Let's get past the negativity

To the Editor:

The Malverne Board of Education wants to say thank you to the Malverne community for supporting the school budget. For the past few years our district has been on an upward trajectory — student achievement is improving, student resources are expanding, the community has strongly supported school budgets and, for the first time since the 1970s, a bond issue to improve our school facilities was passed.

These are, indeed, better times for our district. But make no mistake: We still face great challenges, and one of the most significant is encouraging and maintaining an atmosphere of support, harmony and cooperation to further the gains made on behalf of Malverne’s students. During the recent election season, many emotional, and at times negative, comments were made about the district, about certain Board of Education members and about certain administrators. It’s time for us to focus on how to get past this negativity.

Can your Board of Education and its individual members do a better job with this? Absolutely and always, but not unless we create a more positive tone and working relationship, which is what we know we must pay heed to and pledge to do — all of us. It must be done so that we can pay more attention to the things that matter most: getting our students to achieve at the highest possible level, supporting our staff to the best of our community’s abilities, and doubling down on our efforts to recruit more minority educators with the help of the Malverne community.

It won’t be easy. But we have heard our community, and we recognize the necessity of focusing on this important area of concern. We welcome civil and productive dialogues in the future, and will do our best to encourage them.