I am responding to Linda Deitchman's letter in last week^'s paper. Because the now former president (Karen Schecter) of the Bedford school board breached the board's policy of confidentiality of executive session by selectively disclosing certain aspects of what happened in executive session, Mrs. Deitchman was obviously left with a rather distorted understanding of the facts.

Between June 5, 1996, when the hoard discussed the superintendent's raise in executive session and the actual vote on June 26, 1996, several serious incidents occurred and new (very disturbing) facts about a long-standing matter came to the board's attention. These matters involved the health, safety and well being of students in our schools, and in my mind raised questions of leadership that I wanted resolved before irrevocably granting our superintendent another substantial raise. Accordingly, I abstained on that vote, which a majority of the board would not postpone. As a parent and a board member, I feel that the well being of our children is more important than the superintendent's pay raise.

James J. Markowski
Bedford Village
Bedford Central school board member