Late this afternoon, Freeport School Board member Ronald Ellerbe was caught red handed taking Board candidate Sunday Coward's campaign literature off car windshields at the Freeport train station.

In clear disregard of the law, the Board's campaigning for the Bond had been blatant, unrelenting and partisan. On May 3rd, the District looked the other way as the appointed principal of the Columbus school, Peggy Miller, sent a memo around her school, which asked resident staff members to put vote "yes" signs on their lawns supporting the Bond. Ms. Miller wrongly repeated the district’s misrepresentation that "72% of it is State aidable."

The School Board and Village Mayor, the "real Republican" William Glacken, had apparently been working hand in hand to see that the School District's bond proposal did not go down in defeat again and that incumbent Board Candidate Lisi, the wife of Republican Committeeman Joe Lisi, was reelected.

Last week, the District distributed letters from Freeport Mayor Glacken, extolling Freeporters to vote for the Bond. These letters were on counters in the School buildings, put into the staff member’s mailboxes, and given to students to bring home. It was only after residents called the Superintendent, the NYS Department of Education, Senator Fuschillo and Assemblywoman Erlene Hill Hooper, that the letters were removed from the school buildings. However, not to be deterred, the District continued to disregard the law prohibiting them from partisan electioneering for the bond. They refused to remove Glacken’s pro bond endorsement from the School District web site, which was also violative of the State's constructional prohibition of making gifts of public funds, until sometime on Monday morning.

Eloy Yndigoyen, a Sunday Coward and anti bond supporter, confirmed with FNYN that he was at the Freeport train station after 4 p.m. this Monday afternoon, putting the "Better Plan" bond proposal and the "vote for Coward" flyers under the windshield wipers of the cars at the Freeport train station.

Sheena (last name withheld), a senior at Freeport High School, happened to be in the train station after the flyers were distributed. She came across someone taking the flyers off the car windows and replacing them with another one. She told FNYN that she recognized that person to be Ronald Ellerbe, School Board Member. She said at first she thought he was putting flyers on the windshields, but then she could see that he was taking them off. Sheena asked Ellerbe what he was doing. She said Ellerbe responded with, "this doesn’t concern you." Sheena said that she told Ellerbe that it was wrong and that she knew he was on the Board. Sheena told FNYN, "After he realized I knew who he was, he got into his car."

Shortly after, school board challenger, Sunday Coward arrived at the train station. "As I pulled up, I saw Ellerbe taking a flyer off one car. Then he got into his car," Coward said. According to Coward, when she confronted him, Ellerbe denied taking her flyers off the cars and claimed that he was only putting flyers on the windshields. Coward said that Ellerbe drove off after she asked him what had been happening to her flyers.

Later in the evening, at the Monday night Village Hall meeting, Mayor Glacken appointed Ellerbe to a police advisory board. When the Village meeting concluded, FNYN asked Glacken if he had any comment regarding the School District distributing his letter endorsing the bond. Glacken remained silent. FNYN then asked Glacken if he knew that his letter was posted on the School District web site and if he knew why it took so long to take it off. Glacken again had no comment.