I would like to take a moment to thank the Island Trees Board of Education for the great job they are doing.

I appreciate their close oversight of the spending and continued vigilance on costs, which demonstrated itself as one of the lowest school tax increases on Long Island last year.

More proof was the close review of the finances by a local resident came up with nothing real - depreciation costs proclaimed as a loss, and the cost of bringing in food during state test marking sessions so that the teachers could work through their lunch period; I would call the latter a good business decision, not a scandal.

My aging father-in-law is coming to live in with us, and we had to decide whether to move to a larger home, or to renovate our existing home. In the end, staying in the school district was the deciding factor, due to the excellent teachers, staff and BOE that we enjoy.

Thank you for all your hard work!

John Schmidt

Member of SEPTA and Island Trees Memorial Middle School PTA