Spaulding, O'Shea for Rockville Centre school board

Three candidates are running for two seats on the Board of Education. Each brings skills and experience that would be of value in the complicated and difficult task of serving on the school board.

The winners must try to satisfy a community of diverse needs and expectations, develop constructive policies that guide administrative decisions, set performance standards, evaluate staff, negotiate fair contracts (and help define what "fair" means), hire and fire wisely, represent the interests of children, parents and taxpayers, responsibly manage a $93 million budget and be the strong, decisive leaders of the district's educational efforts.

This can be rewarding work, but it's also asking an awful lot of mere mortals, so whoever seeks such a position should be lauded for their willingness to make significant personal sacrifices for the good and welfare of the district's schoolchildren.

Because it is an at-large election, the candidate who garners the most votes will fill a full three-year term, starting July 1. The candidate with the second-highest vote tally will fill a vacant term that runs through June 30, 2011.

We would like to see Gregg Spaulding elected to the full term, and we think John O'Shea is the better candidate for the one-year term. We unreservedly endorse Spaulding, 48, a product of Rockville Centre schools who has four children — two attending Covert Elementary and two in the middle school. Spaulding, a co-PTA president at Covert, a county fire communications technician and a certified emergency medical dispatcher, has long been an active community volunteer. He is a quietly passionate advocate for children and he appears to have no bigger agenda. We like his pledges to think independently, to consider how every issue affects first children and then taxpayers, to become more knowledgeable about district programs and to be a visible and accessible board member.