School districts should be smart and get ahead of the curve and show their constituencies that they know the meaning of transparency: clearness, lucidity, simplicity and intelligibility■

Who Owns the Board of Education?

By Jeffrey  Bessen, June 14, 2007

Residents think representation is undermined by special interests

By JEFFREY BESSEN

EAST ISLIP — Spearheaded by a local community organization, some East Islip School District residents are concerned that the Board of Education (BOE) has become a haven of pro-East Islip Teacher Association loyalists. SchoolWatch Cofounders Frank Gerace and George Deabold claim that Concerned Parents of East Islip, which has endorsed the last five board members to be elected, is a campaign front for the Great River based East Islip Teachers Association.

Neither Concerned Parent President Pat Flamio, an East Islip resident and a Plainedge School District teacher, or Nancy Close, president of the teachers association returned multiple phone calls for comment for this story.

“No one knows they are going up against the union,” Deabold said. “So now it’s ‘I did you a favor, now you do me a favor.' "

That could not be further from the truth, according Kim Phillips, president of the East Islip BOE. Phillips, who spoke on behalf of the board, including current BOE Vice President Gary Lamm and Trustee Terry Lyons, who were both elected last year, and Ken Cronin, who won election last month and will officially take his seat next month. Thomas Zawyrucha is the other board member.

“We don’t work for the union,” Phillips said. “We work for the district, we work for the children and we work for the community.” Phillips stressed that she does not know if there is a connection between Concerned Parents and the teachers association in East Islip.

Deabold and Gerace are concerned that BOE members who were endorsed and supported with a phone bank manned by Concerned Parent members will forget who they really represent, when considering contracts such as the recent negotiations between the teachers and the district. “This is not a true representation of the community,” Gerace said. “The board is supposed to represent the entire community, not specific special

interests.”

As a grassroots organization that promotes educational reforms regarding safety, violence and health conditions, SchoolWatch is also considered a special interest group.

Phillips painted herself as a pro-education candidate in 2005, when she ran against William Condon, and termed Lyons, Lamm and Cronin pro-education candidates. “I think I basically presented myself as a moderate who would evaluate the information,” said Phillips, who worked in the PTA and said she had a deep interest in working with children. “I presented myself as someone who is respectful, willing to listen and who is trying to present as open a forum as possible,” she added.

Headlines from FOCUS, a publication of the East Islip Teachers Association, read this way on Wednesday May 16, a day after this year’s Super Tuesday election: “School Budget Vote Passes” “Ken Cronin Elected as School Board Trustee” “The East Islip community said yes, the first time to the school district budget. The budget passed by 408 votes and pro-education trustee Ken Cronin was elected.”

Phillips said no endorsement came from the teachers association, but she and Zawyrucha, who was also termed a pro-education candidate, were endorsed by Concerned Parents two years ago. “I cannot control what a group does or says outside the school district,” said Phillips, who noted when she ran in 2005, her family painted signs, while Condon enjoyed the strong backing of the Conservative Party.

Louis Raffone, a former trustee who has run and lost in the last two board elections, confirms what many others have said, that the teachers association wields a substantial amount of influence during the district’s BOE races. “That group, Concerned Parents, is run by the teachers union,” Raffone said. “That is where they get the money for the mailing.” Founded in 1989, Concerned Parents deems itself a “community action group” on its website that “seeks to ensure a top-quality education for our children.” The group notes that it annually awards a community service scholarship award to a graduating senior. But Deabold claims that when one calls the group to find out who has won this award, no information is forthcoming. Two direct calls to Flamio’s home went unreturned.

“They operate from March to the end of May to address the budget and board vote,” Deabold said. “In May there are four or five mailings alone. There is no scholarship winner, no newsletter.”

In a related matter, as of press time Phillips confirmed that contract negotiations between the district and the teachers association “to this point have concluded” and Michael McAlvin, an attorney for the district, said the district had “come to an agreement with the teachers, but it still has to go before the board.” It was unconfirmed if the union membership met to approve the new accord, or if the BOE ratified it at its meeting on Tuesday.