(Editor's Note: This letter was originally sent to Senator Kemp Hannon and is being reprinted here at the author's request.)

I am writing you as a constituent, taxpayer and former president of the Levittown School Board to deplore the fact that Herman Sirois and our school board have turned to your office and NYS Education Department to assist them in overcoming their gross failure, for two years, to properly monitor Levittown's financial affairs. I'm sure that Dr. Sirois, a master of obfuscation, in my opinion, has painted a sad picture of Levittown's financial woes allegedly caused by our former assistant superintendent for business and finance. Quite frankly, in spite of his many shortcomings, I strongly suspect our business manager was never provided with the required information to properly encumber the necessary funds ($2,656,277) for a number of Levittown's newly hired teachers. The district's failure to encumber these funds, in the 2006/07 budget was also carried over into the current 2007/08 budget. We're now told the district needs legislative authorization to increase its taxpayer approved budget of $167,762,201, adopted in May 2007, to $174,762,201. Are the votes cast by Levittown taxpayers meaningless?

Our school board, for nearly two years, violated its fiduciary obligation to Levittown's taxpayers by failing to adhere to the commissioner's regulations pertaining to monthly approval of the district's Budget Status and Cash Reconciliation Reports. Dr. Sirois' claim that the school board constantly asked for these documents doesn't pass "the smell test" as is evidenced by a review of the minutes of monthly Meetings, as far back as January 2005. Nowhere is there any indication a single school board member asked for these documents. In addition, an external audit of the districts' 2006-2007 financial performance, conducted by R.S. Abrams & Co. LLC, contains a ringing indictment of their gross incompetence.

If the Levittown School District were an eleemosynary or proprietary organization, dependent upon community patronage for its success, rather than the almighty tax dollar; it would have been adjudicated bankrupt a number of years ago. Sad to say, Herman Sirois and our school board would have been terminated long before the final gavel came down at its liquidation sale.

Senator Hannon, I strongly urge you to hold a local legislative hearing, in Levittown, prior to taking any further action to bail out what I consider to be an incompetent school board and district administration.

James P. Ward