On Tuesday, May 20, the voters of Westbury will participate in the most important school board election in recent years that I can recall. Not since Town of North Hempstead Councilman Robert Troiano and April Brown-Lake won election to the school board in 1996, and at the same time ended four consecutive years of "no" votes for the budget, has there been so much at stake in the school district. Not since that time has there been such a polarized atmosphere in the community.

The vote on May 20 will determine whether that cycle will start all over again; in fact, we would have already completed one year along the route of being the only school district on Long Island to be operating on an austerity budget. Much has already been written about the long-term consequences of failed budgets so I will not get into that here, but suffice to say that there are some people in the community, including candidates running for election to the board, who are actively urging people to vote the budget down for a second time.

All sorts of scare tactics including untruths, half-truths and clever innuendos are being utilized in this campaign. All I will say is that we need to take these with the proverbial grain of salt. The administration has responded to these charges time and time again, and I'm certain will continue to do so, but some people will continue to believe what they want to believe; as the saying goes: there are none so blind as those who will not see.

The conscientious voters of this community should think carefully about these things and do what they have to do on May 20, because the folks with such ambitions are busy doing what they have to do to get elected.

Chester McGibbon