Elbridge, NY -- Jordan-Elbridge school board members have provided few specific answers to questions raised recently by parents concerned about the shake-up of administrators. The board cited confidentiality of personnel matters in refusing to answer 12 of the questions submiited by parents. The board, in written responses made public today by a committee of parents, would not even reveal which...
Elbridge, NY -- Jordan-Elbridge school board members have provided few specific answers to questions raised recently by parents concerned about the shake-up of administrators.
The board cited confidentiality of personnel matters in refusing to answer 12 of the questions submiited by parents. The board, in written responses made public today by a committee of parents, would not even reveal which agencies are conducting investigations of administrators or update the status of the legal process involving any of the suspended administrators.
Over the past 16 months, two administrators have been suspended with pay, the district treasurer fired, another administrator transferred involuntarily and the school superintendent terminated early.
The parents submitted 58 questions, many dealing with the personnel moves that have galvanized parent reaction. The list of questions followed an impromptu meeting of parents held Sept. 26, and the questions were submitted to the school board.
“The committee that I work with feel the answers could have been – I think the consensus even in the community – is the answers could have been a little more specific,” said Mary Jo Wick, one of the organizers of the Sept. 26 meeting. “There are still a lot of unanswered questions.”
In its answers, the school board did not address directly concerns raised by parents about how much the suspensions and subsequent personnel shuffling is costing the district. In response to one question, the board listed who is providing legal services to the district: Danny Mevec, the district’s former general counsel, Frank Miller, the new general counsel, James Hughes, on construction law, and BOCES lawyer Randy Ray on the teachers contract.
Board members denied holding any private meetings involving board members and select administrators.
In addition to the personnel issues, several questions dealt with the search for a replacement to outgoing Superintendent Marilyn Dominick, whose last day of work is Friday.
The Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES district is helping the district find an interim superintendent as well as Dominick’s permanent replacement. The superintendent services are provided without extra charge to BOCES member districts.
BOCES Superintendent William Speck will serve temporarily until an interim leader is found.
In response to one question, the board acknowledged it is looking into an allegation that Sue Gorton, the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction, took rocks from district property.
The board addressed one question that arose during the parent meeting: The district plans to take delivery of new school buses in November. Buses are normally received anytime from November through March.
The board noted that despite losing state Supreme Court decisions for violating the state open meeting law and for refusing to release details of Dominick’s severance agreement, the board has prevailed in several other recent rulings.
Miller, the district’s new general counsel, said Judge Donald Greenwood, the same judge who ruled against the district in the two cases, ruled in its favor when he denied temporary injunctions that would have reinstated Bill Hamilton, the suspended assistant superintendent of business and finance, and Anthony Scro, the fired treasurer, to their old jobs.
Reach John Stith at jstith@syracuse.com or 251-5718.