EDITORIAL: Westbury board should tend to needs of schoolchildren

This past May, voters in Westbury went to the polls to select members of the district's school board. But the will of the electorate was brazenly ignored: Two candidates who were defeated, Larry Wornum and Rod Bailey, were still attempting to serve beyond their terms. Childish antics followed from their supporters on the board - with the group going so far as to meet on its own in a parking lot outside the high school, blaming the other side for locking the building.

Students at Westbury schools need their board members to start acting like adults.

A recently issued restraining order by a State Supreme Court judge should put an end to Wornum and Bailey's charade and finally settle the question of who can serve. That will allow the board to turn its attention to the serious education issues in the district. Its recent results on third- and eighth-grade math and English standardized tests were among the lowest in Nassau County. The melodrama surrounding the school board has overshadowed these less-than-ideal academic results.

Westbury is only the latest in a string of school board power struggles that place political alliances ahead of the welfare of the students. At last Monday night's meeting, board president Pless Dickerson said it was time to focus on the goal of "providing for our children." Let's hope that the entire Westbury school board decides to take that pledge seriously. hN