By Stewart Lilker

The years of School Board secrecy continued with the School Board's recent attempt to dump Freeport high school's worst disciplinary problems in the midst of the retirees at the South Main Street facility of the Freeport Housing Authority (FHA). The executive director of the FHA, Edward Lancaster, in a September 1st letter sent to the Commissioners of the FHA, asked the Commissioners to verbally commit to renting space at the South Main Street Senior Center. Lancaster wrote to the Commissioners that "The Freeport Housing Authority and the Freeport School District have agreed in principle to rent the space at 240 South Main Street for the school district to operate its alternative education site for suspended students." While Lancaster does not define the space in his letter, FNYN has learned that the "space" to which Lancaster refers was the Senior citizen's day room.

At the conclusion of the September 6th School Board meeting, FNYN showed new Board member Sunday Coward the FHA letter. Coward said, "Nobody told me anything about this."

Late last week, FNYN learned that the School Board’s secret deal with the FHA had fallen apart. A confidential source has advised FNYN that the Town Receiver of Taxes, Angie Cullin, got copy of the letter and voiced her displeasure at the proposed scheme. Cullin apparently told the school district’s financial guru, Kishore Kuncham, to look elsewhere for a room. Kuncham claimed that Lancaster "told us we could have it."

According to a FNYN source, the school district has received a letter from the FHA confirming that the deal had been turned down.