School Board Terminates Superintendent Contract, Looks To Do More

The last five years in the Greenburgh Central School District (GCSD) have been extremely tumultuous under the failed leadership of Superintendent Tahira Chase. She was hired to replace her boss, Superintendent Ronald O Ross, after charges of racism, harassment and abuse forced his termination. It appears that Trustee Terry Williams intervened to help Superintendent Chase be recommended to the professional search firm hired by the Board. There may have been others participating as well. Superintendent Chase then pulled her ex-mentor out of retirement and hired him as our as Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. All this set the stage for five years of “lipstick on a pig” programs and numerous sideshows, such as the Mansion “emergency” evacuation in August of 2019. Meanwhile, our buildings continued to crumble and our kids’ performance on standardized tests continued to be sub-standard.

 

Let us not forget that it was this Superintendent who also led a failed Consolidation Bond effort. The “Roadshow” to sell $200 million of debt to build new school buildings was publicly spearheaded by Superintendent Chase, Assistant Superintendent for Business Mary O’Neill, and Trustee Terry Williams. The resounding 2-to-1 defeat of the Consolidation Bond in 2019 awakened the stakeholder sleeping giant to send three very clear messages. First, running our school buildings into the ground and then asking for the largest bond in the history of Westchester County to build new ones is unacceptable. Second, student achievement should take precedence over new buildings and is a condition for stakeholder bond approvals. Third, the residents of GCSD are not interested in developing a brand or legacy for the Superintendent and a few long-serving Trustees!

 

The Board of Education election in 2019 brought two newcomers to the Board, Ashley Pineda and Tanya Dragic, finally ousting Lloyd Newman after 18 years on the Board. We are still “served” by Terry Williams who is in his 15^th year, and David Warner who is in his 13^th year on the Board. So much for term limits! However, it seems that the new faces were enough to bring about some change. The current Board President, Antoinette Darden-Cintron, recently sent out a message from the District stating, “The Superintendent's contract expires on June 30, 2021. The Board has determined not to extend that agreement or negotiate a successor agreement and we have begun the process of seeking a new Superintendent of Schools.” (See below document for the entire text). We applaud the Board for taking this action. We also applaud the Board’s hiring of Dr. Corey Reynolds as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum earlier this year. We believe that a new, professional and dedicated leadership is a first step to helping our kids learn.

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF SUPERINTENDENT CHASE’S PERFORMANCE:

 

The 2020/21 school budget:

The development of the 2020-2021 budget demonstrated that Superintendent Chase, supported by Terry Williams, remained deaf to the needs of the community, while trying to please a small group of supporters, such as the Friends of Greenburgh (FOG). The first draft of that budget started with an increase of over 4% from the previous year! Repeated pleas to curb the budget due to the economic devastation of COVID19 were ignored until a few days before the Board of Education had to vote to accept a budget. It was the behind-the-scenes intervention of certain community members with the Administration that brought the increase down to 1.3%. When asked about her personal salary increase in the budget, Superintendent Chase responded that it was “contractual”.  Same for the Assistant Superintendent for Business. Teachers, however, were asked to forego their contractual increases in order to save money for the district. What hypocrisy!

 

Wasteful Spending

In August of 2019, Superintendent Chase blindsided the Board at the beginning of their summer retreat by saying that the Mansion was unsafe and required immediate evacuation. The Board was not given ample time to react properly to this announcement. The Early Childhood Program (ECP) was promptly relocated to the Lee F Jackson school. The staff however, remained there for another month until the Superintendent’s new office suite was constructed in Woodlands MHS. The cost to move the administration from the mansion was over $250,000. Almost a year later, we learned from the condition report a month later that the mansion did not need a complete evacuation. Now the superintendent is trying again to manipulate a condemnation of this building by playing up the findings of an essentially benign air-quality report. Her shenanigans are a slap in the Board’s face and an affront to taxpayers. 

 

Where are the COVID 19 savings?

Everyone knows that the school year was truncated in March because of the COVID19 pandemic. What happened to unutilized funds for student transportation, after school programs, summer school and special programs from mid-March through August? Some transportation money, but not all, went for food distribution for eligible, needy students.  In addition, the district spent money for technology to support on-line instruction and for cleaning and disinfection, but where is the accounting for the money that was spent as well as the savings?

