Dear Members of the Board of Education

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a former member of this Board, I write with growing alarm about the district’s apparent unwillingness to rein in its ever-expanding financial appetite.

The newly adopted budget reflects a 3.03% increase over last year, bringing district spending to roughly $87 million for approximately 1,700 students. That translates to more than $50,000 per student per year, a level that rivals what families pay for private school. Yet this district does not deliver results that justify such extraordinary spending. Its performance remains modest at best, while taxpayers are asked year after year to shoulder an ever-higher burden.

This is happening at a time when families are already under significant financial strain. Town taxes, utility costs, fuel, food, and the general cost of living continue to rise, while wages do not keep pace. In that environment - which will only worsen with the current geopolitical situation - the Board’s repeated answer cannot simply be to raise the levy again, and again.
Just as troubling is the broader effect on the community. A district with high taxes, rising per-pupil costs, and only middling outcomes does not strengthen local property values; it depresses them. It makes the community less attractive to prospective buyers, less affordable to current residents, and more vulnerable to long-term decline. A school district cannot preserve itself by steadily weakening the tax base on which it depends.

Where is the serious public discussion of consolidating building use, rethinking transportation patterns, aligning staffing with enrollment realities, reevaluating the district’s heavy reliance on costly special education placements and services, and pursuing real operational efficiencies? Where is the evidence of strategic thinking equal to the scale of the problem? Fiscal stewardship requires more than approving annual increases rooted in "wish lists".

If the Board shows itself incapable of engineering a structure that is educationally effective, financially sustainable, and fair to the broader community, then more fundamental alternatives will inevitably enter the public discussion.

Sincerely,

Tanya Dragic

Is GCSD Serving ALL Children

Brief History Greenburgh Union Free School District #13

It’s important to note Greenburgh Union Free School District #13 was dissolved by a specific state law that transferred its territory into the Irvington UFSD and dealt with employees, debt and records.

NYS Dissolution Law

There's a separate New York local government dissolution law, but it doesn't apply to school districts. New York’s government reorganization and citizen empowerment act lets residents petition and vote to dissolve villages towns etcetera by referendum. Shall we dissolve? It was a state level statute, although local input obviously mattered. 

Before the population growth of the 1950’s, the enrollment in Greenburgh’s many school districts were individually small. Edgemont-Greenville (aka #5) and Hartsdale (aka #7) were too small to support High Schools. Instead, they planned with neighboring school districts to “tuition in” their high school age students. Greenburgh (aka #8) periodically retained its high school classes. The senior class of 1939 had 31 students. It was clear maintaining a high school was financially impractical and the district returned to the practice of sending High School students to White Plains.

Hartsdale Not Approved

From the April 1967 Hastings News: NYS Education Commissioner Allen writes that he will not approve Hartsdale plans to build a high school because of its small enrollment, fewer than 400 high school students and instead encourages mergers. Irvington school district rejected applications from Hartsdale families who seek to send their children to that high school. Hartsdale Board of Education offers to accept some low-income housing units in Hartsdale and is accused of “tokenism.”

Woodlands Designated 

In May of 1967, the Hartsdale Board of Education designated Woodlands as the high school for the 1967-68 school years, but also gives parents the right to send 10 through 12th graders to any Westchester County high school with Hartsdale paying out of district tuition up to the amount that would have been paid to Woodlands. Hartsdale appeals to New York Board of Regents to reject SED Commissioner Allen’s decision and instead to substitute 5/6/7 merger for 7/8.
Warburg Estate: Can of Worms 
May of 1967 was pivotal. The decision to give parents the right to send their children to any Westchester County High School was an excellent decision. But next up was the donation of the Warburg Estate property, which opened the can of worms that we currently have today. Aging buildings scattered across four campuses. Less than 1,600 students are enrolled in the school district. The current cost of running the Greenburgh Central School district is $85,000,000 a year. This district does not serve the Hartsdale population of children. We are at a crossroads that residents have avoided for years. 

100 Graduates A Year

Currently 100 students graduate each year from Greenburgh Central School District. Most Hartsdale children do not graduate from this school district. Why? At an approximate cost of $85,0000 per student to run an underperforming school district that doesn’t serve Hartsdale residents should spark curiosity. But it doesn’t. Parents in Hartsdale realize K-1 in GCSD is fine to buy them time to shop around for a private school or to sell their homes to find a better school district. Many quietly find private schools, keep their mouths closed and continue to pay taxes for a failing district. Unfortunately, that increases yearly without qualification or validation. 

The racial breakdown from the New York State Education Department on Greenburgh Central School District Enrollment is: 48% Hispanic, 38% Black, 10% white, 6% Asian and 1% or two or more races.
Two Freedom of Information Law Requests were filed with the Greenburgh School District revealing the following:
From 2010-2024 95 children transferred out of Lee F. Jackson Elementary (K-1 ).
From 2010-2025 192 children transferred out of 6th Grade from the Richard J. Bailey Elementary school.

