I am writing to express my gratitude to the Massapequa community for their overwhelming support in passing the school district's $49.9 million bond issue on Oct. 20. This display of community unity for a project that will improve all our schools as we move into the 21st century shows once again that Massapequans want and will support the best for their children. It also shows that the community residents recognize the important role that the schools play in all our lives and they wish to maintain and improve a significant facet of our community life.

Our excellent schools have been an important influence to countless thousands of Massapequans over the years as they grew and matured in a community that places, honors, and inculcates true fundamental values of scholarship, honesty, and hard work into its young people. Those characteristics are remembered year after year as young people who grew up attending and graduating from the Massapequa Schools return to the community, buy their homes here, and build their own family lives in an environment that values its own.

The projects that are planned for our schools through this bond issue and which will be accomplished over the next several years will transform our schools and make them healthier, and safer, and will enable our students to improve their overall skills especially in the area of technology to compete with anyone, anywhere.

We owe a debt of gratitude to many for this bond issue's success: a Board of Education that spent many meetings studying the projects and refining them to where they felt the issue deserved to be placed before the voters; a dedicated committee of residents who studied these projects and were joined by administrators and parents to discuss, assign point values, and come up with important recommendations to the board; my administrative colleagues who spoke at countless meetings of school and community groups to get the word out these past six weeks; the parents, teachers, and administrators who volunteered to become school Bond Issue Building Teams to answer residents' questions and distribute information; four districtwide mailings and a ten minute videotape that graphically highlighted why this bond issue needed support. The hard work of all these people and more combined into a spirit of determination and commitment to get it passed. But in the end and most of all it was the support of all Massapequans who went to the polls and cast their ballots for a better future for their children and said through their votes that they support the board's efforts to improve our excellent schools.

So, thank you Massapequa! Thank you for your vote of confidence in your schools. I assure you that this confidence will not be misplaced. When the bond issue is completed, the pride you now feel for your schools will increase not only as you see the physical structures improve but also as the overall instructional program improves with the significant increase in technology in each of the district's schools.

James I Brucia, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools