2002
Index
Articles
Freeport Schools
Raab Goes
Bonkers As
Board Violates Open Meetings Law
October 9, 2002 (Posted
Oct. 12)
The pressure of a failing school
district, gangs,
and illegal board activity apparently got to Freeport school
Board member Michael Raab, as he went bonkers at the
conclusion of the October 9, 2002 board planning meeting.
Freeport Supt In Ozone
A "Sign of the Times"
September 20, 2002
The theme of the many e-mails FNYN
has received since the school calendar was mailed has been,
"How can I believe that my children are safe in these
schools when the Superintendent and the administration don’t
even recognize gang signs when they see them?"
Freeport School Update
Public Throttled • New Positions • No HS Principal
September 3, 2002
Mr. Jay’s time had expired, and with the
stopwatch beeping in the background, Board President Sunday
Coward kept interrupting Jay, trying to shoo him away from
the microphone. Finally, seventy-six year old Jay told
Coward that he was going to finish what he had to say and if
she didn’t like it, she could have him arrested.
Freeport Homeowners Mislead
School Taxes Up 26%
Freeport NY, August 19,
2002
This spring, Freeport’s
desperate School Board and Superintendent pulled a fast one
on the taxpayers of the district. After the district
realized that their original budget for the upcoming year
(2002-2003) would not pass because it represented a 20% plus
increase in homeowners’ taxes, they eventually pared back
their budget from $100,564,791 to $98,418,384. So inept is
the Freeport School district, that on Election Day
Supt.
& School Board Befuddled
July
18, 2002 (Part I)
The
School Board meeting carried on for two hours. 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.
Dance
Ballerina Dance
July
18, 2002 (Part II)
You
don't have to put spin on the school district's word, they spin by
themselves
Freeport Schools
Ahead of Their Time
July 16, 2002
As
more and more, the government chips away at our moral
fiber, I come to realize that Freeport is way ahead of the
government. What with limiting our ability, or denying
altogether, the right to express our position at school
board meetings
Eversley
Wastes No Time
July 2, 2002 (04:20 p.m.)
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
Pineyro
Takes Oath
July 2, 2002 (07:35 p.m.)
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
Freeport's
Superintendent
Drops Ball Again
June 30,
2002, Freeport Schools
True to
form, Eversley ignored the Latino parent population,
which is approximately 50% of the Jr. and Sr. High
School population and didn’t send the mandatory
Spanish translation. The correspondence included a
contract that had to be signed by both the parent
and the student.
Freeport
Schools •
Do They Know Where Your Children Are?
June 22, 2002
Freeport NY
Even though the
committee meetings are subject to NYS Open Meetings Law,
Superintendent Eversley did not post the time and place of
this meeting anywhere in the district. The committee ... left unchanged the 48-hour
provision the district was about to give itself to notify
a parent if their child didn’t show up for school.
School
Leadership Falls Down On Attendance
June 19, 2002
The
customary lack of leadership and decision making by the
top management and board of the Freeport Schools was
demonstrated again as Freeport raced to meet the deadline
for the state's mandated attendance policy.
Freeport
Schools Ignore Spirit Of Federal Mandates
June 12, 2002 (Posted June 18th)
Once
again, the Freeport Public Schools demonstrated both a
lack of leadership from the Superintendent ... Their latest gaff involves
the district’s confusion and adherence to the federally
mandated Children’s Internet Protection Act, commonly
known as CIPA.
Freeport
Schools •
Smoke Signals Would Work Better
June 5, 2002
Freeport
Superintendent, Dr. Eric Eversley, and the School Board
have repeatedly claimed that they want the public to be
involved in the district, attend school board meetings,
and use the
Carmen
Pineyro Makes History
May
21, 2002
History
was made tonight when twenty six year old Carmen
Pineyro was the top vote getter in the Freeport Board of
Education Election. Pineyro becomes the first elected
Latino board member of any board in the history of
Freeport. Pineyro
The
School Board Candidates In Their Own Words
May 17, 2002
FreeportNYNews
has given all the candidates the opportunity to express
themselves in their own words. Of the five candidates, only two,
Carmen
Pineyro (Pineyro
en Espanol) and Bernie
Smith have responded. I hope you find their remarks helpful
in making your choice on election day, May 21, 2002. Stewart
Lilker - Publisher/Editor
School
Board Candidate Night •
What They Said
May 15, 2002 (Posted
May 16th)
PTA
Council President, Jacci Harris, gave a warm welcome to
the Freeport School Board candidates and one hundred
attendees, who mostly came to support their candidates.
