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.
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