Poking A Sleeping Giant

The School Board’s dream of having one campus on the Warburg property was defeated by a wide margin of Greenburgh School District voters on Tuesday. The final tally is 1,257 (35.5%) in favor and 2,284 (64.5%) against the proposal, with a difference of 1,027 votes against. That’s a significant amount of votes! Dr Chase was quoted in a statement saying, “Although we are disappointed in the outcome of our Capital Project vote, we are unbowed in our determination to improve our school surroundings and the education of our precious students. I am humbled by the massive turnout, and I respect our community’s decision."

Humbled? She should be embarrassed. And, there’s that word again, respect. It was the one thing that appeared missing during many of the meetings as Dr Chase, the primary moderator for the “information sessions”, chose to brush past questions raised by the very concerned taxpayers, telling them their 2-minutes were up and to let others have their turn to speak. While this may work well for her in a school environment, the stakeholders for all of this deserved better. Instead of trying to shut residents down, she should have embraced them. She did not. Had they been open and transparent with all the facts & figures to all the GCSD residents from the start of this proposal, maybe the outcome would have been different. Respect.

Then there’s the issue of the School Board’s questionable behavior during this entire event. At first they remained silent except when Dr Chase introduced them and other employees, educators, students, former students, parents of students and others in attendance who favored the proposal. While it’s nice to have a packed audience, it seemed there were more employees and Board members than the residents these sessions were designed to inform. We have maintained as the opposition’s voice grew, “running out the clock” became more and more prevalent at these meetings. So, not only was valuable time eaten away with introductions, accolades and anecdotal stories, but the 2-minute limit was strictly adhered to unless the speaker had something in support of or in favor to say about the proposal.

On the evening before the vote, Trustee Terry Williams used the Greenburgh School District email to send an email to residents asking them to vote yes for the proposal. This is clearly in violation of the law. Yet after he made sure his message was sent, he later cried mea-culpa begging forgiveness for using the wrong email account. We don’t buy it. He has been a Board member and even President for far too long to not realize what he was doing. He should at least be reprimanded for this action and possibly removed from the Board. They’ve poked a sleeping giant with this proposal. We’re sure that potential candidates are being solicited to change the makeup of the Board. It's time.

Contrary to finding excuses that bemoan the victory by those opposed to this proposition, there is little solace in this otherwise hollow victory. What the majority said was no to moving forward with this idea, but recognize that the buildings still need attention. To what level remains the uncertain. We believe many conditions were thrown into the mix to validate the proposal’s urgency. Some might otherwise remain dormant and able to be addressed in a more planned and scheduled fashion. Perhaps now the School Board, flaws and all, Dr Chase and others will work in concert with us. Mr Falcone, who seemed open and honest during these events, should discuss building needs with everyone and detail the emergency needs, would-like-to-haves and the can-wait-to-haves. Then maybe we can discuss a plan of attack that will accomplish what we all want: A Better Greenburgh School District.