School Meeting News
May 2000

Board of Education Digs In
Restricts Public's Right To Speak


by Stewart Lilker

In the first meeting after the recent district wide election, the Board of Education dug in its heels, continuing its unresponsiveness to the residents.

The evening’s agenda, presumably prepared by the District Clerk, Mary Bediako, was incomplete and sloppily prepared. As usual, the minutes subject to Board approval were not available for public inspection. Continuing the new Board practice, the dates of the minutes subject to approval were absent from the agenda. The attitude of the Clerk, as expressed to FNYN after the meeting, is that the minutes "are the Board’s minutes" and they don’t have to be made available to the public. Bediako maintained that the minutes are available in the Freeport Public Library. History has proven that they are never received by the library before they are approved. At times, months have passed before the Board minutes are forwarded to the library. This practice began in earnest after an appeal was filed with the Commissioner of Education to remove the Board for having secret School Board Meetings. The Board and its renegade Attorney, Larry Reich, seem to feel that keeping the public in the dark about the public’s business leaves them less vulnerable to legal action.

Questions regarding another new practice of the Board, not attaching the winning bids to the evenings agenda were ignored by the Board. Other items that were previously available at the Board meetings are no longer available. They are the treasurer’s report and the high school funds report.

There were less than ten members of the public present at the Board meeting. Recently, without any public discussion, the board changed their long standing practice of giving the public the right to address them as a body, after the agenda is read. Board President Grover has announced many times in the past, that it is a "privilege to address the Board and not a right." Now, after the Board runs through the agenda, the Board members and the Administrative staff make a break for the surrounding tables, leaving the pubic in the dust, as they surround themselves with their supporters.

Alan Jay, using his allotted time for the agenda items, addressed the Board on this issue. Mr. Jay asked, "Are you going to bust up this meeting again for these useless round tables?" Board Vice President Renken replied, "That’s your decision. We are going to have round tables. Anybody that has comments to make can talk to specific board members and members of the administration." Mr. Jay, observed, "So you have to repeat the same thing four or five different times," and then asked, "Is this going to be a permanent change?" Renken responded, "The change was established at the last meeting by the President."

High School PTA Co-president, Stephanie Cieslik asked, "What about the community?" Renken answered, "This is a board of education meeting and the rules of decorum are developed by the Board of Education for the conduct of the meeting."

FNYN asked, "What is that, executive fiat? Where is that in the rules?"

Mr. Jay concluded, "I have a copy of the Constitution here. The people shall have a right to redress of grievances. A five minute restriction on just the agenda does not give an opportunity for the public to avail themselves of their rights. They are being restricted arbitrarily by you. This seems to be a back door attempt to stifle the public and I think it is wrong." Mr. Jay then shrugged his shoulders and took his seat.

Next up to the microphone was your reporter. FNYN asked the Board about the missing dates of the minutes, "Can you tell me why you stopped listing those dates and when you decided to do that?" Renken, apparently never having looked at the people’s agenda, answered, "They are listed." FNYN responded, "Not on my agenda."

District Clerk Bediako jumped into the conversation, "If it is not on the agenda, it is an error."

FNYN: "It was also not put on the last agenda."

After some brief conversation FNYN continued, addressing VP Renken, "Can you tell me why the minutes aren’t available for anybody else in the room. Only you.?"

Renken refused to answer, referring the question to Bediako. Most of Bediako remarks were unintelligible, however she could be understood to falsely state, "Mr. Lilker, you have all the minutes."

FNYN commenting about the purposeful unavailability of the Board’s minutes at School Board meetings said, "I would just like to remind you that in communities that score like Freeport, Hempstead and Roosevelt, those minutes have for years been available for the public at their school board meetings."

FNYN questioned the Board regarding the bids. "What are the bids and why is there no documentation in support of the bids, as was available in the past?" Bediako volunteered, "Mr. Lilker, the bids are supporting documents for the Board." Renken said, "I will look into it. I will send you a letter of information."