A F.O.I.L. filed with Town of Greenburgh Clerks office revealed:
From 2020-2023- Greenburgh School District Late School Tax Penalties amounted to
School penalty          Greenburgh Town/ County penalty
2020 $1,274,634.66    $445,809.03
2021 $1,411,120.06     $739,131.88
2022 $1,123,529.65    $395,869.07
2023 $ 1,422,129.50    $374,273.31

The financial burden of over $7,000,000. in penalties distributed.l Does this seem like taxpayers could afford to pay the school taxes that increase each year, as enrollment number continues to decline? Taxpayers would find their money well spent if vouchers were issued, aging schools buildings sold, and school choice for ALL parents. It’s the only way we’ll get A Better Greenburgh!

— Greenburgh Action Alliance

F.O.I.L.ed Once, Overtaxed Everytime

My property taxes went up again this year, and instead of fleeing (just yet), I decided to fight. To understand how assessments are calculated, I filed a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request this past August. I asked for three things: the raw data used to generate assessments, the modeling methodologies, and whether the modeling is conducted in-house or outsourced. What followed was a months-long bureaucratic obstacle course. First, I was told the request would take up to eight months to fulfill. Then I was informed I would need to pay $376 for 1,500 printed pages. Only after pushing back and citing the law was I permitted to bring in a thumb drive and receive the 1,500 pages electronically. To decipher what I received will require spending an entire weekend (at least) parsing the documents through ChatGPT, then manually verifying every interpretation. Fellow citizens, that’s not transparency. That’s obstruction. And it’s what compelled me to attend a recent Civic Association meeting featuring Greenburgh’s longtime town assessor, Edye McCarthy, as guest speaker. I was hoping for clarity and, instead, found deeper cause for concern.

One would think that a large—curious if not angry—crowd would have been in attendance. Instead, the meeting featured two obsequious moderators, a single town board member (Francis Sheehan), and twelve residents. And yet, what unfolded offered a revealing glimpse into a deeply flawed property tax system that affects thousands of homeowners. The assessor, who has held her role for nearly four decades, gave a well-rehearsed presentation, painting a picture of professionalism and fairness. She detailed her team’s use of the CAMA system—Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal—to determine the value of homes based on dozens of parameters. Their findings, she then explained, are verified externally by (unnamed) third parties. But when the floor opened for questions, it became clear that behind the veneer of precision lies something far foggier.

I asked Ms. McCarthy why the assessed values in Hartsdale continue to rise despite a stagnant housing market. According to broker-reported sales activity, the average sales price in 2025 remained virtually flat compared to 2024 ($946,412 vs. $942,828), while the median price declined. Yet the 2025 Market Trend Map on the assessor’s site shows every neighborhood in “growth mode.” So even though her office implies to have access to current data—albeit questionably sourced or interpreted—her answer to my question was that assessments are based not on current-year sales, but on sales from up to two years prior. In other words, 2025 property taxes are pegged to values from 2023. This introduces an automatic lag into the system that all but guarantees upward drift. When the market softens, residents are still taxed at inflated rates until the lag eventually—if ever—catches up.

Even more revealing was her admission that there simply aren’t enough annual sales to support a valid statistical model in certain parts of town. Hartsdale had just 70 single-family home sales in 2023, 74 in 2024, and 22 so far in 2025 (likely due to incomplete data). Statistically speaking, these are paper-thin samples—nowhere near the scale needed to build robust, predictive models with meaningful p-values or confidence intervals. The assessor conceded this point, adding that in such cases, the science stops, and the “art” begins. This art, as she described it, involves her team stepping in to manually adjust values when the model falls short. Sometimes it’s based on neighborhood buzz—“things I hear,” she said. Other times it reflects broad judgments about desirability. For example, she noted that swimming pools didn’t used to be worth much but now “add a lot of value.” These judgments are not always integrated into the modeling software; they’re done by hand, by a team that now works year-round addressing grievances—because they are running a subjective and error-prone process rather than a neutral, data-driven one. This is how even homes like my parents’—which have not undergone a single renovation in 30 years—still see regular tax increases. If the average is based on lagging data, fragile models, and discretionary tweaks, and if most homes are nudged upward, then nearly everyone ends up paying more.

There are additional inequities that should concern all residents of unincorporated Greenburgh. The town assessor confirmed that a disproportionate share of the Town’s tax-exempt properties—such as religious institutions, public facilities, and other nonprofits—is concentrated in unincorporated Greenburgh. These properties are exempt from paying taxes, yet they still rely on municipal services funded by the rest of us. We are carrying this load—without any compensatory relief. To make matters worse, certain neighborhoods within unincorporated Greenburgh have never received meaningful remediation for chronic flood zones, rendering some homes effectively unsellable. These properties lose market value, yet continue to be taxed as if the flood risk doesn’t exist. And I won’t even get into school taxes—except to say that they increase every year, with no accountability. Thanks to the perennial decisions of the Board of Education, our tax burden continues to climb, even as the chronically under-performing Greenburgh Central School District further drags down property values. In short, we pay more and get less—less equity, less transparency, and less return on our community investment.

