Freeport Schools
Meeting News

The January 24 board of education meeting began with well deserved kudos for the championship Freeport High School football team and its coaches. After the team and the coaches received a standing ovation from the attendees, the board went back to business as usual.

Ms. Stephanie Cieslik, former PTA co-president, upholding her vow to "be back," was one of the first to the microphone. She asked why it was impossible to get a status report of the grades from the high school. This report was available on December 20th. Board President Ron Ellerbe, doing his usual two-step to use up the time of unfriendly speakers, told Cieslik, "I don’t want an interrogation. If you have a specific question, ask it. Don’t interrogate the administration."

Undeterred, Cieslik continued voicing her concern about the lack of math teachers in the high school and the district’s inability to retain teachers:

CIESLIK: "We again don’t have math teachers in the high school, what is being done about it?" What is being done to keep teachers in the high school?"

ELLERBE: "Your question is do you know why they left or what is being done to keep them?"

CIESLIK: I can understand why they left. What is being done to keep the ones that are still here? What is being done to keep them from walking out the door, anything? Four math teachers are leaving the high school.

BEDIAKO: (Dr. Mary Bediako, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel) We are doing everything possible to keep our math teachers.

(Bediako explained that four math teachers weren’t leaving, three were)

CIESLIK: I understand you are trying, but when these teachers leave, these students only get a sub [substitute teacher]. That is why these children fail. We have to hold on to these teachers.

BEDIAKO: I wish I could tell you why these teachers are leaving, but I can’t.

CIESLIK: Did you ever try asking them? Why don’t you ask them?

BEDIAKO: (Bediako shouted back) I don’t know why they’re leaving.

ELLERBE: Mary, Mary, Just hold it.

CIESLIK: Why don’t we ask the teachers at the high school why they’re leaving?

ELLERBE: I’d like to respond, but if you’re not going to phrase the question like a normal question, I don’t know if we are going to accomplish anything. I don’t know if we can answer a question as to why someone is leaving. It’s a universal problem.

BEDIAKO: I wish I could tell you, what is causing it, but I can’t. We are doing everything possible to keep these teachers, but we cannot do it alone.

CIESLIK: At the last board meeting Mr. Raab said that people don’t show up [at board meetings] because what is said at the microphones. What deters people from coming is when they get no satisfaction. I remember last year parents, students, and teachers pouring their hearts out to this board about what was going on at the high school. You did not listen to them. You listen to nobody. That’s why there is nobody here. You should try listening with both ears.

ELLERBE: Ms. Cieslik, I disagree with you. I agree with Mr. Raab. Your opinion of why people don’t come, is just that, your opinion. People don’t come because when people come up to the microphone they are rude and abusive. People don’t want to listen to that type of rhetoric. That’s my opinion.

CIESLIK: Everybody has their opinion, sir.

School board candidate Michael Raab, after arriving late at the December 20th board meeting, complained that members of the public criticized the board. He stated that he didn’t think "people should be allowed to do that."

Raab said, "I just walked in here.... I’ve called upon this board to contact their attorney and video tape one or two meetings for the purposes of possible litigation and some kind of court action to limit the conduct that goes on here." "I don’t think the administration is paid to be here. I’m sick to my stomach. I’ve been here for ten minutes."

Ellerbe and the board sat silent as Raab continued, "Parents don’t want to come here and listen to this garbage. The community is not going to come and listen to this garbage."

When Raab concluded, Ellerbe agreed with his friend and said, "Thank you for venting, Michael."

By the January 24th meeting, Raab changed his tune. He said, "I agree with Stephanie [Cieslik]. You learn when other people criticize."

This school year began with many high school parents and students being literally left in the dark. Suddenly and without warning, the district instituted a "zero" period. Students were standing at their bus stops at six o’clock in the morning and suffering with severe bouts of sleep deprivation, in order to be in school before 7:00 a.m. Many parents explained to FNYN that if their children were involved in after school sports, they sometimes didn’t get home until eight or nine o’clock at night, leaving them little time for homework and sleep.

Your reporter asked the board about zero period and other items that affect the district:

FNYN: Can you explain to me exactly what zero period is?

(No one on the board could answer the question)

FNYN: Can you tell me Mr. Ellerbe when the zero period was instituted and at what board meeting the board was advised the district was going to the zero period?

ELLERBE: I cannot tell you precisely the time and date.

(Caught in the fog, the board turned to Dr. Tony Ciaglia, assistant superintendent of curriculum, for an answer)

CIAGLIA: The discussions of the zero period took place over the course of the summer. I can tell you that before the beginning of the school year we presented the idea to the board.

FNYN: (To the board) Could you tell me if the zero period concept was discussed at a public school board meeting?

