By Stewart Lilker.

After years of attempting to inhibit the public’s ability to question the Board of Education, the Freeport Board appears ready to announce success. With the white middle class, finally having all but abandoned the district and the black and Latino middle class in high gear following suit, the Board and the Administration don’t want to have to answer any questions from the public or keep any official record of their shady actions. With the district’s budget approaching $100 million and student performance in the bottom five districts on Long Island, the Board, the Administration and the Teachers Union can ill afford to level with the public.

Throughout the history of the Freeport School district and into the mid nineties, the Board’s minutes were representative of what actually occurred at Bd. of Ed. meetings, with questions from the public and the Board or the Administration’s answers made part of the public record. If known to the clerk, the participants were always identified.

In early 1995, with the Board mired in scandal and the district in debt, it was illegally decided in executive session, without any explanation or public discussion, to have the District Clerk leave out the names of the public’s speakers, giving them the collective name "A Resident." Additionally, it was decided that the clerk would keep no record of the answers to the public’s questions.

In July of 1995, former Freeport Principal, Al Renken and businessman Dante Grover were elected to the Board. By 1998, with gang and drug traffic in the district accelerating, the Renken/Grover Board determined it was in their best interest to remove any record of any questions. The state had begun standardized testing and Freeport’s students were failing dismally.

Then in 1999, the Board changed their policy, which mandated them to keep "complete and accurate minutes," to a policy that required them to keep only "a set of minutes." The Board unanimously voted to remove the words "complete and accurate" from their by-laws.

In October of 2000, the Board changed it’s long standing policy of allowing the pubic to address them twice, once on agenda items and once on any other issue. Newly elected Board member Sunday Coward, who ran on a plank of public participation and openness, voted along with the majority to further restrict the public’s right to speak. The Board continued it’s long standing practice of stopping the watch as "they" answered the public’s questions, thus preventing a filibuster by the administration to use up the questioner’s six minutes.

At the October 24, 2001 Board meeting, your reporter was questioning Superintendent Eversley’s earlier remarks regarding the dismal Freeport test scores (link). As I waited for Eversley to answer, I noticed that the questioners time was not being suspended during the Board or Administration’s responses. Board member Raab was the official time keeper for the evening.

Board President Muscara and the four other Board members developed collective amnesia, as none of them could remember at what public meeting they decided to inhibit the publics right to question the Board. The conversation follows:

FNYN: Dr. Eversley mentioned that the school scores on the school report card are clearly disastrous and not indicative of school quality. Could you tell me what they are indicative of, please?

(to Raab) Have you stopped the watch?

RAAB: It’s running time today.

FNYN: Today?

RAAB: Yes.

FNYN: When was that changed, today? Mr. Raab, when was that changed? (Raab sat silent, refusing to answer)

MUSCARA: Just continue with your question.

EVERSLEY: The scores are indicative of the performance of the students who took the exam, in the subject areas that were given.

FNYN: Can you tell me when the time was changed? When did you decide to do that? That is my question to you, Mr. Muscara. You are the president. When was that changed?

MUSCARA: (His voice quivering) It had been discussed at a previous, previous meetings.

FNYN: I was at the meetings. At what meeting was it discussed? What meeting? When did you decide that you were not going to stop the watch during your answers? When was this discussed?

MUSCARA: It was discussed at a previous meeting.

FNYN: (to the Board) At what meeting?

MUSCARA: At a previous meeting.

FNYN: You don’t remember the meeting?

MUSCARA: No, I don’t.

As there was no record of a discussion or vote regarding this change in any of the minutes of the Board, FNYN made a written request to Board member Cattano, Superintendent Eversley, and the District Clerk, Mary Bediako. The letter began, "At yesterday evening's school board meeting, Board president Muscara was questioned about why the clock was not stopped during the administration or board comment during the Public comment portion of the meeting, as has been the Board's usual practice for some years. Muscara said that this change was discussed at a school board meeting." The letter continued, "Can you tell me where and when that meeting was," and have you ever been present at a public Board of Education meeting where it was discussed?