Articles and letters in recent Manhasset Press issues indicate that the school board wants to build another school. This would of course cost many millions of dollars to buy the land, construct the building, furnish it and hire personnel to staff it. Of course there would be the continuing cost of staff, electricity, heating/cooling and maintenance.

The present buildings are perfectly adequate to house many more students. All they have to do is increase the number of students per class slightly. As far as I can figure out from what information has been published, the present class size for grades three and lower is never over 20. For classes above that it seems that they never exceed 22. Just increasing the number of students in a class by 10 percent would cover the projected shortage of classrooms. This is practically a no-cost solution. If the teacher's contract requires such small classes, the contract should be changed as a non-negotiable item.

The teachers are already being more than adequately paid, far more than in New York City where the working conditions are often terrible. When is the last time that a teacher in Manhasset was beaten up? A great many of the New York City teachers would jump at the chance to teach out here, even at their present wages. When you have as many applicants for the existing vacancies as we do, it indicates that you are paying a more than adequate wage. Any good teacher can handle a lot more than they are at present handling. Some of our teachers are excellent, some mediocre and some are poor.

We spent something like $19,000 per year per student. The cost at Chaminade is slightly over $5,000 and at Sacred Heart Academy it is slightly higher, but still less than $6,000. These are both excellent schools (and I am not Roman Catholic). Many of their students are accepted at prestigious universities. I know that we have certain expenses that private and parochial schools do not have, but except for the pay and number of students per class and pay of staff these costs are relatively minor. They pay their teachers a lot less than we pay and they still get good results. They also have much larger classes than I have even proposed and they still get good results. These last two items are what makes our cost so exorbitant.

When I went to school the normal class size was 26 to 30 students. I know people who attended school with as may as 50 per class. I am not advocating that size of class (50). Every one of my classmates was successful in the real world. As recently as 25 years ago, I knew men who had attended one-room rural schools since WWII and they were a success.

The success of a student is due to good teaching, good parents and their own brain power and will to get ahead. It is not how much money is spent on them.

Eugene W. Garges Jr.