Dear Santa Claus,

As you know, I haven't written to you since I was a kid many years ago, but since I received most of my wishes, I am writing to you again to help the Plainedge School District. It may not be possible for you at this time to do all that I ask for, so I have made a "top 10 list" of my requests.

1. Lower or stabilize our school and county taxes.

2. Make sure the district gets its money's worth for the $50 million building program with no major overruns or poor construction.

3. Improve the safety and security of all our schools and kids. (Provide a year-round approach, not just a one-shot, one-day Band-aid on budget day.)

4. Find more possible sources of income and state aid to cut our new budget and current million dollar overrun budget.

5. Improve and expedite better maintenance of all the schools.

6. Return our current budget voting in local schools and do not compress voting in the high school. Don't let our management panic in the face of terrorism!

7. Improve our arts and crafts programs in balance with the technological advances. Eliminating the electrical and carpentry shops in our schools is a serious mistake in producing well-rounded students and citizens.

8. Find, hire and train excellent teachers and supervisors.

9. Reorganize and vote in an independent, concerned board of education, and supply a more receptive teacher's union and management for worthwhile changes.

10. Improve the district's math, science and English scores for all grades. (A 55 passing grade is a "cop out" and deceptive education.)

If you are the same Santa Claus I used to know, I am sure you will do a great job providing these 10 items, or most of them. If you can't do it all, perhaps it would be easier for you to convince more of our Plainedge taxpayers to get to the polls more often next year and vote for the best board of education people and budgets we can get. After all, the board of education believes there are lots of Santas in Plainedge considering the $50 million plus bond and over $40 million yearly budgets that get voted in. Some of these Santas may wake up now and adopt a few items on the list for their New Year resolutions.

N. Sal Romano

Plainedge