ALBANY – It was early this year that the Newburgh Board of Education petitioned the State Education Department seeking to have then-board president Darren Stridiron removed from that post and his position as a board member.
Stridiron had been a frequent critic of school board majority decisions and policy.
Since the petition was filed in Albany, he resigned from the board because of what he felt is the direction the board is taking.
In a decision rendered by State Commissioner of Education Betty Rosa, the application to remove Stridiron was denied. “Petitioner concedes that respondent has resigned his position on this board and that his seat has been filled as of February 27, 2024,” Rosa said in her March 19 decision. “Accordingly, petitioner’s application to remove (Stridiron) is moot and must be denied.”
The school board still wanted the commissioner to go on the record as having removed Stridiron, but she wrote that, “To the extend petitioner asserts that the matter is not moot, petitioner has not met its burden to demonstrate that the instant scenario fits within an exception to the mootness doctrine.”