ELLERBE: I cannot tell you off the top of my head. I have to look at the minutes and see.

FNYN: Do you ever recall discussing the zero period, Mr. Ellerbe?

ELLERBE: Yes I do. Let’s not conduct an interrogation. I am not going to participate in an interrogation. If you have a specific question, ask it and move on.

FNYN: Were you in favor of the zero period when it was discussed?

ELLERBE: I can’t recall the exact dialogue, but I am assuming if it was implemented, I was in favor of it.

FNYN: But you don’t remember if you were in favor of it. Was any member of the school board in favor of the zero period?

GROVER: We had discussed the possibility of the zero period and also the possibility of extending the school day.

FNYN: My presumption was this was discussed at a planning meeting and not an action meeting?

ELLERBE: This is not an interrogation. If you have some questions move forward. We will not respond to these types of questions.

FNYN: Is this in any minutes of any meetings?

ELLERBE: I don’t have any recollection if it is in the minutes or not. I don’t know.

The board minutes reveal that not one public word was ever mentioned about the zero period.

At the November 11 board meeting, Ms. Ann Walsh, the district’s director of English, told the board, "Poverty and parental involvement affect achievement." During the December 20th board meeting, your reporter asked the board, "Can you tell me what this district is doing to get parents involved. This is the worse turnout I have ever seen at a school Board meeting before Christmas. It is mostly staff. (Five members of the public were present).

Ellerbe responded, "Notices were sent out. We also post the agenda on the district web site. Those are some of the things we’ve been doing.

FNYN followed up, "Do you think that does it? Apparently it doesn’t. It hasn’t for sometime. The meetings get less and less attended by parents."

Ellerbe replied, "That might be an indication of the community’s satisfaction of what’s happening in the district.

Board member Coward, as well as some members of the staff began giggling.

A resident told FNYN, "This is not Great Neck, everybody doesn’t have a computer in Freeport."

The current battery of state mandated tests show that Freeport’s children scored on par with the worst districts on Long Island. In the recent issue of the board’s propaganda paper, the Pride, board president Ellerbe said, "It’s no coincidence that more people are moving to Freeport. People recognize that it is a district of academic achievement …"

At the December 20th board meeting your reporter questioned the board president Ellerbe about his remark:

FNYN: Mr. Ellerbe. You said people move here because of the academic achievement. You said that in the Pride newsletter. Can you tell me what you meant by that and where that achievement lies.

ELLERBE: My comments were that people move to this district because of the academic awards that students have won in this community and the high level of excellence that we are trying to maintain in this district.

FNYN: I quote you sir. You said academic achievement. Can you explain that to me?

ELLERBE: We have students that attain high scholastic achievement in the district.

FNYN: And that’s why people move here because of the high scholastic achievement?

ELLERBE: That’s the perception. Yes it is. The people that I do business with have a perception that by moving to Freeport, their children will attain, will have the opportunity to have received a high standard of education.

FNYN: Thank you. And what business are you in?

ELLERBE: If you read the article, you know I’m in real-estate.

FNYN: So it’s good for your business to say that people move here because of high scholastic achievement, even though that’s not the case.

ELLERBE: I don’t have to sell it. It’s already sold. I don’t have to market our school district.

FNYN: But you’re in the real estate business?

ELLERBE: That’s correct

FNYN: So that when you represent that the school district has high scholastic achievement that helps your business, is that not correct.

ELLERBE: I think it presents the opportunity for people to get a quality education for their children.

FNYN: So it doesn’t help your business.

ELLERBE: I have no way of knowing.

At the January 24th board meeting, your reporter revisited Ellerbe’s "scholastic achievement" remark. "Last time I addressed the board I asked what you meant by the remarks you made in the board’s newsletter, the Pride, that people are moving here because of the academic achievement in the district."

Ellerbe asked, "You are quoting me from what?

FNYN answered, "The last issue of the Pride."

Ellerbe stonewalled, "I have to look at it. I can’t make a response without seeing the comment."

FNYN asked, "You don’t remember what you wrote?"

Unbelievably, Ellerbe answered, "No."

At the conclusion of the December 20th board meeting, Freeport alumnus and friend of the board, Frank Tucker, agreeing with Raab’s comments regarding listening to "garbage," said, "I would almost be willing to ask that the board hold closed planning sessions, because of some of the things that people take issue with at the open meetings."

Tucker commented about board member Coward’s forthrightness, telling the board, "I do not agree with the way she disagrees with members of the board in public." Looking at Coward he concluded, "That’s an outside thing. You should do that with the board."

At the January 24th board meeting it was back to business as usual. Not a sound was heard from new board member Coward.