Talent Show Scheduled, Opposition Member Threatened, A Failing Grade

We’ve readily admitted that Greenburgh School Superintendent Chase is a dynamic personality. She’s also very smart. As the referendum proposal supporters encounter more and more resistance from the community, they keep dropping back and regrouping. We keep digging in and writing about it. Armed with real information, those against the referendum proposal have been exposing the flaws in what little has been presented to the public. But Dr Chase needs this win. It’s her and the Board’s legacy. So in a move right out of another School District’s play book, she has scheduled a Talent Show for Tuesday night (tomorrow) at the Woodlands High School to ensure that parents will be in attendance to vote. What it doesn’t ensure is that they will vote in favor of it.

ABG now has learned that a bond supporter has threatened an opposition member because they received an unsolicited email containing a flyer from concerned citizens stating facts regarding the referendum bond proposal to Vote No. What hasn’t happened thus far from the School Board or the supporters is an explanation with a detailed plan of what they want to do with costs and real figures attached to it. Why have they purposely remained obscure about all of this? We believe there is something amiss. But more importantly, why threaten someone over an unwanted email? Their claim was that the GBList was used. That person is correct. There have also been robo calls to everyone and there haven't been any threats made over that.

As one of the interested parties in the GBList lawsuit, ABG as well as many civic associations felt handicapped in getting information to affected parties when Mr Feiner would do one of his email blasts. Specifically, this happened during the GameOn 365 assault on the Worthington Woodlands community. What was frustrating to all of us was that Mr Feiner had been compiling this list under the auspices of the Town, using it for Town email notifications and to push his own views on GameOn 365 and other topics. Everyone involved felt there often needed to be clarification, explanation or elaboration of points he was making. To that end, we decided to go to court.

A suit was filed. The courts found in our favor. We could access the list through the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) but could not use it for political or commercial purposes. In fact, Mr Feiner has said, “In 2014 the town lost a lawsuit and was ordered by the courts to release our glist emails to those who asked for the lists. The lawsuit was actually filed by a leader of one of the civic associations. It’s been given out over the past 5 years to those who have filed a freedom of info request. We do not break down the email addresses by school district or by individual addresses.” He is correct, they do not. So if someone received the email from those against the referendum bond proposal, it was strictly to offer information not presented by the School Board. They were not singled out nor could they be.

The School Board has brought this problem unto themselves. They originally decided in December to hold a bond vote in February, when many snowbirds are not in the area or the frigid weather would keep many home. That planned backfired. They rescheduled the vote for tomorrow. There has been even more push-back than before. The cost has been reduced two times and their final figure remains at $114.6 million for 30 years, approximately $840 per single family homeowner for 30 years. That's in addition to the regular school district taxes. They’ve claimed that figure includes the interest but the NYS Board of Educations facts and figures shows an additional $84 million, giving us a real figure of $198.6 over 30 years. They claim the opposition people are wrong. When someone says they’ve lost our trust, they say it wasn’t them, it was the old Board. Sorry, but as the same old taxpayer, you can’t have it both ways. This debacle is on you!

Too many questions remain unanswered or poorly answered with this referendum bond proposal. Even if it had been a stellar plan, this School Board has failed. The plan gets a failing grade, the School Board gets a failing grade and the School Administration gets a failing grade. We urge the voters - the true stakeholders in all of this - to turn down this proposition. It doesn't mean we don’t want to plan for the future. It just means we want to be a part of it. Yes, we usually do it for the children. This time let’s do it for the children and their families so they can stay in their homes and still afford to go to our schools. It's how we’ll get A Better Greenburgh.