Nothing earth shattering was said and the candidates
A
Monster Grown In Freeport
Freeport NY, April 12, 2002
Under construction, the
Freeport School District’s New Visions public school looms
three tall stories high in neighborhood backyards, as it reaches
towards the heavens, casting a dark shadow over all the homes
surrounding
Freeport
Schools Forget The Jews • Who's Next?
March 25, 2002
After
years of insensitivity, wastefulness, insults, misinformation,
arrogance, rudeness, civil rights violations, cover-ups, theft,
outright lies and the wholesale destruction of a school system
and the
Residents
To Take It On The Chin • Frpt School Budget Up 10 Million
February 27,
2002 (posted Mar. 4)
After
years of mismanagement and decisions based on political
considerations, rather than the needs of the district, the
school budget has finally toped 100 million dollars for the
first time. School district residents can expect a ten percent
school tax increase this year. Added to last years increase of
7.7%, residents can expect a two year combined increase of 17%.
HS
Principal Resigns • Board & Supt Paralyzed Without Spin
Doctors
February
27, 2002 (posted Mar. 4)
The
February 27th School Board meeting saw the Superintendent and
Board paralyzed, refusing to announce the resignation or take
any measures to advise the community that their gang infested
high school had no principal. The district, which long ago
traded truth for spin, appeared to need time to run the events
past the district’s spin doctors.
Investigation
Doesn't Help • Students Stuck On Bottom
January 23, 2002 (Posted Feb. 2)
The
district had led the public to believe that the original test
scores given to the State Education Department and to Newsday
were incorrect and that there was
Test
Scores
The Problem Is Complex
January 17,
2002
The problem is complex and the answers equally complex. We
surely would welcome your input and insight, rather than simply
your continuing inquisition.
Frpt
School Board Ignores Law
While Residents Sleep
January 6, 2002 (Posted Jan. 12th)
Following
in the footsteps of the Roosevelt School Board, Freeport has now
also sunk to calling emergency meetings for early Sunday
morning, while Freeport’s residents sleep.
2001
Index
Frpt
Schools Fail Students Again
Cover-up Continues
Freeport NY,
December 29, 2001 (Part 1)
Alerted that Newsday was publishing
a list of the results of the English and math regents results
the following day, Superintendent Eversley began his
Cheerleaders
• E-mail
The miss-Leader
Freeport NY, December 29, 2001 (Part
2)
On the second bill of the
December 19, 2001 School Board meeting were the JV Cheerleaders
and e-mail
No
Rules For Raab
December 19, 2001
Mike Raab, who
constantly brags about his connections to Village Hall
Freeport
Students Sink
Latino Parents Ignored
Oct. 29, 2001
In
what has become a recurring bad dream for the concerned
residents in the district, the latest standardized test scores
placed Freeport’s 4th and 8th graders squarely in the bottom
of the barrel, once again.
Board
limits public's right to speak as student scores sink
Oct. 29, 2001
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
Frpt
Schools Fail Students Again
Cover-up Continues
Freeport NY,
December 29, 2001 (Part 1)
Alerted that Newsday was publishing
a list of the results of the English and math regents results
the following day, Superintendent Eversley began his
Cheerleaders
• E-mail
The miss-Leader
Freeport NY, December 29, 2001 (Part
2)
On the second bill of the
December 19, 2001 School Board meeting were the JV Cheerleaders
and e-mail
Freeport
Students Sink
Latino Parents Ignored
Oct. 29, 2001
In
what has become a recurring bad dream for the concerned
residents in the district, the latest standardized test scores
placed Freeport’s 4th and 8th graders squarely in the bottom
of the barrel, once again.
Board
limits public's right to speak as student scores sink
Oct. 29, 2001
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
With
the greatest tragedy in our history unfolding before their eyes,
the Superintendent and the School Board refused to postpone a
meeting to discuss a Code of Conduct that should have been ready
in July.
Freeport NY, September
12, 2001
Hearing (Part
1)
There was a pall over the room as
the meeting began. No one that FreeportNYNews had spoken to
could believe that the meeting was not canceled.
FNYN
Questions the Board (Part
2)
Your reporter asked the Board if
there were ever public notices announcing the meetings of the
District-wide Safety Committee, as is required by NYS Open
Meetings Law.
