Wendy S. Roth recently wrote a mean-spirited and totally inaccurate letter to your paper and I would like to set the record straight. I, too, am a retired school teacher. I taught at both Parkville Elementary School and Great Neck South Middle School.
I will only deal with a few of her lies—they are not inaccuracies. The median pension for a teacher is no where near $90K nor is the median salary for a teacher $107K. I do not where she got her information—but it is totally false.
Her statements about the Board of Education and the teacher’s union are likewise a figment of her imagination. Having served on the negotiation team for the union, I can tell you that the board holds to a firm line where dollars are concerned.
Her statement that teachers cannot convince people nor promote public schools agendas because it is illegal is totally false. Since when did teachers check their rights when they leave the school door?
Now, to the school budget and bond issue. Ms. Roth would have you believe that voting No on the bond issue and budget will enhance the value of your home. Nothing could be further from the truth. She scares you by saying that in 10 years people will be evicted from their homes because of the taxes. What rubbish! People come to Great Neck, as I did in 1958, because of the school system. My three children had an excellent education and I am grateful to all their teachers.
I do not to presume to know what motivated Ms. Roth for making her snide remarks about Martha Cohen, with whom I had the privilege of working at Parkville School, but needless to say she doesn’t know Martha and what an excellent teacher she was.
Those of us who live in Great Neck, work in Great Neck or do both, know that passing the bond issue and the budget are the best ways to keep the value of our property high and keep our children in one of the finest school districts not only in New York, but in the United States.
—Miriam Chatinover
