After Ms. Andrew was sworn in, Mel Mendelssohn, a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on School Issues, asked for board member Thomas Graffagnino's report on his and fellow member Kim Reilly's request to see Ms. Corwin's personnel file, specifically “on what their findings were.” The two board members requested that review in order to assess the disciplinary action against Ms. Corwin that began before they took office.

Mr. Reylek refused on the grounds that Mr. Mendelssohn was requesting personnel information that could not be made public at the meeting.

Towards the end of the meeting, Mr. Graffagnino did report on the personnel file review by reading a prepared statement: “At this time, it is important to report to the general meeting the outcome of our request to review the personnel file of the faculty member in question. We quickly learned upon making our request that it would be granted only with the complete board [not including Ms. Andrew] present for review. And on Monday, January 28, this board met to review the file. With a few questions of my own prior to our meeting on the 28th, I did call our school attorney pertaining to my rights to review this file.

“To date, this date today, that call has not been returned. We were granted the opportunity to view the file and without going into more explicit detail, I was not happy with the manner in which the information within the file was made available to us. At this point, I must question the transparency of the board and the legal counsel available to all board members.” Ms. Reilly was not able to attend the meeting.

Before leaving the meeting, Mr. Mendelssohn took the board to task for what he said was “either shoddy work or intentional obfuscation of an important question” by the board in responding to the committee's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for information related to the legal and personnel costs incurred by the removal of Ms. Corwin from the classroom in May 2006.

Mr. Mendelssohn said his committee received 51 pages worth of information that included a lot of information “we did not request.” He said the information included Ms. Corwin's salary, approximately $76,000, and a bill from the board's legal counsel for $6,000. He said it did not include Ms. Corwin's benefit information or replacement salaries explicitly requested by the committee. “That we feel is a major omission and we would like to think that that was an oversight.”

James Eklund, Ms. Corwin's brother, told the Reporter before the meeting that the response “fell short of everything that was asked for.”

Responding to Mr. Mendelssohn, Mr. Reylek said, “I've got the letter here. Maybe you should have been a little more specific.”

Mr. Mendelssohn countered that the letter had been specific enough. When Mr. Reylek told him to submit another FOIL request to the school for further information, the back and forth degenerated into a heated argument.

“We did enumerate what we want and you interpreted it incorrectly,” Mr. Mendelssohn told Mr. Reylek. He then asked, “Making a request at this meeting is insufficient?”

Mr. Reylek said, “Yes,” and asked Mr. Mendelssohn to sit down.

“Why should I sit down?” Mr. Mendelssohn asked. “I'm a member of the public.”

Mr. Reylek responded by banging his gavel and repeating his request, to which Mr. Mendelssohn said, “You can bang your head on the wall.”

Later in the meeting, he told Mr. Reylek, “I think you should resign for being totally unresponsive to the public that has elected you. I think you're a total disaster as president and it's time for you to leave, Bob.”

Some of the 20 or so audience members responded with calls of “Hear, hear,” and applauded.

A couple of minutes later, Mr. Mendelssohn and others left, and the board moved on to correspondence and other business.

Other business

The board read a letter from Carl Manco, who sent cheerleading coach Linda Springer gray hooded sweatshirts to present to her squad before Monday night's boys varsity basketball game against Bridgehampton.

“Coach, I had the pleasure of checking out that doubleheader over Smithtown Christian last Tuesday,” Mr. Manco wrote, adding, “The cheer squad, which I will call the ‘Cheersome Foursome,' was so impressive and the a capella rendition of the national anthem, wow. It's my pleasure to have some hoods for them.”

Mr. Reylek read a letter from Melissa and Michael Palermo and Frank and Deborah Vecchio, thanking teacher Janine Mahoney and eight of her Honor Society students for preparing and serving “a lovely dinner” for Mr. and Mrs. Ted Zielinski, a prize they won during a raffle at the school's Everything Goes event in December. “We would like to express our appreciation for a very enjoyable evening and we wish each student much success in the future.”

Superintendent Sharon Clifford reported on the superintendent's coffee hour with parents, “which was very well attended.” She said the parents appreciated the opportunity, and she planned to put more of these events on the calendar.

The board approved the school district's participation in the Nassau County BOCES joint municipal cooperative bidding program. The board's business official Frank Perry explained its purpose. He said it allows the school district to use the Nassau County program “for any of the various contracts that they have out there, which prevents us from having to go out and bid on some of these particular items” like roof repair, duct cleaning and refrigeration.

Senior graduation for 2009 has been set for Saturday, June 27.

The board adopted 19 school policies as part of its ongoing review of all policies. Another 12 were submitted for a first reading and will be considered for adoption at the board's next regular meeting in March.

Personnel

The board approved increasing the daily rate for uncertified substitute teachers to $85, effective February 12.

Ms. Clifford said the board had previously increased the rates for certified substitutes and decided to raise those for uncertifed substitutes because “It's very competitive for substitutes.”

Members approved rescinding the resignation for retirement purposes of elementary teacher Gwendolyn Clark, which was to have taken effect June 30, 2008. Instead, the resignation will be effective June 30, 2009. Music teacher Phyllis Power will also be resigning for retirement purposes, effective the same date.

Pending receipt of hirability, James Theinert and Toni Michael Miller have been added to the substitute teacher list for this school year.

Lynne Colligan, high school English teacher, will teach two periods per week at $26.77 per period, effective February 1.

Effective January 28, the board approved Jack Reardon to teach additional driver education sessions at $71.23 per session.

The board approved moving Laura Leever and Rachel Brigham up on the salary schedule. Ms. Leever moves from Step 11 MA to Step 11 MA+15, and Ms. Brigham from Step 3 MA to Step 3 MA+15

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