 

What about academic programs?

Multiple educational programs, such as iReady, Eureka Math, Science Fusion and Naviance have been purchased and then abandoned, wasting taxpayer dollars. Students did not have access to an advanced Physics Program during the 2019-2020 school year, and our very first cohort of IB kids was instructed to retake Chemistry! This glaring deficiency makes a mockery of our calling GCSD, “a world class school district” and undermines the alleged excellence conferred by participation in the International Baccalaureate program. 

 

Public allegations were anonymously raised in Fall 2019 regarding attendance problems and falsified grades of high school students. Results of the subsequent investigation have been withheld from the community. The excuse we're always told is, "This is a personnel issue and cannot be discussed publicly." Perhaps, but an outside agency was contracted to do this investigation for nearly $100,000 of our money. The taxpayers footing the bill have a right to know the results of an investigation that they paid for!

 

What about behavioral problems?

Are the schools, especially Woodlands MHS, a safe learning environment? Concerns have been raised by the community and parents about the lack of student discipline in the high school, including videotaped fights and violence against teachers. Questions have been raised about the accuracy of DASA reporting (Dignity for All Students) to the NYS Dept. of Education by the aforementioned anonymous allegations. There is no evidence that these concerns have been investigated and addressed.  

 

Teacher hiring, retention and morale 

During 2018/19, concerns were raised about the Early Childhood Program being a hostile work environment but the Director of that program remains in her position to this day. Highly qualified teachers are resigning from the district rather than enduring a hostile work environment. A large number of teaching staff have been mysteriously placed on “home assignment”, generating both staffing and supervision issues and fiscal concerns.

 

What’s our future?

The Board of Education must change! Those Trustees who have been in their positions for years are a big part of the problem. School Board elections will be coming around soon. It's time to clean house and elect more new blood, bringing in fresh thinking and fresh ideas to the Board. That’s how we'll get A Better Greenburgh School District.

GCSD Announcement: 

Greenburgh Central School District Vote Passes and Disappoints

In reviewing the numbers after an election of any kind held in Greenburgh, the apathy and blasé attitude of voters has reflected poorly on the vast majority. It seems that particular causes may unite a certain part of the citizenry, and there are groups in our community doing the same things at the local level.

The School Board elections and the School District’s budget vote took place after being delayed by NYS and rescheduled from May to June with a mail-in vote as opposed to an in-person vote at the polls. Good or bad, the numbers were somewhat the same as many more people had the opportunity to vote but again, did not bother to vote. It seems the only time we see a spike in voting is when there is a project(s) in a certain neighborhood that literally affects them in their backyard. Hence the term we’ve coined called OIMBY: Only In My Back Yard.

There are roughly 90,000 residents in all of the Town of Greenburgh. There are six Villages including an seventh possible new one with the Edgemont incorporation looming near. The Villages in the Town are Elmsford, Ardsley, Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown. Interestingly, they have their own elections yet are also allowed to vote in Town elections, which many feel is just seems wrong. But because of this, Mr Feiner and his Board play the Villages like a fine instrument to ensure no matter how much they touch that turns to crap for Unincorporated Greenburgh, Mr Feiner, et al, will get their votes to remain in office and not be held accountable or culpable for their misgivings, lies and illegal actions.

So, while we know there are 90,000 residents, we also know that not all can vote. Greenburgh School enrollment is about 1800 kids. So roughly speaking, without fact-checking the dual-parent vs single-parent households status, there could be up to 3600+ voters participating in a school vote. According to information provided by School District Clerk Ivy Krauss, the actual count of ballots that were distributed to registered voters was 16,563. The amount that was returned of votes cast was 3,594. So 78.3% of the voting population did not participate. Those voting for the budget approved it, 1,968 to 978, roughly a two-to-one victory. Or was it?

