Dear Editor,
I have served on the Tuxedo Board of Education for 4 years. I have been involved in politics for 30. Town boards, County Legislature, County wide races, State office races, Congressional races and Senate Races and I have never seen anything as political as a school board.
School Board elections occur in May. New members take office on July 1st. That leaves the June meeting as the last chance for outgoing members to execute plans that they didn’t want to put in front of the voters in May, but don’t want to give the new members, chosen by the voters, the opportunity to weigh in on after they take office in July.
In my 4 years I have seen two Superintendents pushed through in June and recently two school principals terminated in June. The June school board meeting is really the “witching hour” meeting.
I propose that the state take up legislation to require a unanimous vote less one for any personnel changes involving administrators after a school board election until the new board takes over in July.
Surely if an administrator does something egregious that puts the students, staff or school district in immediate jeopardy, there will be no issue in getting a unanimous vote. Even if one member is unable to or refuses to see the danger or attend the meeting, the unanimous less one addresses that.
This would end the lame ducks intentionally or unintentionally sabotaging the incoming board and allows the people who were chosen by the voters to make the decisions they were elected to make.
Daniel Castricone
Tuxedo
