To the Editor:

A number of these top-flight educators whose salaries were listed have taught the children of our town for decades. They deserve every dollar and more. Most do an incredible job. They are all a vital link in the future of each and every child they come before. We should constantly shower them with thanks and reward for their enthusiasm, capabilities, patience, talent, courage and skills.

The more attractive we can make a teacher's salary, the better quality, young teacher we will attract. It was crass to question the salaries of my children's teachers in such a callous way. You might have been trying to make a point about the budget, but in this neighborhood, you struck out and made my choice on the vote that much easier.

William Abranowicz- Airhead

Bedford

Intent of Phil Christe's ad is crystal clear

To the Editor:

According to scientific theory, for every action, there exists an equal and opposite reaction. Applied to the cognitive realm, it might be said that for every action in celebration of humanity, there exists a negative reaction bent on its degradation. Phil Christe's decision to publish the salaries of Bedford Central School District employees under the auspices of community awareness toward the budget vote stands as testimony to this.

Mr. Christe's intent, couched under the tenets of public information, is crystal clear. By posting the salary scale of the top 200 employees, Mr. Christe has attempted to not only devalue the teaching profession but question the net worth of specific individuals whom he has never met; in essence, blindly judging their value based on his own random decree.

I ask if Mr. Christe would be comfortable having his own salary placed in question, without consideration to the responsibilities, years of schooling and prior experience that contribute to its numerical figure. As a teacher with 15 years of experience who has been named to his list, I am puzzled as to the specific qualifications by judging the worth of other individuals he purports to possess. What position do you occupy, Mr. Christe, that invites you to cast aspersions on all others? While I accept that by virtue of my chosen profession, my salary is decreed public domain, the misuse of such information for his own personal agenda is at best unethical. Ironic that he should possess such concern over an educational system whose very purpose is to create productive, cooperative members of society, while his own actions steadfastly speak to the contrary.

I can speak volumes about the quality of education gifted by the faculty and staff of Bedford schools, and the individual students and their families that have expressed their gratitude for my own efforts. By the same token, I continue to express my own gratitude for the opportunity to instruct them, by virtue of the countless hours devoted to planning, preparation and voluntary servitude on committees that give back to the district at every turn. What have you, Phil Christe, save your bitter attack sheathed in self righteousness, and how do you sleep at night justifying what you have attempted to do?

Mark Ceconi

Teacher, Bedford Central School District