Out of those numbers there were 619 votes that were disqualified because the voters didn't read the instructions, understand the instructions or thought their votes would be counted regardless of what they did or didn’t do correctly. So 3.74% of the voters who thought they voted weren’t counted. A breakdown is as follows:
401: oath envelope not signed; 190: oath envelope not provided; 15: oath envelope contained extrinsic papers (ie more than one ballot); 9: ballot torn and/or defaced; 1: signature did not match that of the voter; 2: ballot was blank; 1: oath envelope did not contain any ballot. Apparently, everyone is okay with these amounts being dismissed. Why? Probably because the budget passed.

What we are struggling with is that out of 16,563 people who could vote, only 3,594 did vote - a slight increase from the usual amount. We’d have thought that those who don’t usually come out to vote would have thought this mail-in style voting would prove more convenient and garnered more votes – but that doesn’t appeared to be the case. In fact, statistics show that senior citizens typically vote against school budgets for a host of reasons. And, when the School District and the Administration pushed the ill-fated consolidation bond proposal, a two to one defeat was confirmed to be in part due to the senior citizens vote. And, knowing Mr Feiner has injected himself as the caped crusader of poor mail delivery, how much of the votes cast never made it beyond the mailbox they dropped it in? We may never know.

There was also a proposition to move money from one part of the budget to a reserve fund for maintenance and repairs. That passed with 2519 votes for and 445 against. Previous Boards have failed to adequately fund the repair budgets for years causing much disrepair of our school buildings and an excuse to consolidate. Still, the taxpaying public saw past the incorrect information provided and shot the consolidation down. The several proponents of the consolidation were Superintendent Chase, who appears to be trying to develop herself as a brand; Trustees David Warner and Terry Williams. In fact, both of these gentlemen have been on the School Board for years and hold responsibility for the lack of repair funding which has led to the degradation of the buildings. Could this have been a covert plan all along?

Two School Board members were running for re-election, Tracy Mairs and Ashley Pineda*. Ivy Kraus, the School District Clerk, shared the totals for their re-elections: 2441 and 2391 respectively. We have no problem with either candidate seeking a second term of office and believe they can make a difference in that period of time although we prefer term limits. We’ve seen Ms Mairs openly participate in school district related conversations but hardly ever witness Mr Pineda getting involved in the discussions. Granted this was his first year in the position and may taking some time to get up to speed and comfortable. As such, we believe he needs to step up his game.

Voting during this primary coincided with the School District/Board elections were fraught with problems. The voter sites that were trimmed back seemingly experienced problems that caused hours-long delays in voting. Some have claimed this falls in Mr Feiner’s lap. While we never hesitate being critical of Mr Feiner, it does not. But he did say he would write a letter or two to the appropriate parties involved. Translation: send a letter and out of his hands and done. Move on to his next contrived issue.

This election was rushed by the School District per the mandates of Albany and the Governor. While we're sure everyone involved tried their best, it still seemed unorganized to some extent. If this is the precursor to the November elections, we’re not hopeful that we’ll be seeing results on election night. This has to change and get better. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

* A one-year incumbent filling the balance of a term of a Board member who resigned and needed to run for the position.

An Open Letter To The Greenburgh Central School Board

Hello Ms. Darden-Cintron and fellow Board members,

I am writing to express my concerns with the proposed budget and increases.  With the fiscal stress and insecurity many are experiencing due to this unforeseen Coronavirus, it is imperative that the entire Board (and the Administration that answers to you), begin reducing it’s budget to ensure that all of our kid's education, while truncated in these unique times, continues.

The district should implement cutting the swollen budget by scaling down through attrition. It’s becoming apparent that trying to sustain the $73 million expense to educate fewer than 1,600 K-12 students is unrealistic, unprofitable and financially impossible. Like so many businesses and even the Greenburgh Town Board, the district should hold interactive Zoom meetings. (If not Zoom, then Skype or GoToMeeting, etc). 

The budget that was presented on February 27th called for a budget increase of 3.96% ($2,801,301).  Funding this amount calls for a 4.25% tax increase. This Board has proven time and again that it does not respect the mandates and wishes of the community, doing as it pleases. The Board seems to be proving that again with this proposed budget.

