School Board Trustee Schooled

 In a highly anticipated move, disgraced School Board member Terry Williams was officially removed from his position as School Board Trustee after a long, drawn out hearing by the district. Mr. Williams had spent 18 years as a School Board member but was removed by a vote of this current operating Board at its last official meeting before the newly elected Board members begin their three-year tenure. 

The hearing charges against Mr. Williams were brought about after numerous actions on his part forced the School Board into a position where they could no longer ignore what had previously been regarded as simply bad or boorish behavior. The hearing begin nearly two months ago, but Mr. William’s signature style of procrastination and logorrhea was never-ending. While he was certainly entitled to a defense, his actions seemed indefensible to many, as he stammered and stumbled through numerous missteps.

Mr Williams informed the Hearing Officer, Elena Cacavas, that he would represent himself while Special Counsel, Mark Mulholland, represented the School District.  Numerous times during the hearing (which is all posted on the School District’s YouTube channel for viewing) Judge Cacavas would stop Mr. Williams for his  violation of procedure or law, explaining that she was giving him a wide berth since he was not an attorney. In fact, numerous times during the hearing Mr. Mulholland would interrupt to suggest to the judge that Mr. Williams was actually hurting himself or not following courtroom procedure in lieu of simply objecting.  

Interestingly, during the hearing, while listening to a part of a Board meeting where Mr. Williams was present and Ms. Carey was participating via Zoom, an exchange took place between Trustee Carey and Trustee Williams at about the 20-minute mark. At that point, when Ms. Carey told Mr. Williams to "stop being childish” Mr. Williams made his typically caustic and rude comments which was enough for the judge to request the technician assigned to the hearing to replay the recording two additional times! At another point Mr. Williams even argued with the judge, who had already told him outright not to argue with her! 

 At the Board meeting of June 29 when outgoing Board President Antoinette Darden-Cintron asked for a motion to adjourn to Executive Session to deliberate the recommendation to remove Mr. Williams from his position, as recommended by Judge Cacavas, Mr. Williams objected, requesting to have the discussion in public. After the back and forth tug of war between Mr. Williams and Ms. Darden-Cintron which we have sadly come to expect, the motion was made, seconded and carried that they adjourn – which they did. Upon their return, Ms. Darden-Cintron called the meeting to order and publicly read the resolution they had just discussed in Executive Session. The charges made against Mr Williams were that he: (1) thwarted the Board’s search for a new Superintendent; (2) revealed confidential Executive Board session communications, (3) disclosed confidential student information and (4) disrupted school board meetings: 

“These findings and recommendations are based on an established pattern of intentionally antagonistic and inappropriate behavior, as well as the multiple intentional acts of impropriety by Mr. Williams, which have damaged the reputation and functioning of the board to the substantial detriment of the district it serves.” 

After Ms Darden-Cintron read the resolution, Mr Williams asked for a discussion. He hefted a stack of paper that appeared to be the size of two phone books onto the dais and complained about wasted taxpayer funds for this hearing, although he was unapologetic about trying to push through a bond that would have cost the district over $200 million dollars the year prior to the pandemic! While he was complaining, (he was also out of order since his comments were not related to the motion on the floor) Ms. Darden-Cintron called for a vote. The final tally was 5 in favor of removal,  one against (Williams) and one abstention (Warner). It’s difficult to fathom why Warner would abstain from voting. Could it have been related to an earlier incident, witnessed by many people, in the school parking lot when Mr. Williams backed his car out of a space nearly hitting Mr. Warner? Curiously, when this incident was brought up in the hearing Mr. Warner had a modified recollection of the actual occurrence. Whether he perjured himself or not, is up for debate. 