There is a larger sociological problem here. The town’s tax system, as it currently functions, is killing the host. Longtime residents are not selling their homes. They are not realizing the supposed gains in value that rising assessments assume. But they are being taxed on those paper gains just the same. Seniors and working families alike are being squeezed by a process that is inconsistent, and largely immune to scrutiny. Official inflation for 2025 is around 3%, but the U.S. dollar has also weakened by 10% against foreign currencies, raising the price of imported goods. Meanwhile, local wages are mostly flat, while housing costs—prices, taxes and mortgage rates—climb.

And all of this is happening under the watch of a single assessor who has been in office for 37 years and a town supervisor who is once again running unopposed. There is no check on this system. No rotation of oversight. Just a bureaucratic machine that lumbers on, adjusting its numbers by ear and squeezing ever more from residents—residents who are left with no choice but to comply or leave. It is time to demand more. Not just transparency, but reform. Not just models, but fairness. Not just polite meetings with twelve attendees—but real civic engagement.

— Tanya Dragic 

Getting Over-burdened With Bonds During A Recession

This email notification below was provided by Greenburgh School District Board member David Warner to residents. We feel the information conveyed here is pertinent because this is a repeat of Mr Feiner/the Town and the School District pushing their own bonds onto the Unincorporated taxpayers at the same time. The last time this happened, the former School Superintendent was trying to float a bond for $114 million dollars (over $200 million with interest) and Mr Feiner for $49 million. The voting process to move forward with gifting GameOn 365 this $2million dollar gift is being held on a Thursday, when most residents would not be paying close attention. The police department needs something. However, other properties, such as 100 Hillside Avenue, haven't been scrutinized for use, which would provide roughly 4-times the space at one-third the cost!

Re: New Police Headquarters, July 26th, 2022

The Town of Greenburgh is planning a $2M referendum for a Nov 8th public vote to purchase property on Dobbs Ferry Road for a new police station/EMS facility. When they build the facility, it will cost $55-60M and they will need to pass a referendum for about $50M for that. Currently the police station and Town Court are located on Tarrytown Road near RJ Bailey. The police station will move to Dobbs Ferry Road, while the Town Court will remain where it is. See Meghan Hak's e-mail attachment below for more details.

There is a special meeting at Greenburgh Town Hall this Thursday 07/28/22 at 7:30 PM to discuss the purchase of the land. I have spoken with BOE President Tracy Mairs regarding this meeting. Since the current Greenburgh CSD BOE has not discussed this topic, we cannot represent a position for or against the referendum. However, we can state what we have done and are considering regarding facilities, and ask questions.

As this is a public meeting, anyone in the community can attend and ask questions. I called Town Hall and confirmed that there will be public input at the meeting. Advance notice is required, and requests to speak should be e-mailed to townclerk@greenburghny.com. The clerk's office wasn't certain whether allowed input would be the normal 5 minutes per speaker or only 2 minutes per speaker. I know that recently the requirement that anyone participating in person wear a mask was reinstated due to the high incidence of COVID.

Tracy Mairs and I will both attend, and I am signing up to speak. I intend to ask:

1)  At Greenburgh CSD we are working on making our COVID ventilation fixes permanent, adopting an Energy Performance Contract, building a security vestibule at the middle/high school, upgrading our fire hydrant system, replacing the Highview and mansion roofs, and restoring the RJ Bailey Auditorium. Priorities for our next set of projects include repairing and replacing school roofs and outer walls, adding ECP classrooms, and upgrading our asphalt track. Our taxpayers are a subset of the Town taxpayers. How do we coordinate our efforts so that we don't interfere with one another?

2) What is the financial impact on the tax rate per $1000 of the proposed $2M bond?

3) What is the financial impact on the tax rate per $1000 of the later $50M bond?

4) If you are unable to pass the $50M bond, are you able to sell the land for enough to recoup the cost of the $2M bond?

5) If the $2M bond passes, you will be removing the Dobbs Ferry property from the tax rolls. If the Town Court remains in place, there will be no Tarrytown Road property coming back onto the tax rolls to offset the loss of the Dobbs Ferry Road property. On the other hand, other projects like the Elmwood development should increase the tax base. Is there a five-year projection that accounts for the major projects in process that affect the tax rolls? After adjusting for inflation, are we looking at a net loss or a net gain in total assessed value of the town?

If you have additional questions, but won't be asking them yourself at the Town meeting, please feel free to share them and we will try to pass them on.

Covert Collusion with GameOn 365 – Again – By Special Decree!