The Board needs to come to the realization that there's plenty of non-essential spending that can be eliminated or postponed, and thereby reduce the impact to our communities. This is the perfect time to perform a line by line review of expenses to see what can be cut. I found it astonishing that the Administrative staff was relocated to the High School on the whim of the Superintendent for a cost of $300k (approx), yet could not find this same money for needed repairs. This district had opportunities to work on the mansion, but preferred to allow its buildings to degrade. It’s time for this Board and administration to get back on track!

Now that many Greenburgh residents are being pushed out of work and are facing an April tax bill, this Board needs to take positive action and prove to the citizenry that you are able to put our money to optimum use. You should reverse any plans to exacerbate the difficulties we are currently facing by eliminating any budget increases!

I implore you to do the right thing and we will continue to support you and your efforts when you do.

Special School Board Meeting and Executive Session Slight of Hand

The Greenburgh Central School District's  Board of Education has posted a special meeting for this Wednesday night, Aug 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Mansion. Below is the agenda that should be discussed. Interestingly, at the end of it is a raise for the public relations firm the District has hired which begs the question why does the district need a public relations firm?

ABG highly suspects there are additional bond-related discussions that will occur based upon the facilities tour that was given this week. The severe physical deficiencies of the buildings and grounds were highlighted even though a few positive things were as well. Your attendance will be greatly appreciated. 

On a problematic note, the Board is expected to adjourn to executive session immediately after opening the meeting at 6:30. We have written about the obfuscation of information from this Board in the past. They apparently are still failing to recognize the $114 million bond being defeated months ago due to their glaring inefficiencies and false information presented to the public, is that the taxpayers expect, deserve and were promised openness. This is not how to go about rebuilding the trust they need to restore. There is nothing on the agenda that would indicate the need for an executive session.

What should be happening is that the meeting should open as usual and the agenda addressed with the public encouraged to speak and engage in dialog with their elected Board members. THIS is the place for that to happen. At the end of the evening, IF there is a reason to go into executive session, that reason should be clearly communicated and then they adjourn. They should not be forcing the residents/taxpayers to wait an undisclosed amount of time for the meeting to resume. Simply, this tact is just wrong.

Tanya Drajic and Ashley Pineda were recently elected to the School Board as its newest members and Lloyd Newland removed. The clear reason is that the public trust has eroded over time. David Warner, barely successful in being re-elected, said (we’re paraphrasing) that they have learned from this election and the bond defeat that we have to listen better and be more open with information. Tag David, you're it.

Several others on the School Board remained silent during the bond referendum fiasco, afraid that it would hurt constituents but also too afraid to publicly comment against it. Perhaps it's time for these people to vacate the positions and let some fresh thinking new Board members effect change without emptying the taxpayer's bank accounts. 

Finally, long-time Board member Terry Williams utilized his Board of Education email account and the Board's email list to push the Bond Referendum through emails because this was his vision. Advertising and pushing his vision is a blatant violation of the rules and laws he and all Board members are required to follow. Has there been any consequence after his mea culpa excuse? Doubtful. This disregard of the rules should not go unanswered nor unpunished.

Come to the Wednesday night meeting and tell them how you feel - after they waste your time going into executive session and leaving us in the lurch. It’s the only way to get A Better Greenburgh School Board. 

Agenda:

Bd of Ed Agenda- Wed Aug 28

Rescissions

Ashley Cruz- ECP Special Ed (declined appt)

Wesley Marshall- Soccer Coach (declined appt)

Teshaun Mondello, RN (decined appt)

