"Partnership For Education" is an organization, established by residents from every community within the East Williston School District, and supported by district educators and PTA Coordinating Council, whose goal is to help educate all of the residents of our district about the existing conditions within our schools, and the facts surrounding the long range planning initiative promulgated by the board's resolution of Oct. 13, 1998.

The membership of Partnership, increasing daily, have identified themselves as supporters of the district's initiative to improve the quality of the facilities in, and the education made available to all of the residents of our district. Our volunteers have pledged to act as messengers of information once the board, district staff, district architect and the advisory panel make such information available: for without this information, the residents of our district will not be able to cast an educated vote on the initiative.

The meetings that Partnership has held to date have been solely and simply to inform our volunteers as to how we intended to use them in our efforts. The meeting referenced by Julius Cohen in his letter to the editor entitled "Resident Denied Admittance," (Roslyn News, Feb. 18), was held at the Shelter Rock Library, a location that has limited occupancy and parking. Partnership had pre-registered 140 volunteers, and were finding that many were forced to drive around a full parking lot and leave without even attending the meeting. A formal letter of apology was sent to Mr. Cohen following the meeting. We have no plans or intentions to preclude anyone from receiving information about our district. However, this meeting was not informational with respect to the District Initiative but organizational with respect to Partnership.

Mr. Cohen is correct in that we did invite Mrs. Entine, Mr. Helme, Mr. Izzo, Mr. Simon, Mr. Gordon and Dr. Newman, and they graciously accepted our invitation to address our membership as supporters of the board's initiative. We thank them for their willingness to be in attendance. We truly hope that the district or the PTO schedule the same speakers to address the public in a location that will enable all 2500+ residents of the district to attend. Their description of the existing conditions, along with a visual presentation of slides would truly be enlightening, and would in fact do a tremendous service toward uniting the district in the direction of improving our district.

Once again I would like to offer Mr. Cohen an apology, and would also like to take this opportunity to invite all residents of the district to participate with us in educating our community about what the school board and Partnership for Education considers to be "The Best for Our Kids."

David Wasserman, chairman

Partnership for Education