Assistant
Superintendent Proclaims
"English Is The Official Language"
September
7,
2001
Ciaglia
proclaimed, "No sir. English is the official language."
Neither the Board, nor the Superintendent, took exception to the
Assistant Superintendent's remark.
Crisis Intervention In The Freeport Schools
September 12, 2001
While the attack on
the World Trade Center went on, the Freeport school district took extra
ordinary measures to buffer the children from trauma.
Freeport
Schools Ignore Rules •
Latinos - Again
August 31,
2001
The
Board never reached out to the community to inform it of the requirements
of SAVE. The past Renken/Grover Board, with holdovers Ellerbe and Muscara,
ran the Board like a private club. None of the Board members of the
Renken/Grover Board took any initiative to be informed of the basic
requirements of SAVE.
Summer
Commencement Has Students Smiling
August 29,
2001
The
first ever Freeport High School post summer school commencement took place
this evening in
Nasty Scene At The Board Of Ed.
June 12, 2001
Tuesday night,
the Freeport School Board was
again up to
their ankles in their secret ways. At
Eversley
Named School Superintendent
Cattano & Raab Flex Muscles
May 23, 2001
Friday, May 18, 2001, began a flurry of
activity by the Freeport School Board, as the newly elected board members,
Joe Cattano and Michael
Students
Threatened • Parents Furious • Board Silent
May 18, 2001
Earlier this
week, Freeport High School was once again the object of a threat that left
the district scrambling for a response, while keeping most of the public in
the dark.
Newcomers
Defeat Incumbent
Cattano and Raab Victorious
May 15, 2001
The
Freeport School Board election was one nobody could call. Two time
incumbent Al Renken took one final shot at the brass ring and
School
Bd. Hides Salary Increases
April 24 &
May 2, 2001
Budget night began with a presentation of the
proposed Freeport Memorial Library budget by Library Director Dave Opatow.
Mr. Opatow
School
District Shenanigans
April 23, 2001
Election
shenanigans are nothing new to the Freeport School district. In the 1997
school board election there was a clear and convincing showing of fraud
and improper conduct regarding the nominating petitions of Dorothy Fox,
Look
At The Real Statistics
April 23, 2001
Opinion by Stephanie
Cieslik
The Freeport School District and certain
members of the Board of Education are misrepresenting the facts. It must
stop! As residents, as well as parents, we deserve to hear the truth. For
months the district has been boasting
Lloyd:
"We Need A Change"
February 24, 2001
We
need a change on our Board of Education. There are two seats coming up for
election, those of incumbents Albert Renken and Dante Grover. We need to
elect two new people who will put our children first. Board members who
will tell us all
Board
Praises Athletes
Tells Parents "Don’t Interrogate The Administration"
February 9, 2001
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.
Finally
The Truth "Our Kids Are Failing"
February 3, 2001
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.
2000 Index
Interim
Supt Gets High Marks
September 28,
2000
In what has clearly been a breath of fresh
air in the district, Interim District Superintendent David Nydick has
been given high marks by everybody with whom your reporter has spoken.
Board President
Violates Law Again •
School District Attorney Winces
September
27, 2000
At 7:05 p.m., school district attorney
Larry Reich was seated in the boardroom, with four of the five board
members and all the assistant superintendents. All were waiting for
school board member Grover ...
School
Bd And
FHA In Web of Secrecy
September 11, 2000
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).
Bd of Ed Action
Meeting Ill Attended
Past Pres Grover Fed Up With Criticism
August 23, 2000
The August 23rd School Board action meeting was the most ill attended Board
meeting in years. Most of those who can afford it have abandoned the
district for private schools or moved out of Freeport to districts with
better performing schools.
School
Board Update •
Resident Says
"My Family Comes
First."
August 9, 15, 21, 22
Since the planning meeting of
August 9th, the Board has met four times for emergency or special
meetings, setting a school meetings record. At each of these meetings, Board President
Ellerbe spoke so low as to be barely audible.
School
Board Up To Same Old Tricks
July 19 & 27, 2000
The meetings are now presided over
by newly elected Board President Ron
Ellerbe. Ellerbe has gone out of his way to make himself unintelligible,
normally speaking so low as to be barely audible. Go
to Article
BOARD
OF ED COVERS UP FIRE MARSHALL'S REPORT
July 15, 2000
FreeportNYNews, in spite of the stonewalling of
the report by the District, has been able to obtain a copy of this report.
The "technical violations" that Grover and the administration
have been covering up affect the lives of the children and the staff of
the district.