Resignations

Danielle Berard- Special Ed ECP

Wesley Marshall- Special Ed Woodlands

Maria Walsh- science Woodlands

Jahneen Woodbury- ECP; transitioning to new position at ECP

Danielle Nash RN – Lee Jackson

Appointments

Sharon Harris- Music RJBailey

Stefanie Vataj- Special Ed ECP – to replace Danielle Berard

Jahneen Woodbury- Elementary ECP

Childcare Providers

·       Paulette Lambertson

·       Constance Rios

Regents Proctors- Aug 13-15, 2019

·       Jennifer Belfiore

·       Holly Gant Jones

·       Steven Rounds

Summer Guidance counselors- July1-Aug 27, 2019

·       Carolyne Almonte

·       Roberto Dominguez

·       Joe Foy II

·       Holy Grant Jones

Technology Support

·       Jonathan Lewis

·       William McLee

Substitute Monitors Woodlands/Elementary

·       Bryan Bencosme

·       Tyeisha Robinson

·       Thomas Wilson

Leave

Daphne Tone- Security Aide

Status Change

·       Fernando Santos- Security Officer Highview:Provisional to Probationary

·       Douglas Scarinci- Security Officer RJBailey: provisional to probationary

·       Lynbeth Thomas- Security Aide RJBailey; provisional to probationary

RFP

Concordant Communications- Public Relations  $50,579 (increase from $47,351 spent in 2018-19 school  year)

Meeting Unites Community

A meeting arranged by Civic Leader Patricia Weems took place inside the RJ Bailey School as she had hoped. You’ll recall that getting the proper paperwork in order had threatened to force the meeting to be held outdoors, which fortunately did not happen. There were about 30 to 40 people in attendance, including numerous community group leaders. The mood was somber but positive.

The evening’s discussion was moderated at Ms Weem’s request by Bishop Dr Wilbert Preston of the Christ Temple in White Plains. After a opening statement by Bishop Preston, to which he humorously lamented that as a preacher, he had to remember he’s not in church and to control his preaching. He introduced himself and some of the people in attendance: Patricia Weems; Solomon Schechter School’s Director, Michael Kay and Principal, Eric Bassin, a Woodlands graduate and GCSD Trustee David Warner, to name a few.

Once Ms Weems was given the microphone, she opened the discussion explaining she and others  were dismayed over what had transpired with a student from the RJ Bailey School at a recent Purim event at the Solomon Schechter School on W Hartsdale Avenue. While she had been somewhat vague, she stated unequivocally that this was not about anything the children had done. She also mentioned that the Greenburgh Schools Superintendent told her this trip was routinely signed off on and that there was no active participation from the Bailey principal.

Someone in the audience asked for an explanation of what had actually happened? Ms Weems explained that an RJ Bailey student participating at the Purim event had gone to a face-painting “booth” and requested his face be painted by a Solomon Schechter 11th grader as the Marvel (Spiderman) character, Venom. After painting the 4th grader’s face black, he finished by painting his lips red. Again, Ms Weems stressed this was not about what the child had done but questioned where were the adults supposedly supervising this? And, that it was insulting to all. When the youngster got back to Bailey, a teacher pointed out that this was wrong.

Solomon Schechter Director Kay requested the microphone and proceeded to explain the Purim event to the audience and that they have been doing this every year. While he admitted that with the number of students there, both visiting and their own, and the amount of booths they have set up for this event, it was difficult to monitor all of the booths. He said they realize in retrospect that they need to do a better job of monitoring the event and plan to do so in the future.

Director Kay also gave an example that had a child asked to have a yellow star painted on their face that they would have found that distasteful and unacceptable and intervene as they would be particularly sensitive to that. He admitted that after this event that they need to do a better job of chaperoning this. It was his hope that this event could be used to not only be a learning moment for them, but moving forward he was hoping to invite the administrations of the various area schools to their location and begin a dialog that allows everyone to get to know each other better. He was happy to offer the Solomon Schechter School for this initial meeting.

Recently re-elected Greenburgh Central School District Trustee David Warner was in attendance. He commented that no one initially saw the mistake and that everyone recognized the youngster as Venom, the character, and it was only after a teacher pointed it out did they realize what was wrong. To his credit, he said they would address this as the Board and looked forward to working with others to make sure this never happens again. With two new Board members, Tanya Dragic and Ashley Pineda to help him, we hope to see more inter-school interaction.

The meeting started out on a negative note but ended with a positive outcome. Others in the audience pointed out different groups in Greenburgh that deal with different issues such as Armed Services Veteran’s suicides, Holocaust and Human Rights and others. The point here is that Ms Weems opened a dialog with some of the people that should be able to continue moving the equation forward and make some long-lasting progress. It will only help to make A Better Greenburgh.

Vote Budgets and School Board May 21st - Interesting Week -updated

This week promises to be interesting if nothing else. This story has been updated.

