The Port Washington school budget has been passed (our affirmative votes helped). However, we do not understand the school board's approval, albeit a former board, of the architect's Weber Middle School expansion without realizing the impact of the destruction of five beautiful trees, all much older than the board members themselves.

To revise the architect's plans, we are told, would take a great deal of money. It takes a great deal of time for trees to grow tall enough to provide shade for Weber, a buffer for traffic and pollution on increasingly busy Port Washington Boulevard.

At a time when terror and the threat of it is worldwide, leaving chaos in its wake, tall shade trees represent order, stability, and above all, beauty. Don't throw away our Port heritage! Before we err again, a means should be found to accommodate the expansion and the esthetic. Perhaps a populace fund to save the trees at Weber by underwriting the architectural revision's cost would help to avoid a regrettable end.

How much money is really involved?

Ruth M. and Leo J. Stoecker