A number of years ago, Mr Feiner appeared to collude with GameOn 365 for the property where Frank’s Nursery had been on Dobbs Ferry Road. When Frank’s Nursery fell into Chapter 11, Frank’s abandoned the property and failed to pay the taxes on it. Subsequently, the Town gained ownership of the property and that’s when the subterfuge happened. Spearheaded by the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association and the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, they rallied the troops, the press and other community leaders to see the sham of a deal Mr Feiner had made with GameOn 365 to illegally lease the property in order to build an 83 foot high Sports Bubble. Mr Feiner, a non-practicing attorney, knows how much he can push the boundaries of legality and used to be fond of saying, “If you don’t like what I’m doing, sue me!” The town was about to be sued when Game On pulled out and went next door looking to buy the Golf Range from the Visioli family to build a Sports Complex. This plan was abandoned and eventually they did buy the 32 acre property and kept it as a Golf Range.

The former Frank’s Nursery property was finally sold for $3.5 million to a developer named Capitol Seniors Housing, who would be building an assisted living facility at that location for about 100 residents. Sadly, before inking the deal, Mr Feiner and Mr Lewis* claimed remediation of the former Frank’s Nursery property would be capped at $100,000. The cost to the Town for remediation was ultimately $1.5 million! Is this why there are so many jokes about not trusting lawyers? Regardless, after back taxes were paid on the property, and the cost of remediation, the Town taxpayers did not see a profit on this property.

The Town Board and specifically Mr Feiner, have struggled for years to find a way to keep the pesky residents and critics of the Town Board at bay. Finally, they have the pseudo-Covid switch (science? really?) that they conveniently flick on or off at their discretion. And they do. While many municipalities have gone back to in-person meetings, the Town of Greenburgh is giddily besides themselves with their unchecked power of keeping the public and most importantly their detractors, out of many discussions that would impede their questionable transactions. Coupled with the ultimate control of forcing residents to utilize Zoom for their 5-minutes of comment, Mr Feiner can “pull the plug” on anyone disagreeing with him.

Now, during the slowest business time of the year with constituent families not around, residents and employees away on vacation, the Town Board quietly put a special meeting and vote on the agenda during Executive session which will wholeheartedly benefit GameOn 365. No mention was made public of this special meeting at the Town Board’s Work Session meeting. Nor was anything said at the subsequent regular Town Board meeting. Mr Feiner decided to try to sneak this through for an obscure night (Thursday 7/28) when those who don’t follow the Town Board’s shuffle won’t even be aware of what these integrity-lacking Board members did – not until you receive your tax bill with the sizable increase caused by the acceptance of this proposal. It wasn’t until Mr Feiner sent the cleverly-crafted “Good News!” email out was his scheme unhatched to the public.

In this case, GameOn 365 has offered to sell 4 acres of the Golf Driving Range on Dobbs Ferry Road for $2 million so the Town can build a new Police Department/Emergency Medical Services Headquarters property adjacent to the Golf Driving Range on Dobbs Ferry Road. Their original goal when the Frank’s Nursery property sale fell through to Game On 365 because scrutiny, lawsuits and the overall “shade” cast on it by so many, it was impossible for Mr Feiner to move forward with the GameOn 365 scheme. 

GameOn 365 is also offering to gift a piece of their property to the Town in return for a private access road for access to the new facility enabling the Town to absorb the cost for build this new Police Station. This is the newest in a long list of Feiner’s Follies. At the same time, the Town would be assuming responsibility and costs to build the road, allowing GameOn 365 to return to the Town (the goal all along) and apply for permits for more construction to benefit their owners and majority stakeholders. Mr Feiner is well-known for having an end-game years down the line with a habit of waiting out his opponents. We believe that’s what is happening here.

The rushed proposal in question is to have a referendum to float a Bond to build this new Police Station on the GameOn 365 property. Mr Feiner also sent out another well-crafted document trying to validate the rationale for going along with this debacle. He points out that the age and the size of the current facility is woefully undersized, doesn’t meet Federal standards, does not have proper facilities for male and female staff and there’s a lack of parking. He purports that the building was constructed in 1956 and renovated in 1993 and 2001. Who was Supervisor during the renovations? Why didn’t the Supervisor at the time look forward to create a better building then? Incompetence then and apparently still.

He questions throwing more money into what he considers a bad building. Really? You may recall several years ago when Greenburgh School Superintendent Chase and several School Board members were trying to float a Consolidation Bond, claiming it would only be $114 million dollars. After scrutinizing those figures, what was planned, and NYS Department of Education information, the totals didn’t lie, unlike the Superintendent. The amount was well over $200 million dollars! At the same time, Mr Feiner was trying to get support for a $49 million bond to replace both the Police Headquarters and the Town Court. What changed that the cost would go from $49 million to now $55-60 million for only the police department’s new building. Why the difference; what about the Town Court, also housed at the current location? And why the disparity in figures from a few years ago until now?

Mr Feiner also bemoans the fact that the building is non-compliant, wasteful, operating costs are exorbitant, poorly insulated and vehicles are exposed to the elements. Funny, but most of our cars and automobiles are exposed to the elements but unlike the police department, we cannot change out our vehicles every three years like they do. He has concerns over security and safety. Huh? Can he be serious that the police are afraid of crime in Greenburgh, and if so, what about us, the public?

