In my recent letter to the Port News concerning the Office of Civil Rights I wrote that the school district was "sued" by the OCR. In speaking with the superintendent, I would like to clear up any misunderstanding that may have been created by the use of that term and the various legal proceedings that took place. Without getting too technical, the Office of Civil Rights conducted an extensive audit of our educational program. The school district (upon the advice of our legal counsel) entered into a consent-decree settlement with the Office of Civil Rights. This settlement agreement, approved by the board of education, has since served as our blueprint going forward to resolve the issues uncovered during the investigation. As I said in my prior letter, the issues in Port Washington are not unique; and the Office of Civil Rights does conduct audits of other districts of which the findings obviously do vary. What separates Port Washington, however, is the uniqueness of our response in doing what is in the best interests of all children - and hopefully the community's commitment to share that resolve.

Jon Zimmerman

Port Washington School Board member