Mr. Williams’ comments also verbally attacked newcomer Trustee Tanya Dragic, who had made numerous campaign promises detailing what she would do to help improve the actions of the Board, the District overall and most importantly the education of our children. These are certainly laudable goals that Dr. Dragic has not lost sight of, nor have others on the Board. The Board has been unable to work on any of their intended projects since there has always been too much drama mass-produced by Mr. Williams at almost every meeting. He has nearly single-handedly thwarted the Board from making any real progress. (He got some help from Supt. Chase in that regard). Hopefully, now that he has been removed and she released from the District’s employ, they can begin “righting” the District and the education for our students. Dr. Dragic said she is relieved that this drama is over and she looks forward to doing the job she and the others have always wanted to do. 

Mr. Williams was always vocal about wanting a legacy of a consolidated campus and tried several times to achieve this, but failed. We applaud Mr. Williams for his time as a volunteer Board member and for giving so much time to the District. Unfortunately, after 18 years, it’s time to let others take over. The recent election accomplished the needed change of leadership, ensuring that had this decision from the hearing not been rendered, Mr. Williams would no longer be a Trustee. 

Had Mr. Williams resigned when the charges against him were made, the district would not have needed to spend the money on the hearing. But with all of the missteps, poorly spent monies and misguided actions the previous Board made (such as the former Superintendent grandstanding with the media to force the Mansion to be evacuated, having offices constructed in the Woodlands High School for staff and herself, and consciously allowing our existing school buildings to degrade to make a better argument for consolidation) the money spent on the hearing is a drop in the proverbial bucket!

A long career has come to an end for Mr. Williams and we wish him well. Board President Antoinette Darden-Cintron was not re-elected in this last election and is stepping down, as is Ms. Carey who chose not to run again. We also thank them for their years of service to the District and hope they will remain engaged with the District. 

We have high hopes that more parents and community members without children in the schools will get involved with the District and participate by not only paying taxes and sending their kids to school, but also participating with school events whether their kids are in them or not. We hope that before we start other new language initiatives, such as our Mandarin Language curriculum, that we can improve the test score grades for Math and English from the current 35% to something much higher. We hope that before an International Baccalaureate  program happens, the teachers are properly prepared to teach it and can do it justice. We need the basics of the "3R’s- Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic " to be mastered before we start programs we cannot sustain. We need test scores to improve to the point that people looking to move to Greenburgh are not looking at alternative schools for their kids. 

That’s how we’ll get A Better Greenburgh School District.

Moving The Greenburgh School District Forward

The School Board trustee elections and the School Budget vote have been completed, and a new Superintendent hired despite the sabotaging of an offer made to another candidate, it’s time for the School District’s Board of Education to get down to business. 

To do this, all “sides” must be able to bury their campaign animosities and work as one, even as the distractions of the current Board are still in the forefront. Specifically, the hearing to remove 18-year School Board Trustee Terry Williams, who coincidentally, lost in this past election. Obviously, the writing is on his wall since the public has seen through his antics and decided, “No more.” 

As they say in those infomercials on TV, “But wait there’s more...”

 

During the campaigning portion of the elections, a group known as the Friends of Greenburgh (FOGs) campaigned to maintain the status quo. Specifically, they continued seeking campus consolidation even after that proposed construction bond had been defeated by a nearly two-to-one vote. They also continued fight to extend the expiring contract of Superintendent Chase, despite the serious flaws in her performance. An unofficial (yet apparent) icon for the FOGS was School Board Trustee Terry Williams, who has been entrenched as a School Board trustee for 18 years! He exemplifies a valid reason for term limits! 

Currently, Mr Williams is the focus of a hearing to have him removed from the School Board for failing to adhere to the School Board rules and regulations as well as NY State Department of Education’s laws for School Board members. Specifically, it’s alleged that he, in addition to ongoing disrespect of otherBoard members and possible assault, disclosed privileged information from an Executive Session meeting about an employee to that employee!

 

As the School Board awaited a plan from the Superintendent to get students back into the schools, that became almost impossible. What kind of motivation to get the kids back into the classroom would the soon-to-be-terminated Superintendent have when she knows that she's going to lose her job? So, as time dragged on, so did the submission of a return-to-classroom plan. Most people don't realize that a “return to school” plan must be developed by the Superintendent and then submitted to the School Board for approval, followed by implementation. 