There may be legitimacy in some of the concerns raised, but after 30 years at the helm, Mr Feiner has been more than derelict with repairs, infrastructure and/or maintaining the well-being of many of our buildings. It’s difficult to go along with this proposal for several reasons: first, the price is fictitious and made up by Mr Feiner; second, there are no plans drawn up that would allow a conscious, good faith  review and cost estimate; third, many have questioned using/purchasing/leasing the building at 100 Hillside Avenue (the old Dannon bldg) but have only been ignored; fourth, holding the special meeting on a Thursday night, with little notification and limited participation (through Zoom) or in-person smacks of the ultimate disregard for the public (taxpayers) as nothing more than following the letter of the law to allow Mr Feiner vis a vis the Board to fix a pre-determined outcome.

This behavior, so often seen by a one party-rule Town needs to be slowed down in the least and stopped at the best so the public can truly ask questions and get answers, not platitudes. Mr Feiner and his Town Board have stated that this bond will cost Unincorporated Town members roughly a $150 increase in their taxes and Village residents only $86 based on a $750,000 assessment. To the Village residents, we implore you to vote No for this. For Unincorporated residents we ask you to be diligent, and write to the Town Board and Mr Feiner opposing this sham! Just say, "NO!" Tell them we want facts and figures before committing to another of Feiner’s Follies.It’s the only way to get A Better Greenburgh.

* Tim Lewis, was the Town Attorney at the time and was given a judgeship. It’s like they say in business, those who can’t do get promoted.

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.

3 Educators Announce Candidacy For Greenburgh School Board

Existing School Board Needs Improvement
The beleaguered Greenburgh School Board of Education is rife with issues – mostly stemming from years of the status quo by people unwilling or unable to comprehend change. While slowly improving under the latest and deeply involved newer Board members, The Board needs additional trustees who are clear, decisive and open minded thinkers.

Leadership Takes Hold
Under the leadership of current Board President Antoinette Darden-Cintron, who is running for another term, we've finally seen the Board make progress. She has aligned with two new candidates who are also educators, Kiana Washington and Eric Bitterman. These three experienced educators are the only candidates who are totally invested in our children’s education and ultimately their futures. They recognize what needs to be done to improve our schools: repair our existing buildings, provide a quality education for our children, keep the costs down in the District and plan for the District’s future both in the short and long term.

Lying Through Omission
For every step the current Board has taken forward there have been opposing forces who sabotaged the Board. The sabotage and resistance from Superintendent Chase and Trustee Terry Williams (an 18-year Board member) has prevented the current Board from swiftly addressing the needed building repairs and curriculum reviews to improve our student achievement. Their combined goal, supported by Trustee David Warner, appears to be to continue to foist the school consolidation onto the public by not being truthful with the taxpayers about the true costs associated with this grandiose plan that was ultimately rejected by the voters. Thankfully, the taxpaying public saw through their slick presentations and smoke and mirrors.

Candidates Focus

These three candidates are experienced educators running for the Greenburgh school board. Together, they have combined expertise spanning grades pre-K through 12. Their shared vision is to provide a robust educational experience that prepares all GCSD students for a life of learning and success.

Read more about these three solid candidates at:

https://educators4boe.org

List of the candidates: 
Eric Bitterman* - Former New Rochelle and current Scarsdale teacher
Antoinette Darden-Cintron** - Dean in NYC School System, Guidance Counselor
Kiana Washington - Ass’t. Principal NYC School System
Jamaal Thomas - n/a
Sarah Lazzari - n/a
Christine (Chris) Valin - n/a
Terry Williams***

* Former GCSD7 Board trustee 

** Incumbent (1 term)

*** 18-Yr incumbent, under review for violation of policies

Greenburgh School Administration and Board Proves Incompetent

Studying the statistics for the Greenburgh School District can be disconcerting if not downright confusing. We've seen a drop this year of 56 students from the Greenburgh Central School District.  Here is a simple chart showing the decline in the Greenburgh Central School District enrollment numbers, as well as in other Westchester districts. (The exception is the Pocantico Hills School District). 

What is happening in these communities that is responsible for declining public school enrollment? There are certainly people who leave the district due to reasons such as work relocation, high cost-of-living, or the need to take care of elderly parents. We fear that a significant amount of the loss is due to dissatisfaction with the school districts in these communities and we believe this is very much the case with the Greenburgh School District. In studying other published articles, we learn that parochial schools are having an influx of students, even from revered districts such as Scarsdale.  These affluent parents are placing their children in parochial and/or private schoolswith hefty tuitions, ranging from $3,000 to upwards of $25,000 annually for in-person learning at a smaller school. 

