A diversified school board is essential in keeping the needs of the children blended with the needs of a community. This diversity is what some see as a problem. I see it as the solution.

I am on three community advisory committees sanctioned by our board of education, and my opinions do not reflect the opinions of any of those three committees on which I have voluntarily served.

Our school board has undertaken one of the most difficult tasks of any school board in the history of New York State. The system in which they must operate was never designed to handle the problems we have encountered over the past several years.

Let's remember what this board is dealing with:

Only recently they have been able to hire an Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Technology and a Director for Pupil Personnel Services and Special Education. Both choices are excellent and I welcome their help and support.

We still are operating with an Interim Superintendent, an Interim Assistant Superintendent of Business, an Interim Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, and an Interim Assistant Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds. They have been able to carry the weight of this district through difficult and challenging times and we have been lucky to have professionals of this high caliber guiding our school board and its' employees.

The school board members themselves are seasoned professionals in their own ways, but they have never had to work together in the capacity they are now in.

What they deal with are problems from every corner of the district and they are pulled by the special interest groups that are a reality of every community. How do you please everyone? You can't. This is not a private school and it can't address its needs as if it is.

This Board still and always will need a socially and economically diverse makeup. They must learn that change comes slowly and with good reasons. Sometimes you have to allow time to correct the mistakes that are made. The conflict within the board represents the diversity of our community and like a community they will learn that balancing their criteria with each other gives our children the best that our money can buy.

Jeff Borowick is one of the board members that has danced to the tune of fiscal responsibility solely for the sake of education. Not that the others haven't. Dani Kline has worked hard and admirably and Ron Smith has a lot to bring to the table, but this is Borowick's field of expertise. You can't turn a blind eye toward his knowledge and skills. His experience in accounting, finance, employee benefits, and contract negotiations will be desperately needed when the teachers contract is up for renegotiation in 2008. He has advocated for transparency and has been sweating the details of today's problems while realizing the consequences of our moves in the future. Borowick has pushed and attended more meetings than any one can endure. He has taken our problems to Tom Suozzi and Albany in pursuit of solutions.

Jeff Borowick has hammered the message that we should be getting the "Biggest Bang for Our Buck," this bang is for education. Fiscal responsibility will shift more money for education, and there is no one more focused on bringing this goal to light than Jeff Borowick.

Chris Cavaliere