On the evening of Monday, June 18, members of the Roslyn school community will gather to pay tribute to Alvin Silverman, who is retiring from the board of education after serving for an extraordinary 36 years.

This special program follows by several days the annual Board Recognition Night hosted by the Coordinating Council of Parent Associations, at which all seven members of the Board are honored for their voluntary service during the course of the school year.

When we consider the many ways our society and community have changed over three and a half decades, Mr. Silverman's years of board service are brought into perspective. He first was elected for the 1965-66 school year, when student enrollment was at its highest point in the history of the district. Roslyn High School, with nearly twice the enrollment of the present day, was a considerably smaller facility, as the major expansion that gave the school its current configuration was still several years away.

Outside of Roslyn, the nation and the world looked different, too. The Vietnam War was still in its early stages. Landmark civil rights legislation had only recently been passed. The social and political upheavals of the late 1960s still lay ahead.

The decades of Mr. Silverman's tenure on the board brought major changes to Roslyn's schools, as well. In the 1970s and 1980s, the school district experienced a period of consolidation as dramatic as the expansion of the previous two decades. The era was marked by expanded opportunities for women and minorities, positive changes strongly endorsed by Mr. Silverman and the Roslyn school community in general.

There were also ongoing debates about the relationship between public and non-public schools, in which Roslyn figured prominently and for which Mr. Silverman provided a consistent, principled voice. Health education, including sex education and AIDS education, became an ever more important aspect of the curriculum. In recent years, community service as a requirement for graduation was instituted as an expression of the board's commitment to ethics, human relations and values education, another issue which Mr. Silverman has always championed.

The educational standards required by the State of New York have undergone several major evolutions during this time. Through all of these changes, Roslyn has tried to stay ahead of the curve, always seeking the most effective and appropriate means of providing outstanding educational opportunities for all youngsters.

If the measure of success is leaving a place better than one found it, then Mr. Silverman's service as a member of the Roslyn Board of Education has been an unqualified success. The Roslyn Public Schools enjoy recognition as one of the finest school districts in the nation, and the impact of its many thousands of highly accomplished graduates is felt in countless fields of endeavor.

Fiscal prudence, accountability to the community, openness in deliberations, equal opportunity for every child: these are the high standards to which Alvin Silverman held himself, his fellow board trustees and administrators for 36 years. I extend an invitation to all members of the school community to attend this special tribute to him on June 18 at 7:30 pm in the Roslyn High School cafeteria.