In the latest rankings issue of Westchester Magazine* on public schools, the Greenburgh Schools rated 37th out of 47, ranking just higher than schools in the large cities. While analyzing the data from these various reports, ranks and standings, the unpublished stories inform us what's really going on to cause parents to enroll their children in private schools. For instance, it's alleged that in 2014, when searching for a replacement for Ronald Ross, a Greenburgh School Board Trustee contacted the Search Committee to influence their decision regarding candidate Tahira Chase, to place her name first on the list of recommended candidates. We cannot corroborate this allegation. (Ross was dismissed for discrimination and creating a hostile work environment, one of many unsuccessful Superintendents)

Two years ago, Superintendent Chase pushed a $200+ million dollar school campus consolidation pipe dream. Long-time Trustees Williams and Warner, after having presented multiple budgets that failed to provide adequate funding for building repairs, both supported this project, seemingly without regard to the negative costly impact to the taxpayers.  The bond referendum was defeated by the Greenburgh taxpayers nearly 2-to-1 when it finally came to a vote! Clearly the community mandate was to repair the existing buildings and stop wasting time doing so. After that overwhelming defeat, Chase, Williams and Warner began to push the narrative that they had done a poor job informing the public as to their plan. Quite the contrary!  The voters were well informed.  We had been informed that the cost to taxpayers was $114 million dollars, however the NYS Board of Education's own figures were $200+ million dollars. Lying to the public by omitting the true cost of the project is never the less still a lie.

We have heard the Superintendent and Trustees Williams and Warner tout programs that at face value should be a source of pride. Specifically, we are regaled with the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and the Mandarin language program. In time, we've learned, however, that the IB program was failing because too many teachers weren't prepared adequately to teach it. The Mandarin program failed because the school did not have teachers for it for most of the year! We learned from students who complained that courses necessary for graduation, such as Physics, were not available. Those students were told to take an additional Chemistry class. World class indeed!

In October the Board of Education, after completing their annual evaluation of the Superintendent, decided not to renew her contract. During the course of a search for her replacement, the Board made a decision to offer the position to a Long Island superintendent who had interviewed very well for the position. Trustee Williams violated his responsibility as a Trustee by discouraging the agreed upon candidate from accepting the position. This action might have resulted in an extension of Chase's tenure through next year. If the allegations regarding his interference in her hiring are true, this would be the second time that he has violated his duty as a Trustee and manipulated the Superintendent selection process.

There is a long list of deficiencies of our school district.  The most recent is the continuing use of remote learning due to the pandemic. Schooling has always been an interactive event and while many have tried to pawn remote learning to us as the panacea for education during the pandemic, it is not. The Greenburgh Central School District distributed Chromebooks to most students in an effort to help them with remote learning but let’s put yourself in the students shoes. When you're at work and instructed to take online training, how attentive and focused are you? You probably start out enthusiastically, then your attention wanes and your mind becomes less focused and starts drifting. Our children are no different and they have been forced to do this day after day for the past year!  It's time to get our kids back into school. It's time for administrators, teachers, and parents to stop talking about following the science and implement a plan so that our children can attend school safely!

School board members Williams and Warner have been there for too long. It's time for new blood, new thinking with thoughtful and cost-effective action. When we see something amiss, we must question it without resorting to hysteria, vile attitudes or violence.  The Board and the community must come up with a balanced plan of action to repair our schools and teach our kids.  

We need to have a school district that people embrace instead of fleeing to private schools. We can collectively do this and do it well. It's how we'll get A Better Greenburgh School District. 

* March 2021, Pg 50

Elmwood Country Club Development

  Letter to the Editor.

************************************************************************************************************************

To All:

The Public Hearing on the DEIS for the Elmwood Country Club Development was closed on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021 but the Public Record will remain open to accept comments/concerns/questions until Monday, Feb. 22, 2021.

I strongly encourage everyone in our community to send an email ASAP to the Town Board expressing your opinion concerning the construction of 175 Town House Condos on this property which would require 2 zoning changes and be assessed at 60% of what Single Family Homes would be assessed at, thereby losing tax revenues for the Town, County, 2 School Districts (Elmsford & Greenburgh Central) and the Fairview Fire District.

This Condo plan also calls for a donation to the Town of 14.2 acres for use as ballfields. This would remove the property from the tax rolls and require the Town to be responsible for the future maintenance of the property. In addition, the developer would be donating the property "in lieu of" the required fee of $4,320 per unit to the Greenburgh Parkland Escrow Fund, which would be a loss of $756,000 to the Fund.

The Alternative Plan B in the DEIS for 119 Single Family Homes would not require any zone changes and would preserve the character of our neighborhood.

With this plan, the developer would be required to pay $8,640 per home, over $1 million dollars, into the Parkland Escrow Fund.

The Condo plan would result in a density increase per acre which is not in accordance with the 2016 Greenburgh Comprehensive Plan.

Feel free to share this email with your Greenburgh friends and neighbors as this development will set a precedent for all future developments in Unincorporated Greenburgh.

