December and January’s Freeport school board meetings have been business as usual, except for one brief moment when during the December 20th board meeting, for only the second time in seven months, new board member Sunday Coward spoke up, accusing the board of sending out propaganda and lying about student performance.

The story begins at the board’s December 6th planning meeting, when without any notice to the public, the board added another of their famous 12th hour agenda items. This time it was the disastrous Summer School Report, a report so devastating and embarrassing, that it was clear why every effort was made to keep the public in the dark about its existence.

Board president Ronald Ellerbe tried to keep the public from receiving copies of the report, even though the assistant superintendent of curriculum, Tony Ciaglia, had brought adequate copies of the report to the meeting. When your reporter, who is also a Freeport resident, asked if there were copies available for the public, Ellerbe tried to stare him down, without answering. When your reporter pressed the issue, Ellerbe said, "You’re out of order," even though the board policy allows for questions from the public at any time. Finally, after stonewalling by Ellerbe and the superintendent, board member Grover, whose children go to private school, said, "Give him a copy." Go to Transcript

An examination of the Summer School Report revealed why the board and the superintendent weren’t forthcoming with copies for the public. According to the report, almost fourteen hundred students attended this year’s summer school. The results of the regents exams were disastrous. The Math A regents exam saw only 9% passing the exam, while US History and Government was at 16% and English Composition had only a 40% passing rate. The ten regents courses given at the summer school averaged only 31% passing the exam, while the easier RCTs (regent’s competency tests) averaged only 41% passing.

At the December 20th school board meeting, the Summer School Report, while not listed on the agenda as part of the evening’s meeting, was mysteriously stapled behind the minutes of the December 6th board meeting.

Former school board candidate and educator, Eloy Yndigoyen, complained that not only was there not enough time prepare intelligent questions about the report, it was also difficult to read. Yndigoyen said he was "alarmed by the high number of students attending the summer school and the large number of failures." Yndigoyen expressed his concern that "the curriculum was not addressing the needs of the students or that the students were not there to receive the instruction." Yndigoyen asked if the summer school teachers were given staff development during the summer. Board President Ellerbe answered, "Not to my knowledge." Superintendent Nydick quickly followed up, "Not by us, but wherever they are coming from, I’m sure they have in service (training) there."

Yndigoyen continued, "You don’t have a reading program for seventh graders, eighth graders and at the high school. There is a need for us to have a reading coordinator to help the students pass the English eleventh regents."

"The District Is Crawling Out Of A Very, Very Deep Hole"

Former PTA President, Stephanie Cieslik, also had questions about the summer school report. She asked the assistant superintendent of curriculum, Dr. Tony Ciaglia, when he found out that the standards had been changed. As Ciaglia answered, he was interrupted by Board President Ellerbe, who instructed Ms. Cieslik to address her questions "to the chair." Ellerbe then asked Cieslik to restate her question, causing her to use up her time restating a question a fourth grader could understand. After she restated her question, Ellerbe claimed that she might have "not accurately restated her question."

In spite of Ellerbe’s constant interruptions, Ciaglia did manage to answer. He said, "The new state mandates with respect to the assessments are the issue we are confronting. We have been trying to impart a skills base, which quite frankly, they have not been used to working with as they moved through the system. The new assessments came into effect partially about three years ago. We are working with the students this year, so we can reduce the number of students that go to summer school. We have a lot of work to do. This district is crawling out of a very, very deep hole that was a long time in the making. The fix for this is not going to happen in one year, or two years, or even three years. It is going to be a long term project."

Cieslik said, "I understand that. My concern is that every year we are not improving. We are putting ourselves further down in the pile. For the past three years, I have seen more students not getting an education. There is something wrong. We knew years ago that the state was going to institute these new standards and I think we should have been prepared for it. Look what’s happened because we’re not. If I’m reading your statistics properly, eighty one percent of the seventh graders didn’t make it. Aren’t these our Magnet School children?"

Ellerbe again interrupted Cieslik. This time he claimed she was taking things out of context. He said, "I don’t understand what you are talking about." Cieslik again had to use up her time explaining her question to the stonewalling Ellerbe.

New board member Sunday Coward, for only the second time in the seven months since her election, spoke up after first asking for permission to speak. She said, "Ms. Cieslik, I share the sentiment you have. We are at crisis levels. The Summer School Report is devastating. Our kids are failing. No, I have not heard anything productive about what we are going to do. I asked for and received an analysis of the first quarter grades from the high school. Those grades are horrendous. If you think that the Summer School Report is bad, it is just the tip of the iceberg. I will not sit up here with my fellow colleagues and pretend and send out propaganda in the Freeport Pride (the newsletter of the Board of Education) that says ‘our kids are doing wonderfully.’ They are failing and they are failing at high rates. So whatever they want to sit and tell you, it’s a lie and it’s embarrassing. We better stand up and own up to our kids failing. We have a problem."

Cieslik said, "Thank you. Somebody told the truth."

Ellerbe responded to Coward, "I just want to take the opportunity to reference to the board lying. There is no one around here lying." Coward shot back, "Then you’re hiding and covering up." Ellerbe interrupted, "Please do not interrupt me, I didn’t interrupt you. For you to misrepresent the facts and say that someone is lying. You are misrepresenting the facts and I don’t think that is appropriate for you to be doing something like that in this forum." Ellerbe did not explain the appropriate forum.

Coward concluded, "Let me speak to appropriateness. When we have ninety six percent of our students in math eight. Three hundred and some odd kids took that class and two hundred and eighty eight of them failed. Tell the truth. Tell me what the numbers are. You don’t care about the kids in this district. These numbers aren’t lying. We are really bad, whether you want to hear it or not."

Ellerbe told Coward, "Speak for yourself."

Cieslik concluded by saying, "I will be up here every month until you do something to save these children. You have done absolutely nothing to save these kids. That high school is atrocious. The kids cut, then nothing happens to them. I will write letters to whoever I have to. I’m not stepping down as a parent, but you should all step down if you can’t do the job."