School district chiefs need a reality check

On an island with massively overblown and wasteful school administration costs, I had to laugh at Syosset schools chief Carole Hankin's quote justifying her $405,244 base salary ["Raise for LI's top-paid supe," News, June 7]: "When I walk anyplace, go anywhere, I'm being evaluated. The PTA over there is tough, the kids are tough."

Yes, I realize that Syosset is a very fine school district with 6,600 students, and I'll bet Hankin does a very credible job, but isn't it ironic that her base pay is more than $5,000 more than a gentleman (the president) who handles 310 million people, the military, foreign policy, the economy and social welfare for a country called the United States of America.

I think it's time to get a little reality here on Long Island.

Mark Hecht, Merrick
 

Looking at a map of my hometown, I drew a circle about 10 miles in diameter. There are about 20 school districts within this radius. Their reported superintendents' salaries add up to about $5.5 million. Now add the assistant superintendents, staff and secretaries -- and let's not forget the real estate -- and we can see why it costs $24,000 per year to educate a student.

It's no wonder our school taxes are astronomical, when my school district gets duplicated just a few miles down the road, and so on throughout Long Island.

Consolidation is the only answer. It's absurd to keep funding this archaic system. Long Island could function well with perhaps as few as a dozen districts. Albany must take over and revamp the system. It cannot fix itself; high-paid administrators will not fix this.

Paul W. Coonelly, North Babylon