 State the following in your email:

Please include my statement in the Public Record re: TB 18-02 - Elmwood Preserve.

        

To: townboard@greenburghny.com

Cc: tlewis@greenburghny.com (Town Attorney)

      gduquesne@greenburghny.com (Planning Commissioner)

  townclerk@greenburghny.com (Judith Beville)

      clobrutto@chazencompanies.com (Caren Lobrutto)

  wwcagreenburgh@gmail.com

Subject: Public Hearing Comments: Elmwood Preserve - TB 18-02

Note: Request a confirmation that your email has been received and placed in the Public Record for TB 18-02 - Elmwood Preserve

Dorrine Livson

President

Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association (WWCA)

A Failed Education

Covid-19 has exposed the financial instability and struggles of many of the residents of the Town, highlighting the disparity along economic lines between the educational offerings afforded to our students. We continually witness the failures of the school district, as highlighted by Superintendent Chase, and with long time School Board members whose agenda for consolidation does nothing to address improving education over a marginal one. The diminishing test results saga over the last umpteen years highlights the failures of the district and the Board of Education. English Language Arts (ELA) scores have faltered despite the fact that immersion in English is a proven, successful educational standard adopted throughout the world for over a century, but just not in Greenburgh. Similarly, math scores continue to plummet, further exposing these two increasingly problematic failures.

Yet through all of the “feel good” discussion of graduation scores and college admissions, we're asked to believe that every child, whether enjoying breakfast and lunch at school, or those who simply turn on their computer for 5 seconds during the school day, are accounted for and learning. These same students, we're told, will graduate at the end of the year with an academic degree, although that degree will hardly be worth the paper it's printed upon. These success stories are as disingenuous as saying we have a thriving Mandarin program!

Incredibly, no child in the Greenburgh Central School District is ever left behind. Indeed, they move through the system and graduate every year collecting their high school degrees, ready to enter the reality of hopelessness and despair as they learn it has little value in the "real" world. This practice of graduating students who fail needs to end no matter how catchy the "no child left behind" mantra sounds! Some observers of the system choose to blame the teachers, but clearly the fault for the conditions of the school system and its graduates resides in the conduct, demeanor and callousness of the Greenburgh Superintendent of Schools and the Greenburgh Board of Education members. Those teachers who fail to stand up for their students must shoulder some of that blame. But how many have been intimidated and coerced to accept these policies or fall out of favor with the district and jeopardize their livelihood? Could this be why we experience such a high turnover of teachers in our schools?

Parents cannot be blamed for not understanding test score results or the subject matter. In some cases parents have difficulty understanding the English language or dare we say, were a product of the Greenburgh School system? This basic flaw of failure to meet the basic educational needs of most of our children needs to be addressed before we lavish praise on initiatives such as a Baccalaureate program or Mandarin language courses. Having a 35% success rate in Math and English is an abomination. Work on transforming and improving the standard courses that most of our children take and only then should we look to expand into others. Stop projecting the image of a small group of  children that are academically gifted as the face of the entire school system!

Society has promised it was all knowing and capable of teaching our children proficiently so that the children could succeed upon graduation and delve into the "real" world. But parents and guardians have clung to a promise that the school no longer fulfills. Society in general is at fault; as well as are our parents who falsely believed that the school system would do right by their children. It has not. Parents have shirked their responsibility to ensure that the school system works for our children. Our collective mistake is that we believed the District knew better than we did as to how to educate our children and we left this crucial responsibility up to them. Even though it began with good intentions, Greenburgh Central has failed those of us seeking a better life for themselves and their children.

It's been said that education is the elixir of success. And, while we can certainly place blame for our failing school on the District, the Superintendent and the Board of Education -- and we should -- we must also blame ourselves. We forgot to demand what our grandparents and parents expected our schools to offer our children, which is a well-rounded education, enabling them to be able to earn a living and be productive in society. Our forgetting is not an excuse. Resolution of the deficiency exhibited by the present Greenburgh Central School Board of Education, is imperative. The Board, who are in fact the “employer” of Greenburgh Schools District Superintendent Chase, have not only dropped the ball, and still seemingly struggle in correcting the circumstances they've allowed for too long.

Parents, taxpayers and all stakeholders must make it known to the Greenburgh School Board of Education that they have failed to deliver on our collective trust of them. It is time we force them to step up their game plan and for us to do the same. Let's stop lip-syncing, "For the children!” Nothing less than change at the Board level is acceptable, academic improvements must take place to wake up this current Greenburgh Central School District and nothing else, such as consolidation, will improve our children's educational well-being. 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 who can help to improve our schools and propel our children into a successful future. It's the only way to get A Better Greenburgh School District!

Greenburgh Central School District Superintendent Survey Open To Public

Please help the Greenburgh Central School Board with their Superintendent survey

Greenburgh School Board  President Darden-Cintron requested that we circulate a community survey that the School Board is taking regarding their  superintendent search process.  If you reside in the Greenburgh School district please respond.

