In a Letter to the Editor from a Mr. Ward, published by the Levittown Tribune on Friday, Dec. 21, certain information was contained that was factually incorrect. Because of his tendency to dissemble the facts and insult both the intelligence and ethnic backgrounds of the residents of Levittown, the school district usually ignores Mr. Ward's diatribes. The Levittown Board of Education and its administration have always advised that the Tribune should verify the accuracy of fact and claims made in Letters to the Editor prior to publishing such letters. District residents are invited to verify directly with the office of the Superintendent of Schools any information or claims published in the Tribune. The purpose of this letter is to correct some of the false information and claims made by Mr. Ward in the letter referenced above.

Mr. Ward claimed that the district purposely withheld notice of the EXCEL Aid Bond Issue vote. He offered no facts to support this claim, other than his assertion that his mother told him that she did not receive a notice. The fact is that he purposefully and conveniently omitted the fact that he, himself, had received by mail a notice of the bond issue vote. If he was sincerely interested in helping our community, he would urge residents to register complaints with the Levittown, Wantagh, and Seaford Post Offices to properly deliver school district mailings.

Mr. Ward claimed, contrary to the school district's notice to residents, that the district's share of the EXCEL bond issue would be only about 5 percent (or less than $400,000 total) and that the EXCEL bond issue will cost Levittown taxpayers in excess of $3,650,00. Mr. Ward tries to use the Island Trees EXCEL bond issue as evidence for this claim, but omits the fact, again conveniently, that the Island Trees vote included two separate bond issues, one of which was not for projects eligible for EXCEL Aid. The EXCEL Aid math is simple, and cannot be undone by any of Mr. Ward's clever manipulations: Levittown's share is 5 percent of $7,300,000; the state pays the rest.

When Mr. Ward runs out of facts to manipulate, he seems to resort to making up numbers that have no relation to the facts at all. He claims, for example, that the district had paid a bond counsel $380,000 before the bond vote was passed by the voters on Nov. 15, 2007. That is simply not true. Even as this letter is being written, no payment has been made to any bond counsel relative to the EXCEL Aid Bond Issue.

I apologize for the length of this letter, but it takes more time to undo the lies that some people make than it does for them to spread them. Remember, if any of Mr. Ward's claims were true, you'd be reading about them first on the front page, not on the op-ed pages. Again, the Levittown School District's books are open for all residents to review, and I would urge you to verify the facts and figures with us before allowing yourself to be manipulated by Letters to the Editor that promote false statements and wrong conclusions.

Dr. Herman Sirois

Superintendent of Levittown Schools