First - Racism Alledged

Amid charges of racism, was a field trip by a fourth-grade class from the Bailey School that has been happening every year with the Solomon Schechter School to celebrate Purim. One definition we found online of Purim is: the jolly festival of Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar (late winter/early spring). Purim 2019 begins on Wednesday night, March 20, and continues through Thursday, March 21 (March 22 in Jerusalem). It commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day,” as recorded in the Megillah (book of Esther).

This year would prove no different as exposure to other religions, schools, and people seem to exemplify multi-culturalism. Here, a 12th grade Schechter student, part of the 12^th grade class hosting the Purim event, face-painted a Bailey 4th grade student as the Marvel character Venom. An online search showed numerous depictions of what the character Venom might look like. The charge is not that the youngster was painted in black-face with red lips by one child to another. Rather, neighborhood activist Patricia Weems maintains that the teachers were derelict in properly supervising the children and that public school kids should not be going to a Jewish school and participating in a religious event. We don’t know if this was billed as a religious event or a festival that obliges the Schechter students to practice their faith while maintaining a carnival-like atmosphere for the younger kids?

Update: We discussed this issue again with Ms Weems and she clarified her position. Apparently there were too few teachers present and not properly supervising the kids. Ms Weems felt the Superintendent, Principal for RJ Bailey and the teacher supervising the event were at fault and should be held responsible. During our discussion, which lasted about an hour, we discussed this being a teachable moment and that we could effect a change with this type of event specifically. She maintained that the school personnel should know better. 

Agree or disagree, there is a meeting  tentatively set for Monday night, the 20^that the RJ Bailey School on Hillside Avenue. Ms Weems requested Mr Feiner’s help. Mr Feiner should stay out of the Greenburgh School District’s business for three reasons: one, he offers no solutions; two, he was convicted of discrimination in the Fortress Bible Church case that we are still paying for; and three, he swept a discrimination complaint against Edye McCarthy under the table several years ago. https://abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2014/04/selective-racism-condoned-by-supervisor.html

The Bailey school event will be held outdoors if Ms Weems is unable to secure permits to hold the meeting indoors. 

Second - School Budget & Candidates

School Board elections and school budget elections are taking place this Tuesday, the 21^stat the Woodlands High School. This election cycle is for the $70 million budget, not to be confused with the bond that was previously proposed and shot down in a two-to-one vote by taxpayers, and for three new School Board members. There are two incumbents running whom we believe are no longer performing to expected standards and should be replaced. Tenure, while unspoken but oft-practiced in Greenburgh is not serving the public well. It does, however, effectively make the case for term limits.

Then there is the lack of information coming in a timely fashion from the District. We received a brochure from the school district last week that has cursory information about the budget but does have all of the candidates pictures and bio included. We think this might be helpful to voters. However, we weren’t the only ones dismayed by the late arrival of this information. One reader, whom we'll refer to as Bob, wrote to School District Superintendent Chase and we quote:

“We received a letter from you today, Feb. 6, 2019, regarding the Greenburgh Central School District Public Vote. The date of your letter is January 23, 2019. Your letter outlines a schedule of  Public Meetings regarding the 2019 Capital Project. The schedule dates are:

-Jan.24,Jan.29, Jan.31, Feb. 7

Clearly, the timing of your letter is not appropriately calibrated to sufficiently provide Taxpayers and Community Constituents with appropriate notice to attend these meetings. Your letter is dated the day before the first meeting! And, given realistic mailing times, it would be impossible to expect Taxpayers to receive your letter in a timely way to attend these meetings.

Would strongly suggest that you establish an additional series of these meeting, as well as discuss appropriate lead time planning for these types of communications with whoever is responsible for them. ” To which Dr 

Chase replied:

“Thank you for your message. Unfortunately, our postal system has not been too kind to district mailings. Knowing this, we added additional meeting dates to ensure all community members have the opportunity to participate in at least one meeting. Please open the attachment. I hope you are able to join us for one of the meetings. ” 

Really? The Post Office is at fault? This is akin to my dog ate my homework which would be unacceptable at every level by any teacher in any school. Why does Dr Chase feel this is an acceptable answer? It’s this type of cavalier attitude toward the taxpayers that make what’s being shoveled our way difficult to tolerate. Finally, Bob responded:

“Today, Friday May 17th, we received a newsletter from you and the Greenburgh School District that outlines details about the 2019/2020 School Year Budget and the vote for this budget on this coming Tuesday, May 21st. 