Leading up to the elections, the FOGs continued to push their “status quo” agenda by attempting to disparage the current Board members, utilizing a series of negative attacks on various social media channels. The one thing that the FOGs did get correct was about the drive and determination by Dr Tanya Dragic, one of the latest Board members who was elected along with Ashley Pineda two years ago. Dr Dragic made many claims during her campaign about what she intended to do to try to improve the Board’s operation, the student’s grades, condition of the District’s schools and optimizing the budget wherever and whenever possible. Mr Pineda has not been as vociferous as Ms Dragic and seemingly not as assiduous or as open in attempting to improve this Board. Perhaps his is simply a different style, but we hope that he is as committed in making improvements. Hopefully he agrees with what the Board has been striving for under the leadership of President Antoinette Darden-Cintron. 

This Board continues to struggle at Board Work sessions, Executive sessions and Regular Public sessions. This struggle is largely due to an amalgamation of issues maintained by Mr Williams, the Superintendent, and to a lesser degree David Warner who had aligned himself with Mr Williams. Their splintered agenda has prevented the current Board from moving the bar forward and improving the education of our District’s children. The Greenburgh school district has floundered with poor choices for Superintendents for so long, it would be a Herculean task to get our schools back on track even without having outside and inside forces that are counter-productive to improving our buildings and the instruction for our children. 

We all know that this otherwise problematic mix has been exacerbated by the pandemic which effectively shut down our kids learning for more than a year. Parents, as well as doing their own jobs while forced to work from home, had to oversee schooling their children. Other parents even had to quit their jobs to stay home with their children as they were unable to work from home. It’s safe to say that teachers will no longer need to discuss why little Johnny is doing poorly in school during parent-teacher nights. They now know first hand how their child behaves and performs in school. 

But wait, there’s more.

A recent FaceBook-looking post appeared to come from the School Board entitled, “GCSD BOE Whats [sic] Going On,” with a sub-headline, “You Never Know What You [sic] Got Until Its [sic] Gone.” In this post, posted anonymously, the writer states that they just watched the appointment of Superintendent Chase to the Westbury Union Free School District and it was nothing short of a coronation. Her Greenburgh “accomplishments” were touted and all the school board members voted in favor to hire her. Apparently, they were not dismayed by our 35% Math and English scores on state assessments, the failed International Baccalaureate program, the failed Mandarin program, or the exodus of students from our public schools to private and parochial schools. 

The post is so similar to the complaints voiced repeatedly by Mr. Williams through the years, one can’t help but believe that he penned this piece. The writer touts the numerous references to these supposedly heralded programs as stated by Mr. Warner at this same Westbury School Board meeting. Huh? Mr. Warner is certainly within his legal right to speak on behalf of anyone although we believe his attendance and remarks at the Westbury Board meeting was an ethically poor choice.  He is still a GCSD Board member and, as such, he should have kept his opinions to himself.

The writer also refers to first-time Board member Tanya Dragic as the “puppet master” of the Board. Such a ridiculous statement belittles the other 5 hardworking and independent thinking Board members. (Did we not say before that he is charged with being disrespectful to fellow Board members?) What Ms Dragic did was question the actions taken regarding the consolidation bond effort and to fight the dream upon which Mr Williams has staked his entire 18 year school board tenure. Regardless of whether you consider Mr Williams a visionary or loose cannon, the public voted down the consolidation bond with a nearly two-to-one margin once the true facts and monetary figures were divulged. The public, who are the TRUE Friends of Greenburgh, made the requisite effort to provide the due diligence that neither the Board nor the FOG's bothered to do. So while the writer on FB states that, “(the bond) came closer to passing with more interest and support than the previous three bonds floated...” it was still once again resoundingly defeated. Instead of acknowledging the will of the community and moving on, certain community and Board members and the Superintendent choose to insist that the bond was defeated because they did a poor job of selling it to us. What really happened is that they underestimated the intelligence of the taxpaying public who have been passing school budgets each year in a show of support of our schools. 

