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Dissension dominates at L-P School Board session Two candidates express displeasure at current board by
Larry Austin
Board Retaliation? In years past, approval of coaches had been a formality. The action left some wondering if the board is punishing coaches and teachers who criticize the board’s decisions. “In this particular year, we have had five teachers out of seven who were denied a mentoring position,” said Jean Henesey, president of the Lewiston Porter United Teachers union. “And also another fact is those five teachers signed an appeal to the commissioner because the mentoring program was not going to be funded by the board, which is against commissioner's regs. “We have also lost coaches today, and I also know that some of those coaches were people who exercised their freedom of speech and spoke up in situations where they felt strongly they needed to speak their mind,” Henesey added. “They now are not approved. One's got to wonder what's going on.” One of the three coaches not reappointed, Rick Sweeney, an eighth grade teacher in the middle school, said at a March 29 board meeting that a letter board member Len Palumbo had written to the Sentinel was “borderline scandalous” in its inaccuracies. Sweeney said Palumbo had an “agenda of blaming teachers for the shortcomings that really aren’t there.” Claims Students Misled “Large amounts of the whole truth were left out because these facts would undermine his attempts to blame teachers for academic shortcomings that do not exist,” Sweeney said of Palumbo’s letter. Sweeney said Palumbo’s actions are disturbing and irresponsible, cold and calculated, and cruelly mislead the students. Lauzonis had also spoken at an earlier meeting. At its March 15 session, the board did not reappoint long-time girls varsity track and field coach Mark Johnson to his position. Johnson alleged at the time that he had been singled out because of his past criticism of Lilly. Henesey said Johnson was one of those teachers who signed the mentoring grievance earlier in the year. “I can't tell you how embarrassed I am that we discriminate, blatantly discriminate, against people who think they have the freedom to speak their mind, and if it's not agreed to by the board majority or this board, that they get blackballed and are not considered for positions,” Burmeister said. “You would think that democracy would live in a town like in Lewiston and in Youngstown. You'd think that we would all respect each other, that a person could speak their mind and not be discriminated against, but it's not true on this board.” Micromanaging Charged Olsen said the revised agenda “really neuters the members of the board that didn’t share in the discussion that led to whatever changes were made. As a matter of fact, tonight you had to sit there and compare these lists in order to figure out what changes had been made. At a minimum, if you’re going to provide these new agendas on the evening of the meeting, highlight the changes so we’ll at least know what the changes are that we’re voting on. “I also find the explanation somewhat less than credible, as I understood the explanation it was that this is early and (we) have lots of time to make these decisions. That’s true of every name on this, and I think it insults the intelligence to assume that what’s good for the goose would not be good for the gander,” Olsen said. He called the decision another kind of micromanagement by the board in decisions best left to the athletic director and superintendent. “It depends on whether you’re an optimist or pessimist,” Lilly explained. “What audience members probably don’t know is we had a pretty productive night. There were 38 coaching positions originally given to us for consideration. Tonight, we approved 35. So 35 appointments out of 38, as far as I’m concerned, that’s a pretty good ratio. Nils has mentioned that as far as any of the board’s actions, they’re recommended by the superintendent, and the superintendent makes it clear when he does not recommend something, and he makes it clear all the reasons that he doesn’t recommend it. Sometimes the board is in the position where we are the ones who ultimately have to make the decision, so the superintendent recommends, the board approves. It’s simple, but not always easy.” Goals Ignored Board members Carol Rogers, along with criticizing the late revisions to the meeting agenda, said the board is ignoring discussion of the education goals it set earlier in the year. “We set them in Nov. 16th, District and Building Goals 2004-2005,” Rogers said. “We have lots of goals. We have lots of education goals, and our board approved those education goals. Have we talked about those education goals? Mr. Lilly made it very clear that every meeting was going to be a budget meeting. I said I hoped every meeting could be an education meeting. So far, every meeting is a budget meeting.