When I first came to this district, I was educated very quickly by parents who told me that this district is a special place and that there is no other place like this. Many of us understand the worth of education in our district and value it more and more each day. However, as we add new members to our faculty and to our community, from time to time it is necessary to bring us together to share information, to re-forge a consensus about the core values in the East Williston School District, and to remind one another about why it is such a special place. I am pleased to report that the East Williston School District continues to achieve at high levels with outstanding results. Recently the State Education Department issued the New York State School Report Card for the 2003-2004 school year. Our district's data profile was again exemplary in regard to standardized tests and other assessments used to measure the growth of our students, K-12. Equally important are other supplemental data and indicators of success highlighted at the board meeting on March 21. This supplemental report gives more specific information about accomplishments of our students, including student honors and achievements, their community involvement and their scholastic and academic enrichment opportunities. At the board meeting on March 21, we celebrated the success of our varsity girls' indoor track team, recently designated as number one in the state in the Scholar Athlete Recognition program. Our team had a collective average of 99.086, the highest in the state. Other Wheatley teams recognized this year in the scholar athlete program included our girls soccer, boys basketball and girls basketball teams. These achievements are the result of many years of education, starting in kindergarten classes. This past year, for the second time in six years, we began a series of community meetings and discussions to take a long, hard look at the mission statement that has been in place for decades. In our round table discussions last fall, we acknowledged that the mission is only clear when a conscious inclusive effort is made to articulate it and to live it. Last October, the only change made to the mission statement was adding the words "acceptance of differences" rather than "tolerance of differences" in the original mission. We also spoke about the many factors that influence education, some of which conflict with our mission. We noted that as demographics shift in the community the core values and resulting priorities of some communities may shift as well. We asked our community for feedback about its expectations for our district. We heard from community members, parents, faculty and staff that relationships are what make this school district so special, and that these relationships are always very fragile. In one of our community meetings, we were talking with people who have been associated with the district for one year, many years, and even several generations. We asked what brought them here. The answers reflected the outstanding reputation of the school district and its core beliefs about the individual growth of learners and the humane treatment of people, which are embedded in the memories and hearts of former students and parents. We are proud of our teachers and our students and their achievements. Our district has some of the finest educational leaders in the country offering their expertise in curriculum and leadership. They have worked diligently over the past few months to focus on the priorities for the district's proposed budget in order to sustain quality instruction at all levels. In December, the district Curriculum Associates presented a work session on how our instructional program supports our mission statement. We talked about the massive changes in the math curriculum that push higher levels of math down to the elementary grades and the budgetary impact of these changes. We highlighted the fact that our district is unique in that it does not teach to the test but aligns its curriculum to allow the state standards to be taught while preserving a richness, breadth and depth of opportunities for our students. For the past several years, we have focused on parent education groups, and stress reduction for students. We have been as concerned with the social and emotional growth of our children as their academic success. We have made careful, research-based choices in our offerings in curricular and co-curricular programs. We strengthened the intramural program at the middle school recently. We have added 16 athletic teams since 1999. Each year we review the effectiveness of our clubs and modify the offerings to meet student interests and needs. We recognize that the well-rounded student is one who has opportunities to excel in classes, clubs and sports and is fully engaged in meaningful education. 62 percent of our students in grades 7-12 typically participate in at least one co-curricular sports activity. We also know that this engagement in co-curricular activities helps to minimize risk behaviors that work to destroy the good habits of our youth. We have struggled to cut costs where appropriate without sacrificing program. During the 2004-2005 school year, there were some classes with higher teacher-student ratios than we would like to see at the elementary level. We hope to correct this in the 2005-2006-school budget. Our goal is to have the lowest budget increase acceptable to our community and to have the lowest tax levy increase acceptable to our community, without compromising our instruction program or operational program. It is important for our parents and community members to be reminded of why this district is so special and what is truly at stake in formulating our budget. It is important for you to hear the budget presentations and the deliberations so that you will know what is included in the budget and what is not and why, so you can make an informed decision with the facts. To provide the quality our district has always stood for will take the efforts of all of us, moving in a positive direction. Our parents and community members should be equally well informed about the high school program as about the elementary and middle school programs, as we continue working on ways to improve our schools with your advice and help. We have been told over the years that the East Williston School District community expects great schools at a reasonable cost. Our great schools must be competitive in program, salaries and opportunities offered in comparable school districts. Great schools cannot be sustained over time on a contingency budget! We are currently involved in a discussion about philosophy, policy and planning considerations for a sound financial foundation for our schools. The critical decisions made by the board in the next month will have short and long-term ramifications for our children and their futures. I invite you to attend the April 4 and April 11 board of education meetings to learn more about proposed budget and tax levy reductions. (Dr. Harris is superintendent of the East Williston Union Free School District.)