A political campaign is somewhat like a battle. Soldiers often use the expression "the fog of war" to describe the uncertainties, deceptions and obscured movements that occur on a battlefield in real time. After attending the school board candidates' forum this week, I thought it would be helpful to pierce some of the local fog to allow voters to see clearly.

Statement: We can alter the teachers' pension system to defined contribution from defined benefit, thereby saving money. Fact: The teacher's pension system is a creation of State Law, which can be changed only by the State legislature. We're 100 percent stuck with paying for it until the law is changed, and the school board has no ability to change either the system or the calculation of what we must pay into it.

Statement: We can save money by having teachers teach more periods. Fact: State Department of Ed regulations limit secondary school teachers to five teaching periods a day. You cannot assign more without violating the law. The regulation allows teaching a sixth period only in a bona fide emergency, not in response to a budget issue. The Manhasset teacher's contract permits us to assign five periods for secondary school teachers, and Manhasset does that now. Phys Ed is an exception, you can assign more than five periods to a gym teacher, and Manhasset also does that now. After the last negotiation on the teacher's contract, we were able to add a sixth instructional period for less than a full class ... see below.

Statement: The board acted as "Santa Claus" to the teachers' union and gave away money without getting productivity increases. Facts: I spent many a night (with then board VP Cindy Cardinal) negotiating with the union team into the wee hours. We achieved the following productivity enhancements: (a) English teachers had been working with a maximum of four periods a day ... we increased that to five periods like the other academic disciplines; (b) The secondary teachers are now required to teach an additional 60 periods (but not with a full class of students which is prohibited by law) a year to be assigned by the principal or coordinator of the department. These periods are to be divided between small-group instruction, academic intervention services, and other required duties that we otherwise would have had to pay for, and administrative duties such as curriculum mapping; (c) Teachers are now required to devote 15 hours a year, at no cost to the district and outside of the school day, for professional training; (d) First and second year new teachers are now required to take up to three days of orientation and training without additional cost to the district prior to the first day of school (e) Teachers must now indicate that they intend to retire by March 15, giving the district that much more time to find a great new teacher to fill the position of the retiree.

None of these productivity enhancements were kept secret. The news release of September 20, 2005, on the district website and also printed in the Manhasset Press, described them all. The press release is available today on the district website.

Statement: The Board acted as "Santa Claus" to the teachers' union and gave away high salary increases. Facts: (a) The union was working under an expired contract for 15 months due to hard bargaining on salary demands, hardly indicative of "softness"; (b) the district declared an "impasse;" in negotiations and went to the next step of "fact-finding" during the 15 months; (c) the teacher contribution to health care premiums was raised from 15 percent to 18 percent, more than most districts in Nassau County; (d) the annual increases in base salary - 3.25 percent. 3.25 percent, 3.35 percent and 3.75 percent were agreed after I had already left the BOE, but they are below the average of increases around Long Island, even compared to districts that have lesser "ability to pay" than Manhasset; (e) we achieved a freeze for the first year in the Schedule "C" payments (coaches, proctors, faculty advisors, chaperones, etc.), so costs associated with those duties did not increase at all in the first year, saving the district 3.25 percent of those costs every year over the life of the contract; (f) The first year increase in the regular salaries (3.25 percent) became a retroactive payment due to the length of time of negotiation, and the union gave a one-time concession that the members would waive about 40 percent of the increase for that year, without affecting the overall percentage increase in the schedule. This is also no secret as the process was described in greater detail in a Superintendent's Column dated April 6, 2006 in the Manhasset Press, and can now be accessed on the district website.

Statement: Our lowered ranking (69th out of 1200 schools nationwide) in the Newsweek poll of high schools proves that we are slipping academically. Facts: (a) according to Jay Matthews, the creator of the Newsweek poll, it was never intended to serve as an indicator of overall school quality. Matthews was quoted in 2005: "I rank to get attention, nothing more, in hopes people will then argue about the list and in the process think about the issues it raises." (b) the survey measures only one parameter, ranking public schools according to the ratio of AP or IB tests taken by all students divided by the number of graduating seniors - hardly the tell-all of school quality; (c) the College Board itself, which designs and markets Advanced Placement courses and exams, says that AP exams "should never be used as a sole measure for gauging educational excellence and equity," and calls media rankings that do so "problematic;" (d) many distinguished educators contend that AP and IB testing has no place in education, much less in the ranking of schools; (e) 80 percent of our students get accepted into the top echelon of colleges in the nation according to an outside service; (f) any ranking of schools must also consider the diversity of Manhasset's student population, not so in districts like Jericho and Garden City.

Statement: Board members have no direct impact on students in the classroom. Facts: Board members play a central role in providing resources, finding administrative leadership, mandating curriculum, determining class size, providing for training and professional development of teachers, assuring that high standards are met by teacher applicants, assuring competent supervision of teachers, providing the physical classroom itself, cutting or adding specific programs, and so forth. Any candidate who really thinks that he or she has no impact in the classroom should drop out of the race now. I would not have served on the BOE for six years if I did not think my efforts bore fruit in the classrooms of our schools, met the needs of the private school students in our district, and did so in the most cost-effective manner possible.

Thomas J. Maimone

Board of Education 1999-2005