“ Also at the meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services Donald Rappold presented an updated 2005-2006 budget review to the public. The Numbers The administrative budget comes in at $2,979,045; the program budget is $26,411,974; and the capital budget is $5,647,231. The total of $35,038,250 achieves a board goal of a zero percent increase over the 2004-2005 budget. The total tax levy of $19,723,390 is a decline of 3.28 percent from the ‘04-05 levy of $20,392,058. Rappold estimated tax rates of $21.22 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in both towns of Lewiston and Porter, a reduction of $1.28, or -5.66 percent, over ‘04-05. A proposition on the May 17 ballot to establish a capital improvement fund by transferring $125,000 from the existing Capital Reserve Fund and adding $175,000 from the tax levy would increase the levy 19 cents per thousand if passed. The resulting tax rate would climb to $21.41 per thousand and leave an estimated total decrease of $1.09 per thousand, or -4.9 percent. Candidates Speak Two candidates for the board spoke at the meeting, while one other candidate took himself out of the race. One candidate, Robert Laub, a former teacher in the Niagara Falls City School District, said, “If the budget process is all about winning and losing rather than collaborating, you win. But what price victory? A polarized Board of Education, a visibly disheartened superintendent and leadership team, a demoralized instructional staff, and disillusioned groups of student and parent activists?” Despite his frustrations, Laub said he would vote for the budget, calling it the “best budget we are going to receive this year from this board of education.” “I believe that this year's budget process is not an effort for which this board of education should be proud,” Laub said. “To begin with, the advice and recommendations of a highly competent, well-respected superintendent and his leadership team have been virtually ignored by the majority of this board. Suggestions and reasonable alternatives proposed by parents, students, community representatives and staff members were rarely, if ever, seriously discussed.” ‘No’ Vote Culture “I cannot in good conscience, with all of my past experience and efforts in support of school budgets, urge a community to turn down a budget proposal. I believe that starting a ‘no’ vote culture in Lewiston Porter would, in the long run, be counterproductive,” Laub said. Board candidate James Mezhir said he has been a parent-volunteer for three years and has gained an appreciation of what the educational system is like at the lower levels. He is the father of two sons who graduated from Lew-Port and a daughter in second grade. “I expect her to receive the same education as my sons, and she's currently receiving a quality education," Mezhir said. He warned the board of the impact of larger class sizes, especially given the increasing incidence of broken homes. “What these teachers go through during a six or seven hour day is remarkable. And what they're able to do with 18 and 19 kids, I can imagine what they would go through with three or four more,” he said. Work Better “If the school board is concerned about money as the taxpayers are, and I'm one of them, I think there needs to be a better working relationship between the board, the superintendent of schools, the teachers, and the community,” Mezhir closed. Former board president James Leighton, who had submitted the required petitions to run for the board again, told the board he had withdrawn his name from the race, leaving Robert Laub, Neil Richardson, Lynn Garcia, and James Mezhir on the ballot. At its meeting on April 19, the board approved all but two election inspectors for the May 17 budget vote and board election. The board removed Leighton’s wife, Sam, from the list of eligible election inspectors because of what Schaubert called an "appearance of impropriety" in having a spouse of a candidate as an inspector. Tuesday, Schaubert moved to reappoint Sam Leighton as an inspector after her husband’s withdrawal from the race. The board voted 4-1, with Lilly voting no, to reappoint Mrs. Leighton. Community Comments Also during the community comment portion of the meeting, Vincent Agnello of the Town of Porter, who serves as president of the local environmental watchdog group Residents for Responsible Government, spoke about safety concerns at the high school related to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report that noted the presence of traces of plutonium on Chemical Waste Management property. Agnello said wastes might have been scattered throughout CWM's property, posing a grave risk to the community. “I am concerned that plutonium may accidentally be released into the atmosphere or water through normal operations at Chemical Waste Management,” Agnello said. Agnello noted a need for continuous air monitoring outside and inside the school buildings, which are located within two miles of the CWM property. “I urge the school district to immediately
begin a monitoring program for chemical and radiological contamination
and to develop a disaster plan that would provide maximum
protection to our children; a plan that calls for proper immediate
action once the sensors reveal a problem,” he said. |
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