FNYN then brought up the issue of the change of meeting format. "Could you tell me when you discussed changing the format of this meeting to establish these round table discussions?"

Renken responded, "This was done at a work session of the Board."

FNYN: "Was there an official vote on this?

Renken: "We don't need one for that. There was an agreement."

FNYN: "Was it in any of the minutes, where you agreed?"

Renken: "It’s not in those minutes. It’s not a matter of a Board vote, so it’s not in the minutes."

Your reporter has attended all the recent meetings of the Board of Education. The Board has never publicly discussed any changes of meeting format. The recent planning meeting (work session) agendas make no mention of "meeting format" as a discussion item. Renken’s claim that the matter was discussed is not supported by the record.

FNYN then had some questions for the Board regarding the district’s personnel. "My understanding is that Dr. Ciaglia is leaving in July. Can you tell me why he is not on this termination of staff report? And is it true that he is leaving?"

Renken replied, "To the best of my knowledge, Dr. Ciaglia is not leaving. The bottom line is that is a personnel issue and that is not discussed at public meetings."

FNYN, holding up the personnel handout, "We have two sheets of personnel matters."

Renken responded, "Obviously, you don’t see Dr. Ciaglia’s name, so he is not leaving."

Dr. Ciaglia, out of the blue, chimed in, "Stool pigeons have bad poop, Stew."

After Ciaglia’s outburst, Renken encouraged Ciaglia to calm himself

FNYN: "My next question has do with the transfer of the principal, Gladys Andrews, from the Archer Street School to Atkinson. Can you tell me if that is on here anywhere? And why is she being transferred?"

Renken, having not read the meetings agenda, claimed, "That is not an agenda item."

People in the audience volunteered, "Yes it is."

Renken went on. "It is an internal transfer of a principal from one building to another building and it is not a matter of format protocol."

FNYN: "Could you tell my why she is being transferred? She is on the agenda."

Renken equivocated, "The key to that is, it is the Superintendent’s review of her administrative needs and basically the Superintendent has decided, in conjunction with the administrative staff and with the approval of the Board, that a person would be transferred from one building to another building."

FNYN, "Is this another case of a principal of a school being transferred in opposition to their own wishes? Was Ms. Andrews in favor of being transferred? Did she request the transfer, or is this similar to the Mike Campbell debacle at the high school?"

Incredibly, the Superintendent spoke up for the first time at a public meeting in months. Superintendent Moffett enlightened the public with following, "We are not answering. That is a question we are not answering."

FNYN continued, "It is my understanding that Dean Schroeder is leaving the district. Is that true? Is she resigning?"

Renken replied, "That’s personnel, we’re not discussing it?"

FNYN: "There are sheets of personnel matters, so you can’t hide behind a ‘personnel matter’."

Renken: "That’s not a personnel matter."

FNYN asked the Board about the rumor regarding the transfer of the high school AP's to other schools in the district. Board VP Renken categorically denied this, stating that it wasn’t true.

PTA co-president Stephanie Cieslik was the last member of the community to ask any questions. She asked, "On the calendar of events you are missing the Freeport High School curriculum meeting." This meeting was scheduled to advise and inform the High School student’s parents of the coming years curriculum.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Ciaglia responded, "Letters were sent out advising everyone." Ms. Cieslik asked, "So why isn’t it on the calendar?" The Board and the Administration ignored the question.

After the Board rocketed through the agenda, they got up from their chairs and fled to safety of the round tables, where surrounded by their supporters, they were insulated from the prying questions of the public. Ms. Cieslik did manage to track down Superintendent Moffett before she made it to the safety of one of the round tables. Ms Cieslik reported that she asked the Superintendent if she had looked into the matter of false allegations against her (Cieslik). These allegations were publicly brought up over a month ago, when the Superintendent stated that she would look into them. When Ms. Cieslik caught up with the Superintendent after the meeting, asking her if she had looked into the matter, Moffett said, "Not yet," turning her back and walking away to one of the round tables.