A group of Manhasset parents announced that they will ask New York's Commissioner of Education to throw out the May 17 vote that authorized the board of education to subcontract the transportation of the school district's students. By a margin of 225 votes-2,361 to 2,136-residents voted to end the school district's 50-year tradition of transporting students by its own buses.

A spokesman for the group said that the vote on the outsourcing issue, known as Proposition #3, was tainted by misleading information distributed by the Manhasset Board of Education.

Proposition #3 contained false claims exaggerating the savings that would result from the outsourcing, said their spokesman. He and other parents complained that the board also manipulated budget information to show that keeping the bus garage would cost over 10 percent more next year. In reality, the boards' own figures show that the cost of the in-house transportation department would have gone down next year.

State law requires boards of education to remain neutral on propositions put to the voters. Several parents who will join the appeal to the commissioner contend that the Manhasset Board's distribution of the misleading information was patently designed to exhort the electorate to cast their ballots in support of the outsourcing position advocated by the board.

The parents acknowledged that they faced a tough challenge in demonstrating that the vote was affected by the misleading information. We've heard from numerous residents who were furious when they learned that their votes were influenced by the manipulation of the facts. The group is gathering affidavits from voters who were misled into supporting the outsourcing. Residents are asked to contact the group at: SaveManhassetBuses@hotmail.com.

The group plans to file the appeal by June 16. They will ask the commissioner to reject the outsourcing contracts, and order the board of education to hold another election on the outsourcing proposal.

Scott Wysota