Go
to Article.
Board
Disorganization Night
July 5, 2000
For
the second year in a row, the Board disallowed public comment on their
proposed Organization night appointments. The stifling of pubic comment
and questions regarding the Board’s appointments. Go
to Article.
FNYN Photo: Sunday Coward takes the Oath.
Gaffney
Valedictorian Speech
June 25, 2002
I guess we got jump started into that conclusion by this past year. We
saw that those in power do not always do what is best. We were told
everything was being changed in the name of reform, but all we saw was the
school deteriorate. New policies were set up that we all knew wouldn't
help the school, that wouldn't make students learn more, that wouldn't
help teachers educate better, and that wouldn't even improve discipline. Go
to Speech
Board
Hides Superintendent?
Ignores Open Meetings Law
June 21, 2000
Alan Jay was the first resident to the microphone. As Mr. Jay veered off
the written agenda, Grover and the Board sat mute. Mr. Jay said, "You
have infringed on the People’s right to petition their government under
the First Amendment of the Constitution. Go
to Article.
School
Board Blasts Through Fire Marshall’s Report
Finally Admit They Don’t Know Bond Aid
June 7, 2000
Newly elected
school board candidate, Sunday Coward, dashed from the airport to the June
7th planning session arriving ... " Go
to Article.
Academic
Awards Disrupted
June 7, 2000
One High School parent told FNYN, "That’s it. This is the last
straw. I just can’t take it anymore. My child was supposed to get an
award and can’t be there. My children come first. I’m outa here."
Go
to Article.
SUPERINTENDENT
MOFFETT RESIGNS?
June 2, 2000
Josephine Moffett, Freeport School District Superintendent, is rumored to
be resigning from the District.
Yesterday, June 1st, a School Board member, who asked to remain anonymous,
was asked, "Is it true ... Go
to Story.
Board
of Education Digs In
Restricts Public's Right To Speak
May 24, 2000
In the first meeting after
the recent district wide election, the Board of Education dug in its
heels, continuing its unresponsiveness to the residents. Go
to Article.
Sunday Coward Big
Winner
May 16, 2000
In a stunning upset, Sunday F. Coward defeated Joyce Lisi in the race for
School Trustee by a mere seventy-five votes. Go
to Story.
Board
Member Ellerbe Caught Red Handed
May 15, 2000
Late this afternoon, Freeport School Board member Ronald Ellerbe was
caught red handed taking Board candidate Sunday Coward's campaign
literature off car windshields at the Freeport train station.
Go
to Story.
Unresponsive
Board Ill Prepared
April 18, 2000
Ellerbe began pointing his finger
at Yndigoyn and repeating the word rude over and over. When FNYN agreed
that Bediako's behavior was out of order, Ellerbe called your reporter a
parasite.
Go
to Story
Superintendent
Puts Psychologist In Bathroom
April 17, 2000
The Freeport school district's
lead psychologist, Dr. Mark Summers, has had his office installed in the
handicapped bathroom in the district's administration building. Go
to Story
Senator
Schumer Principal For A Day
April 16, 2000
This Monday, Freeport High School
will be administrated for two hours by US Senator Charles Schumer. Go
to Story.
Clerk's
Getaway Foiled • Freeporters Make History
March 31, 2000
History
was made this past Friday when a group of Freeport residents filed a
proposition with the school district clerk to put a widely supported
resolution on the May 16th School District Ballot. For the first time ever
in Freeport, a diverse group of residents have come together to empower
the people to vote for a popularly submitted district wide proposition.
Go
to Story • Go
to Proposition
School
Board's Revised Bond In Trouble
March 28, 2000
FNYN has learned that the meeting, originally scheduled to be held on
Tuesday evening, March 28th at School Board member Joyce Lisi’s house
and then in the district’s administration building, was held instead at
the home of Pat Lewis. As usual, the
issue of trust took a prominent place in the discussions. Go
to Story
Smoke
Detectors Out • New Bleachers In • School Board Votes To Put Bond Back
Up
March 22 -- 7:30
p.m. Freeport School District Board Room.
As previously promised, the Board removed
"health, safety and maintenance" items from the bond ... Included in the revised plan are new bleachers for the high
school. Removed from the Board’s plan are the updating of smoke and fire
detection systems in the District’s school buildings.
Go
to Story •
Go
to Revised Bond
2000/2001
Proposed School District Additional Staffing Requirements
March 22 -- 8:50
p.m.
