I had decided that I would not continue to play this mindless game with Mr. Thompson any longer, but I could not let his latest letter go unchallenged, especially since it directly threw darts at me. Before I begin, I feel that I must correct you on the "Ms. Sullivan." I have been Mrs. Sullivan for 22 years, and it is a title that I am extremely proud of. That said, let's move on.

First of all Mr. Thompson, let's clear up my run for the Massapequa school board. Yes, I did run, and yes, I did lose by a good deal of votes, but that is where the truth ends. If I was as upset, hurt and disappointed as you would like people to believe, I would be off somewhere recovering from my "wounds." We all know that I am not doing that, or anything even remotely resembling it. I am as involved, and maybe more so, as I have always been. I learned a long time ago that things happen for a reason, and that wasting time wringing your hands over it is useless. Someone very special in my life taught me that lesson as I was growing up. I can definitely put that wasted time to constructive use, and that is the path that I have chosen to take. I do not feel rejected in the least. I ran an aboveboard, honest, inexpensive campaign. The run for school board member was not the be all and end all of my life. I ran for one reason, and one reason only, the children of Massapequa. They will always be my #1 priority, whether or not I ever sit on the school board. The election was back in May, this is September, get over it already. I certainly have, and I don't think that things turned out badly. In keeping with school board elections, I have no "political" record at all. I have in the past handed out fliers for school board candidates who I believed had the best interest of the children at heart. Is that what you consider political? If so, then I stand guilty as charged. The only fliers I have ever handed out in front of the schools were budget fliers. I handed the candidate fliers out in local shopping centers. I never made a secret of it, and if someone asked to see them, I was happy to share a copy with them. Everything was always done honestly and openly, as it should be.

As far as your comment that I support my charges, I did and that's why my letter was over 2,000 words. If in doubt, feel free to check the minutes from past meetings.

The secretary's contract issue: You did vote with Mr. Sorvillo not to accept the contract, even though at so many previous meetings you spoke about how underpaid the secretaries were, and how much they deserved a raise in pay. You had every opportunity during the negotiation process to make your feelings known, but you chose to wait until the formal public vote on Aug. 4. You knew that their raises for each year of their contract would be above the CPI before that meeting. Why didn't you mention it then? The way you chose to address that issue was definitely not the right or moral thing to do. You wouldn't want it done to you. As for me speaking to Mrs. Martin, I did and we'll just leave it at that. I'm sure you know the results of the conversation. As for your remark about the confidential secretaries being ignored and receiving only an extra week's vacation, again you are misleading and not telling the whole story. The confidential secretaries had settled quite a while before the larger secretarial unit. They did get an extra week's vacation, but they also received a raise in pay. They accepted their contract, so they must have been satisfied with it. Why do you feel the need to have this community believe otherwise? You never brought this issue up when you voted "no" on Aug. 4...check the minutes and the video.

A "disastrous liberalized education system": This remark has to do with the fact that you were upset that certain board members asked for additional information on a pilot resource room program. In no way, shape or form does it mean that the children of Massapequa are not learning the three R's. What it does mean is that there were questions that needed to be answered, and once they were, the pilot resource room will now no longer be a pilot, but will now be in every elementary school in the district. In many cases, you have to do a test run, before you can actually take flight.

Mr. Thompson constantly brings up the past. I'm not saying that some mistakes were never made, but this is now, and this is where his focus must be. There are too many changes taking place in the educational system. Just to name a few, there are new standards being handed down from the New York State Education Department, changes to the special education system and many more demands on the students and the teachers. This school district and school board must be headed in those directions, not looking back over things that happened years ago. The future of our children depend on it.

Mr. Thompson says that he is literally being forced to support the bond issue. He knows full well that these projects need to be done, and that a bond issue is the most cost effective way and timely way to accomplish that. He again throws out the amounts that the buildings and grounds line has been reduced in the past, but never once does he address or mention the $6 million loss in 1990-'91 to Massapequa in the form of state aid. Buildings and grounds was not the only area of the budget affected by that loss. The district chose to do the least amount of damage to the educational lines, so that the children would be affected as little as possible in the classroom. I supported and agreed with that choice. Massapequa is not the only school district facing large repairs and updates to their buildings. Just read the newspapers. Mr. Thompson goes on to say that he supports essential anticipatory engineering work and even architectural planning. That only just happened at the Sept. 10 board meeting. At the Sept. 3 planning session when Dr. Brucia tried to explain the necessity of doing this, Mr. Thompson told him that he was trying to pull a fast one over on the community because it had not been addressed in May. Dr. Brucia explained that no one knew in May that there was going to be a 16-18 week delay in receiving window materials once they were ordered. This ordering could only take place after plans were drawn up, submitted to the state for approval, gone out to bid and then a choice be made as to which manufacturer they would be working with. By allowing the architect to draw up the plans before the vote on the bond issue some of this time could be put to better use. The plans could be mailed to the state for approval the day after the vote, if the bond issue passes. Mr. Thompson said at the planning session that he would vote no, when this was brought up for resolution at the board meeting. At that meeting, he announced that he had spoken to a friend and found out that what Dr. Brucia had said was absolutely true, so now he would be voting yes...check the minutes and the video.

Mr. Thompson, I never asked or expected you to serve me. I do however, expect and demand as a parent and taxpayer that you do the job to which you were elected, not by me. You took an oath, and you have an obligation to the children of Massapequa.