This letter is in response to Vincent A. Suozzi Jr.'s letter to the editor "Support Our School, Our Students and Our Budget" (The Westbury Times, March 27, 2008). As a tax paying resident and parent of three children who attend the Westbury School District I need to clarify some of the things that were written by Mr. Suozzi, who lives in Glen Cove.

His school district is asking residents to pass an over $67 million budget. Our school district is asking us to approve an over $98 million budget. As far as Westbury being a great community, I agree. That is why we moved here 15 years ago. As an employee of this district you have the opportunity to have your child educated here. The majority of Westbury teachers who live and/or teach in this district do not have their own children attend our schools. That doesn't speak well for this district.

As for the PTA Council-sponsored Community Night it appeared to be a staged budget rally. The budget did not pass last year and we still had almost everything remain the same. The cancellation of some summer programs has never been justified since the failed budget and the contingency budget were just about identical. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Constance Clark, Assistant Superintendent of Business and Management Services Mary Lagnado and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Personnel Dr. Robert Root still received their 7 percent raises. They still received $80,000 for a Roving Security company. They still asked for almost $13,000 to update their busing software when the other software still works. The only things that were cut were things directly related to the children.

This year's budget has a difference of almost $260,000. Ms. Lagnado stated it was capital improvement money so that would be the only thing not done on a contingency budget. Have you or any of the other teachers or staff been to any budget meetings? I have been to all the budget meetings to date and have not seen or heard one person speak out against the children; however, I am tired of the fact that so many people tote the saying "it's for the children" when it comes to money or something they want.

More than 50 percent of the budget is going to salaries and the district clerk is getting nearly a 30 percent increase in pay. Community members have stated that voting against the budget is not voting against the children. It is voting against the administrative staff and the board of education for allowing our school district to be where it is.

The volleyball team Mr. Suozzi spoke about was run on a contingency budget. I do not agree with the scare tactic used by people to get the budget passed. Show that the school district is raising the bar for the education of all the students. Show that the test scores are going up and our school ranking is going up. Show the community that this district has and expects high standards for all our children. Have administration agree to no raises for themselves for this next year to show they truly are for the children.

Our school district states Westbury has a high rate of poverty. I don't believe the taxpayers of Westbury see themselves as a poor community or that the school district truly does either because if they truly thought this was a poor school district, why would they be asking for more than $98 million when we will be getting a additional $3,000 plus per student in state aid since we are part of the Contract for Excellence.

I agree the community should come and see the schools and at dismissal and see what goes on. Yes, the after school programs at the middle school are good, however children sneak out and they hang out and cause problems. Then they try to get on the buses to go home with the other children who did go to their after school programs. I have seen this happen many times and most of those parents believe their children are in the program and don't even know they are out and about and sometimes getting into trouble. I brought this up last year with the principal of the school and the superintendent and we are still having the same problems this year.

So my fellow residents of Westbury please do go into the schools and look around. Come to the board meetings, the budget meetings, town meetings, village meetings and library meetings. You may be surprised at some of the good things that are going on and you may be surprised by some of the bad things as well. Nothing in this world is perfect; however, the good should always exceed the bad.

Diane Holzer