After the presentation of the
"Revised Plan" and the Board vote for resolving to establish the
Annual Meeting, which included the bond, Dr. Mary Bediako, director of personnel,
advised the Board of the additional staffing requirements, which the
Administration proposes for the 2000/2001 budget. It is a strain to
understand and hear Dr. Bediako. Go to
Story.
A
PARENT SPEAKS OUT • SURPRISED?!
March 20, 2000
Even though I am the Freeport High School PTA Co-President, Site-Based
Team member, Sports Booster Treasurer and the High School parent
representative for the 1.5 million dollar Magnet Schools Assistance
Innovative Program Grant, I am writing this letter today as a very
concerned Freeport parent. I am worried... Go
to Letter
SCHOOL BOARD DEFIES PUBLIC TO VOTE DOWN BOND AGAIN
March 18, 2000
Friday morning, March 17th at
10:30 a.m., the Freeport Board of Education held an emergency meeting,
which they claimed was for the purpose of discussing "a particular
matter of real estate." FreeportNYNews (FNYN) has learned that the official
district newspaper, the Leader, as well as Newsday were not notified of
this urgent "bond" meeting ...Go
to Story.
FREEPORTERS
VOTE NO CONFIDENCE $40,000,000 SCHOOL BOARD BOND DEFEATED
March 15, 2000
Freeport's residents spoke out today and defeated the ill-conceived and
foolish forty million dollar school bond.
Go
to Story
Board
Member Ellerbe and the Bond
March 2, 2000
At the hastily
called bond open house Board member Ronald Ellerbe, pictured here, represented
the School Board for most of the evening. His answers to some of the
residents questions left residents shaking their heads. Go
to Story.
FNYN
Photo
March 1, 2000
Assistant Supt. of Curriculum,
Dr. Tony Ciaglia, listens pensively with School Board members as the disastrous
results of the NYS Report Card are presented. As usual, the Board gave no
substantive notice to the public that the scores were being presented.
After the meeting, the Board illegally locked themselves in the
Administration building for an executive session.
Test
Scores Fall Among the Lowest on LI
Feb. 26, 2000
The estimated costs set forth in
the Plan may be reallocated among the various District buildings and
components of the Project if the Board of Education shall determine that a
reallocation is in the best interests of the District. Go
to Story.
High School Principal Northover Presides Over Chaos
• A Student Speaks.
February 23,
2000
... The student's name is withheld for obvious
reasons. Go
to A Student Speaks.
Honor
Society Inductions - Principal MIA - Moffett Goes Mute
February 16, 2000
When Supt.
Moffett was asked why it took three months to produce the minutes of
November 10, 1999 and November 22, 1999 she went mute...
Hall
of Fame Coach Gets Cold Shoulder
January 19, 2000
Renken was jealous of Haise’s popularity.
1999 Index
Freeport
Leader Prints Press Release As News
Dec 17, 1999
THE Freeport
Baldwin Leader is the local daily newspaper that many Freeporters depend
on for their local news. Go
to Story
Ciaglia
Granted Tenure
December 15, 1999
Dr. Anthony Ciaglia, the
acting Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, was rewarded for three
years of falling test scores and under achievement by being granted tenure
by the School Board.
Principal Lottie Taylor Northover
Overruled by Comm. of Education
December 12, 1999
Go
to Story
H.S.
PRINCIPAL NORTHOVER'S CONTRACT
Most People
Don't Even Think It's A Contract. Taylor's Contract
Supt.
Moffett's Contracts
December 12, 1999
Anger grows in
the community against an unfeeling and inconsiderate School Board, advised
by a renegade law firm, and presided over by an incompetent
Superintendent.
Moffett's
Contracts
Freeport School Board Keeps Truth
From Public, Again
Dec 12, 1999
ONCE AGAIN, the Freeport School Board has withheld information from the
district. Go
to Story
WHILE
THE COMMUNITY SLEPT, MESSER'S. GROVER AND RENKEN CHANGED THE LAWS THAT
AFFECT YOUR CHILD
Board
Pres. Grover, VP Renken and their Board removed a District Policy that is
based on one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the US
Constitution. Policies Removed By The Board
Grovernomics and Censorship Highlight
Planning Meeting
November 4,
1999
Oblivious to the reasons for the
Republican debacle of the just contested Nassau County elections, Dante
Grover and the Board Of Education continued their presentation of the
numbers for the upcoming $40,000,000 bond issue.
Go
to Story