The writer then moves on to malign newly elected Trustee Kiana Washington by making false claims that she had been fired as a school administrator. This simply is not true. The rest of the diatribe that the writer rambles on about could be capped as the season finale of the TV show Fringe. 

Now that Mr Williams will be departing and three new Trustees will join the School Board, let’s hope they will all work together, along with our newly appointed Superintendent, for the betterment of the education of our children, the betterment of our school buildings , and the betterment of our School Board and District.  We pay a tremendous amount of money for the education of our children. Let’s make it pay off. It’s how we’ll get A Better Greenburgh School District.

GCSD: Past Due

It’s tough to run a school district that burns through teachers and Superintendents faster than a McDonalds serving Big Macs, but Greenburgh needs a change - and fast! We continually witness failures of the district, spearheaded by Superintendent Chase and long time School Board members such as Terry Williams. Their costly agenda of campus consolidation and higher taxes offered nothing that could deliver an improved education for our children. Three of the seven Board of Education members have been Trustees for many, many years. The longest serving member is Terry Williams who is again running for re-election. The next longest is David Warner who was reelected to another 3 year term last year. The third long-serving trustee, Cora Carey, is last but not seeking re-election.

The district has gone through several Superintendents in a row who have had either legal or ethical issues or both. They have all failed the district and our students. Without orchestrating a solid and/or improved education, the ever-diminishing test results of the students highlights their failures.

The District’s website states that it’s vision is, “By 2021, we will be a world-class school district” and defines “World-Class” as a district that works, “To help our students compete and function as citizens in a global society, our efforts should include global elements, such as a world languages program and the Advanced Learning Program, and we should refine and expand existing initiatives such as our International Baccalaureate program.” Although this sounds impressive, it’s just a hollow statement. Just as impressive as this hollow statement is the failure of these oft-touted programs and their inability to take hold. How is this possible? We’ve been told by both students and parents that the IB program teachers were unprepared or unable to teach the required coursework–so they didn’t. In addition to this deficiency, the school was unable to offer college prep courses such as Physics and students were told to instead take two Chemistry classes.

English Language Arts has faltered despite knowing that immersion in English is a proven, successful standard adopted throughout the world for over a century - just not in Greenburgh! Similarly, math scores continue to tank, yet the Superintendent continues to insist that Greenburgh is a world class district! Incredibly, no child is ever left behind in the Greenburgh Schools. Each year they move up the grade ladder until they finally collect their high school degrees and graduate. This practice needs to end, no matter how catchy the “No Child Left Behind” jargon, or how convenient it is to graduate all of the students. Many staff have been intimidated and therefore go along with these practices, not wishing to fall out of favor with the administration which would jeopardize their livelihood. Could this be why we experience a high turnover of teachers in our schools?

There is a high turnover of mostly new teachers in our schools. We’re told that a toxic administrative culture and a lack of investment with the teachers are the primary reasons. Most schools and districts provide mentoring programs for new and young teachers so that they can better assimilate into the schools and develop into better teachers. Why hadn’t Superintendent Chase promoted this basic program? She had no problem promoting the sale of existing buildings and building new ones. But, buildings don't teach students, teachers do!

What of the Greenburgh Central School District's Board of Education under the leadership of President Antoinette Darden-Cintron? The reality of her leadership is that she has increased transparency and the responsiveness of the Board, something that has been a long-time struggle to attain. Now, when you send correspondence to the Board (emails in particular), you receive a response either the same day or the following day. I've even received phone calls from President Cintron-Darden! Kudos to her! Months ago, the School Board did not vote to renew the Superintendent's contract, in effect, terminating her employment as of June 30th of this year. 

