this school board's concept of long range planning is reading tomorrow afternoon's school lunch menu! Neither of these so called "hot button" issues would have garnered more than 15 minutes of board time, in my day, prior to being discarded in the circular file.

James P. Ward