By Stewart S Lilker

The Freeport School Board gathered for another of their famous illegal meetings on Tuesday night, July 16, 2002. While the special or emergency meeting was called earlier in the day, it seemed that the board members had not received the agenda items for the half a million dollar roof repair at the Giblyn Elementary School. Assistant Superintendent of Business, Kishore Kuncham, mentioned some things regarding the legality of appropriating the funds without bringing them before the public, but it was impossible to hear most of what he said. No one on the board questioned why the roof problems were not discovered earlier. Of course, the public wasn’t allowed to ask questions.

A reliable source told FNYN that the district had no choice but to fix the roof, as it had become dangerous. It was explained that the way the roof was designed, it was impossible to tell from the outside that water had penetrated underneath. The residents of the district are going to have to come up with an estimated $500,000 to pay for what the district is calling an emergency contingent repair.

The Real Purpose of the Meeting

The real purpose of the meeting was to discuss the dismal performance of the district’s students on the recent state assessments. Sunday Coward, who was elected president of the board earlier in the month, continued to show her disdain for the public by continuing to keep the muzzle on the residents, disallowing any comment or questions from the taxpayers. None of the members of the board protested her arbitrary decision.

When measured by student achievement, this board is clearly the worst school board in the history of Nassau County. In the recent fourth grade assessments, Roosevelt, a district, which was recently taken over by the state, scored above Freeport. Freeport’s fourth grade English Language Arts scores have sunk them smack into the bottom of the barrel.

Board VP, Psychologist Joe Cattano, continued his theme of blaming the parents and the community for the poor performance of the students.

Superintendent Eversley, who has been running the district for the past year, seemed genuinely confused about the scores and any solution. Before being hired by Freeport, Eversley was let go by BOCES, leaving one of the lowest performing school districts in Illinois to take that job.

The meeting carried on for two hours. Nothing constructive was accomplished. All evening, not one word was said by anybody about the district’s fourth graders and what the district’s failures are doing to their young lives.

As the meeting concluded and just after Board President Coward made another unlawful motion to enter into executive session, Board VP Cattano turned to Coward and said, "No wonder this community will never go any place. People put a spin on your words and interpret it for their own personal reasons."

Freeport’s Superintendent and Board have called an illegal board meeting for tonight to discuss Freeport’s state assessments, which have placed Freeport’s schools smack on the bottom of the schools in Nassau County.

This purported emergency meeting was called sometime late yesterday and was not posted on the district web site until almost eight o’clock last night.

At 4:38 p.m. this afternoon, FreeportNYNews had not been advised by the district that an emergency meeting was called for this evening. FNYN checked with the Leader, the official newspaper of the district, and was informed that they had not received notice of this meeting.

NYS law requires that the media must be informed of emergency or special meetings. The NYS Commissioner of Open Government, Mr. Robert Freeman said, "If a meeting is scheduled less than a week an advance, notice of the time and place must be given to the news media..." Additionally, the courts have frowned on public bodies calling so called "emergency or special" meetings when there is no emergency.

Last year, even though the Commissioner of Education had ruled consistently that he would not become involved in issues regarding NYS Open Meetings Law, he rolled back a decision by the Roosevelt Board of Ed. because of short and improper meeting notice. The NYS courts have also found that any action taken at an improperly convenience meeting is illegal. In plain English, that means is it doesn’t count.

Freeport’s Superintendent, Dr. Eric Eversley, and the Freeport Board have repeatedly demonstrated that they consider themselves above the law. New school board member, Carmen Pineyro, will be tested tonight to see if she protests this illegal meeting.

Pineyro Takes Oath

by Stewart S Lilker

NYS Supreme Court Justice, Ira Raab, made a special trip to Freeport to give the oath of office to Carmen Pineyro, the first elected Latino in the history of Freeport. Judge Raab’s presence made the already special event, even more special, as Judge Raab is an example of the American spirit, whose quest to be elected to the court spanned many years. Judge Raab said, "I'm glad to participate in history by swearing in the first Latino member of the Freeport School Board. Now, the board truly represents the make up of the community."

Ms. Pineyro and her many supporters were all smiles as she took the oath. A few minutes later her brother and campaign manager, Danny Pineyro, told FreeportNYNews, "You’ll see, things will be different now."

July 2, 2002  (04:20 p.m.)

Eversley Wastes No Time

Freeport’s Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Eric Eversley, failed to post last night’s emergency school board meeting on the district’s web site. While both the board and Eversley have repeatedly said they want the web site to be the first line of communication with the residents of the district, this is not the first time Eversley has failed to post an emergency meeting. In a continuing effort to keep the public uninformed and off balance, Eversley has stopped dating the emergency postings.

Yesterday, a source told FreeportNYNews that the purpose of the emergency meeting was to discuss the appointment of an interim superintendent of curriculum for the retiring Dr. Tony Ciaglia. The word on the street is that the board is going to hire that replacement at tonight’s board meeting. Ciaglia’s last day in the district will be July 30th.