Once the Superintendent learned (from Trustee Terry Williams?- if so that would be a violation of confidentiality rules) her contract would not be renewed she began shrewdly dragging her feet, thwarting efforts to return the students to full-time in-school classes. She has cleverly dodged questions about returning to classrooms full-time by saying she was following recommendations from the CDC, not the NYS Department of Education. We understand she’s upset and perhaps even want to get even: she'll be losing roughly $300,000 per year in salary and benefits. But there's no need to feel sorry for her: we’ve lheard she has been hired by another district.

It’s been said that education is the elixir of success. While there is certainly enough blame to go around, we must also blame ourselves. We forgot what our grandparents and parents expected our schools to offer us when we were children. Our children deserve a well-rounded education that will enable them to think for themselves, earn a living and be productive in the “real” world. Not only have we dropped the ball, but we have been lackadaisical about correcting the undesireable circumstances we’ve seen unfold over the years.

Parents and taxpayers must make it known to the Greenburgh School Board of Education that they have failed to earn our trust. President Cintron-Darden has worked hard to change that with the current Board. Terry Williams and David Warner have fought her tooth and nail. In fact, the Board is currently holding hearings to remove Terry Williams from his position due to his repeated violations of numerous Board rules and laws. If he fails to successfully defend himself against the charges, he will be removed. If he is victorious at the hearing and retains his position, he should be voted out of office by the taxpayers at the May 18th election. He’s dragging out the hearing, however, and the result may not be known before the May 18th election. Even if he wins his case, the unprecedented attempt of removal indicates that he has failed his responsibilities as a Trustee. We, the people, must make sure that he is not re-elected.

It is time we force the entire Board to step up their game and it’s time for us to do the same. Let’s stop lip-syncing the phrase, “For the children!” We cannot look to or imagine the future if we’re too focused on ideas of the past. It’s time we make a significant change and remove the long time trustees who have wallowed in their own self-grandeur and archaic functionality.

We need new ideas, new blood and new people to propel our children into the future, to repair and maintain our buildings and to become a school district that attracts people instead of repelling them. That’s the only way to get A Better Greenburgh School District!

Using Deceit To Advance A Vision

In trying to follow the Greenburgh Central School Board’s efforts, we go to the district website that houses the agendas and minutes for the Board’s meetings. While some information can be gleaned from the site, there seems to be more missing than included. For instance, when we read the minutes of the Treasurer’s report, it simply says the treasurer’s report was accepted without any dollar figures provided. This is but one example of the information missing from the minutes. As we were seeking to confirm something we had heard and posted in a March 24th article (soon after the school bond’s defeat), we began digging for information on Superintendent Chase’s and the Board’s desire to look into floating another bond referendum for a new grades 3-8 building and school campus consolidation. We could not find the information we sought other than they believed they incorrectly communicated the plan to the public and that’s why it was defeated. If they meant that they lied by omission, left pertinent information out and contradicted the NYS Board of Ed website’s information, then they were finally correct. Simply, it was way too much money for the District taxpayers to afford!

When we reported our concern about another bond referendum, that concern was quickly dismissed as untrue. But in the April 11, 2019 minutes, it was right there in black and white. See the red arrow in the image below pointing to David Warner, who detailed their next move to hire and work with the company ThoughtExchange(com). ThoughtExchange is a well-established company that provides an on-line platform to obtain opinions from the community. They have been known to facilitate planning leading to success of large bond offerings. In discussing this company, a staffer referred to them by saying, “It sounds more like Thought Control.” Make no mistake, this appears to be the strategy of Dr Chase, Terry Williams and David Warner after the overwhelming 2-to-1 defeat of the school bond consolidation referendum in March. Is this part of the reason the District continues to retain a Public Relations company?



Suddenly, two days before school was scheduled to start, Dr Chase informed the School Board that the Mansion, the Administrative Building, which also housed the Early Childhood Program classes on the Warburg campus, was uninhabitable and structurally unsound. And the causes we were told that made the building unsafe? Roof leaks. General maintenance that either was not performed or proposed as a bid and offered by a bond to the taxpaying community appears to be done as a matter of routine.

