Sgt. Schultz: “I Know Nothing!”
Spurred by a friend’s request to the Administration to investigate charges of ethics and policy violations, Rick Schlomann and another Smithtown citizen, Stan Meyer, spoke before the general meeting of the Board of Education on Tuesday, May 10th.
Mr Schlomann read Policy 1511 which prohibits politicking in schools on school time by staff. The policy exists to protect the students. He asked Superintendent Ehmann if he had followed through on this investigation.
Mr Ehmann acknowledged that the Administration had looked into the charge and took ‘appropriate action,’ indicating that the details were ‘not for public disclosure.’ At this point the District’s attorney, Eugene Barnosky and Assistant Superintendent for Personnel, Karen Ricigliano, added that, “in one or two instances corrective action was taken, counseling letters, (and) documentation was provided so that will not occur again.”
In other words, the policy was violated.
Mr Schlomann tried to dig deeper and discover what names were on the petitions, to no avail; they hadn’t asked.
Upset by this revelation, Mr Meyer said, “I think you gave a political definition, not a legal definition, because if anyone benefited, we should know.” He didn’t know why a blanket of secrecy was covering the candidates’ identities, and was dissatisfied to hear that is was not a question the district asked. We are not to know who was petitioned for by district employees, in schools, on district time; only the petitioners were reprimanded.
It stinks. And the stench carries far in this election year when contracts are up, the board could be flipped, and the union has everything at stake.
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