NEWBURGH – The Newburgh Free Academy class of 2019 graduates on Wednesday and the State Department of Education has yet to release any decision on the issue of class valedictorian.
The district initially named Matthew Stridiron to the top spot in the class, but days later contended new grade calculations placed the son of school board member Darren Stridiron as the salutatorian. Then, when questions were raised, Matthew was named co-valedictorian with the student who was first set to be salutatorian.
Darren Stridiron maintains his son’s reclassification was based, in part, on his own criticisms of the administration of Superintendant Dr. Roberto Padilla.
In a new filing with the State Ed Department, Stridiron produced information that the district apparently did the same thing last year by naming a valedictorian and then maintaining a recalculation of grades stripped that student of the honor.
Stridiron’s latest legal brief maintains his son has been subjected to “abuse and stress” placed on him by the district administration. “The callousness and arrogance of Roberto Padilla, and his desire to inflict injury upon the petitioner’s family for the petitioner’s role in the attendance and Apex scandals that led to the district attorney’s grand jury report, is the cause of this situation,” his attorney Michael Meth wrote in a June 13, filing. “The incompetence and ineptitude of him and his staff are the result of a systemic top to bottom dysfunction that is pervasive within the district leadership.”
District officials have not responded to any Mid-Hudson News inquiries about the situation and allegations by Stridiron.