How is it possible that this dire emergency was not discovered during the summer months while the building had minimal personnel and no children using it? How could the condition of the roof and subsequent internal damage have gone undetected and uncorrected prior to the need to declare the building unsafe? This declaration seemed to be more sensationalism than fact. And talking about sensationalism, wait until we start talking about the costs associated with the move out of the building and relocation into others!

In discussing the building’s issues with professional property managers, we were told that a competent engineer would state the problem, identify the causes and more importantly, identify the solutions. In this situation, it was Dr Chase who provided the solution by stating everyone who in the Mansion would be relocated to other district facilities. The three early childhood program’s classes were immediately moved. The staff proceeded to work there for another whole month. In fact, when we visited the facility the day after Dr Chase’s declaration of the emergency evacuation, we found two workers in one of the classrooms. When asked why they were in an unsafe building, they said they were just “following orders.” How unsafe could it be?

So, who else is just following orders? The roof can be repaired and the leaks stopped, but we never hear or see a solution proposed from ANYONE on the Board or in the Administration, just the ever-increasing “the sky is falling” mantra and the call to sell/destroy/consolidate these buildings. Each time we’ve tried to talk to Mr Falcone about any buildings, he always seems to have someplace to go or a phone call to take. We’d like to think this is genuine but perhaps he’s also under orders to stay mum? But we will continue to reach out and talk to people in the district about the schools.

We recently learned of a girl doing home schooling because the physics classes she needs are unavailable to her at the school. Asking around, we were told that a temporary Physics teacher was offered a reduced salary and subsequently turned down the position. How many other students are suffering from this malady? We understand that they’ve suspended Mandarin language instruction for a lack of teachers. Then we learned that there were disciplinary incidents reported the NYS Board of Education. When we dug further, we found that the reporting and classification system has been changed and that the number may be much higher than we’re hearing! We also heard that Resource Officers (school-speak for guards) and numerous teachers have left due to hostile work environment complaints. Our difficulty however, is finding someone who will speak with us on the record. If there truly are more disciplinary actions taking place at the high school, is it wise to consolidate the lower grades to the high school campus? Doubtful.

A flurry of anonymous emails were circulated to district residents starting in early October which discussed issues in the schools. They continued for a month or so. The first email seemed to challenge the replacement of supposedly outdated equipment at the school, specifically, the Smart Boards that are used now instead of old-fashioned chalk boards. These emails questioned the fate of this soon to be replaced equipment and if sold, what of the money raised and how would it be used? Then robo calls started asking community members to participate in a demonstration at the Board of Ed meeting. The robo calls and emails began making demands to investigate Dr Chase and one of the school’s Principal. While we received these emails and robo calls, attempts to verify them could not be made so we have not published them. But some interesting questions were posed. So much so that Dr Chase sent a letter to school district residents bemoaning all of what was being said. Perhaps there is some truth in it...

Most School Board meetings contain a public comment portion. The Board always adjourns to Executive Session to discuss “personnel issues”. These executive sessions typically last for two to three hours after which the Board returns to conduct other business – mostly approval of those items discussed in secret in Executive Session. Why is the majority of their discussion conducted out of view of the public? Is it because their leadership is incapable of running a good meeting or is it because of a need to keep their deliberations out of the public eye? What would be the sentiment of the taxpaying community if these deliberations were held publicly? We’ve been critical of the conduct of the meetings in this manner. We believe Public Comment and all other business should be discussed openly first and Executive Session should be last to accommodate the public who attend these meetings to learn what is going on with their school district and their schools. That would also allow the paid district staff who record the meetings to get off work (they get either overtime or compensatory time for these late-night meetings).

Things need to change with the School Board, the School Superintendent and administration that answers to them, the public with an increased involvement and more transparency. That’s how we’ll get A Better Greenburgh School District.