First, congratulations to Superintendants Wiles and Steinberg, both of whom managed to negotiate a difficult passage for the budgets they manage.

Then, further congratulations to those who won seats to the school boards we cover. Eric Meier and Roseanne Sullivan received solid vote totals, in line with the number that voted "Yes" on the budget. In Ellenville, Iris Friedman, Wayne Storey and Maxine Chapin beat the "Yes" vote by considerable margins.

That said, some salient points emerge from a closer look at the voting. In Ellenville, voter apathy has made its point loud and clear. In a district with a population of about 15,000 people, only 740 came out to vote. A mere 483 voted to pass the budget.

In the Pine Bush school district, the "No" vote collapsed. Only 749 voters said "No" to the new Superintendent's first budget. Last year 1,420 voters nearly defeated the budget. It passed by just 12 votes. The overall number of voters, at 2,154, is on a par with previous quiet years, but is a far cry from the much greater turnouts in 2000 and 2001.

At the same time, in both districts there was a disturbing lack of candidates for the school board elections. Meier and Sullivan ran unopposed. In Ellenville, four people ran for three seats. This lack of candidates raises a couple of questions, one of which is crucial to understanding the poor voter turnout.

Can it be that people no longer care about public service? That the demands of being a board member are too great for our stressed-out citizenry today?

Or could it be that we are all aware, at one level or another, that government at higher levels, both in Albany and in Washington DC, has tied the hands of local boards and school administrations so tightly, with rules and regulations almost beyond count, that in the end there's precious little for school boards and administrations to do, other than to carry out orders and try to balance the books.

You might feel that taxes are too high and need to be rolled back. You might want to attack what you perceive to be waste and inefficiency. You might even seek to undo the Teachers' Contract and roll back their wages and benefits. But the truth is that you would find that it is extremely difficult, if not actually impossible, for local school boards to do these things.

And when the difference between a budget approved and a budget voted down is just $100,000 on a $100M budget in Pine Bush, or just $60,000 on Ellenville's $40M budget, then the urge to get involved, or vote, diminishes accordingly.

Ostensibly, the election presented a budget to consider and school board candidates to select, but there was a third, unwritten option, which the electorate embraced overwhelmingly. And that was not to participate. The voters have spoken and what they are saying is that these elections have become essentially meaningless.

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