Babylon school board member resigns

Babylon school board member Catherine Vukovich resigned Friday, the board announced at Monday night's meeting.

In an e-mail purportedly sent from Vukovich to her supporters and forwarded to Newsday last night, she blamed her resignation on a campaign of "surveillance" by a small group of residents intent on proving that she lived outside the village. Board members must live in the district they represent, said board member Roger Katz.

The e-mail's authenticity could not be independently confirmed Monday night.

"I was followed and photographed by them, as was my family," she wrote.

Elsewhere in the e-mail, she noted that she had publicly announced the sale of her Babylon home in August, but that she later rented an apartment in the village, "which secured legal residency and allowed me to stay on."

Vukovich, 50, was elected to the school board in 2006, and won re-election to a three-year term in 2009. Election-year profiles in Newsday described her as a paralegal with three children who graduated from Babylon High School.

Katz, reached by phone, said her spot will be filled at next month's school board election. He described Vukovich as "a valuable member of the board."

Following the meeting, Jim Jurs, a member of the audience and a critic of the board, said that "If she really felt that strong about it -- that it wasn't illegal -- she would have stayed on the board. . . . The people in the community are just frustrated with what goes on here."

Vukovich could not be immediately reached Monday night.

"While those who perpetrated these acts have not violated any laws, they forced me to make a decision between the well-being of my family and my position on the board," she wrote in her farewell e-mail.