Here is the link: https://www.greenburghcsd.org/Page/3931

Greenburgh Central School District Board to Consolidate Committees

From: David Warner <dwarner@greenburghcsd.org>
Subject: Fwd: ZOOM MEETING INFO
Date: October 24, 2020 at 11:05:57 PM EDT

This year we are attempting to reduce the number of Greenburgh CSD BOE committees, so we have combined last year's Fiscal Planning and Facilities committees into one committee.

Please join us for a Finance and Facilities Committee this coming Wednesday 10/28/20 at 5 PM. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be a remote meeting Zoom call. Per District Clerk Ivy Kraus, in accordance with Open Meetings Law, it will also be broadcast on the Greenburgh CSD channel on Youtube. If you want to participate in the meeting, sign in to the Zoom session.

Below is a draft agenda, and the Zoom meeting link/phone in information. These will also be posted on the district calendar. I'll post a more detailed agenda and some backup documents on Google Drive, and I'll send out and post a link to them prior to the meeting.

I hope to see you there.
-DW
*********************
Finance and Facilities Committee Meeting Draft Agenda: 10/28/20 5 PM (Zoom call)
1. Introductions
2. Elect Chair, appoint secretary, determine membership request to BOE
3. Review Draft Committee Charges
4. Adopt Minutes of Previous Fiscal Planning and Facilities Committee Meetings
5. Schedule 2020-21 Meetings
6. Facilities:

· COVID-19 & District-wide Ventilation Status
· Mansion Repair & Air Quality
· ECP Ventilation vs. LFJ Wing
· Caretaker's House Status
· WMHS Security Vestibule
· WMHS Awning Proposal
· BCS Summary

7. Finance:

· Year-end Closeout
· 2020-21 budget and current reserves
· COVID-19 Budget Impacts & Priorities
· 5-Year Financial Plan
· Budget Code Transfer Reporting
· Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

8. Other Concerns

Greenburgh School District Assistant Superintendent for Business Resigns

We posted an article regarding the Greenburgh Central School Districts' Board of Education and their vote to let Superintendent Tahira Chase's contract expire in 2021 and not extend/renew it. Superintendent Tahira Chase championed the schools campus consolidation bond that was voted down 2 to 1 against the plan. That plan was originally said to have a price tag of $114.9 million dollars. After some investigative work, we learned that the cost would be almost double the promised amount after you added in the bond's interest. When residents questioned Superintendent Chase and the School Board about the final numbers, she insisted on that the cost was only going to be $114.9 million dollars. She neglected to add the interest which would have increased the overall project to beyond $200 million dollars! Imagine with everything going on in our Covid 19 world what would have happened had this gone through?

Proposing the $114.9 million dollars plus interest of debt to build new school buildings was publicly spearheaded by Superintendent Chase, Assistant Superintendent for Business Mary O’Neill, David Warner and Trustee Terry Williams. In fact, as we recall, during one of those meetings, Superintendent Chase made light of one of the questions raised by mockingly having a back-and-forth with Ms O'Neil. "Ms O'Neil, someone said the bond is going to cost more than $114 million dollars. Is that true?" "I don't know where they would have gotten that idea?" "So, it isn't true?" "No." In actuality the cost is $114.9 million dollars plus the unmentioned interest, again over $200 million dollars!

Now that the Superintendent's contract has been voted upon not to renew or extend, we've learned that Ms O'Neil has decided to resign her rather lucrative position from the Administration. In fact, we saw it on the agenda for this Wednesday night's meeting (below).

We acknowledge that anyone can quit a job whenever they feel like it, but the optics of this resignation come at an interesting juncture with this failed administration. The School Board appears to finally be doing something to improve what has been the inept management of the Chase administration and then suddenly Ms O'Neil decides to leave. 

Some of the Administrations failures include the consolidation effort at a cost of roughly $700,000, along with spending about $270,000 for all of the moves from the Mansion to the other various schools. The premature evacuation of the Early Childhood Program from the mansion as well as concurrently contacting the media that the building was structurally unsound and needed to be evacuated immediately without engaging the Board is also troubling. She initiated a suite of offices be constructed almost immediately for her staff in the Woodlands High School, while the administration personnel continued to work in the Mansion (for another month) and the maintenance department continues working out of the mansion to this day! Roughly speaking, she wasted nearly one million desperately needed dollars that could have been used for building repairs, hiring teachers, resource officers, student programs and more. 

With the sudden resignation of Mary O'Neil, we believe a full and thorough forensic audit is needed of the district and this administration to ensure that all monies are where they are supposed to be, have not been spent or misappropriated and that expenditures, bids and services are all being billed and paid for correctly. Until both Superintendent Chase and Assistant Superintendent of Business O'Neil actually leave their positions, they owe it to the district to fulfill the remainder of their time in a professional and forthright manor. Anything less would be a theft of services. It's the only way we can get A Better Greenburgh School District.

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.