It is unacceptable for constituents to receive information of this importance to our community with virtually no notice to review and comment on the details in advance of a vote. 

This is not the first time that this has happened. In February, we wrote to you about virtually the same issue with respect to the Bond issue. 

I can tell  you from a "preliminary" review of the proposed budget today that we have multiple issues, and suggestions, about the composition of the budget and the positioning of the overall budget. Unfortunately, unless this vote is delayed, it is doubtful that you will  receive the type of feedback and input from Greenburgh constituents that is appropriate. 

I would like to understand why Greenburgh cannot send this vital information to voters / constituents in a more timely way (see below) so that appropriate consideration and diligence and review can be applied to this vital progress before we are asked to vote on one of the most important issues facing our community. 

Thank you, ”

The four other candidates that are running seem to hold more promise for the Greenburgh taxpaying stakeholders and our kids. We have previously written about the ones we feel will perform better for us. Let it also be said that spending taxpayer money is not a big part of our consideration when we chose. Read more about the candidates here: http://abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2019/05/greenburgh-school-board-forum-offers.html

Third (Could be Part One-b) - More Racism Alledged

We are also sure that Town Clerk Judith Beville will be in attendance. She has contended that she is being pushed out of the Town Clerk’s position by the Town Board. In a recent meeting with Ms Beville, she told us that she is the victim of racism against her by the Board and specifically Town Councilman Francis Sheehan. While we are unable to corroborate her accusations, given the history within the Town administrations from Mr Feiner on down, we believe there could be something to what she is saying. 

We have been critical of Ms Beville in the past as she sits on the Town Board work sessions and monthly meetings. Our criticism is that she constantly interrupts the proceedings with her own comments and opinions. Regardless of the validity, as the Town Clerk she is there to record the session, offer information when asked and work the ridiculous timer to keep residents from participating in their government meetings under three minutes. Since she is no longer on “Team Feiner”, it can only wonder what she did to force Mr Feiner to drop her from the ticket.

Being dropped from the Feiner ticket has happened before. We refer to it as being Sonya’d. For the uninitiated, Sonya Brown was a Town Board member originally supported by Paul Feiner until she stepped away from the Feiner reservation and was shunned while she completed her term and then tossed aside for Ken Jones in the subsequent election. So, no Board member is willing to give up the position simply by doing the right thing or going against Mr Feiner and risk being “Sonya’d”. Icing on the cake if you’re on “Team Feiner”: Mr Feiner pays for all campaign costs for candidates on his ticket with his campaign fund war chest.

Alfreda Williams, the former Town Clerk who was dropped by Mr Feiner for Ms Beville, went on as the hand-picked successor of Lois Bronz for County Legislator. While her effectiveness as County Legislator is unknown, Ms Williams performed adequately as the Town Clerk. Ms Beville touts a number of improvements that she’s initiated during her tenure. She claims many innovations, but while she stakes claim to expanding open government for example, Dial Democracy still doesn’t work (for years) under her control. 

She also claimed that she has hired professional staff. Here’s where it gets a little dicey. She had to hire replacements because several in her office didn’t like working for her and either transferred or quit. That was one of the reasons Francis Sheehan got involved with her staff, ultimately giving someone from her office a different position within the Town administration in order to not lose her skill-set. And while this person remains in the Town’s employ, Ms Beville disclosed the employee’s medical information to the public at a Board meeting. All of the Town Board members and the Town Attorney were telling her to stop because she was violating HIPAA guidelines as well as personnel matters which should not be disclosed to the public.

There are other things happening but let’s kick back and see what shakes out with budgets, the School Board changes and the upcoming year. Next up, November elections. Please get out and vote on Tuesday, May 21st. It will make for A Better Greenburgh.