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State audit reveals questionable financial decisions in Hempstead School District

The Hempstead school district overpaid its superintendent by tens of thousands of dollars, routinely held closed-door meetings to the exclusion of the public and failed to screen and provide services for some special-needs children, a state audit has found. 
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said the district repeatedly disregarded sound fiscal and administrative practices, it lacked internal controls and many of its decisions were made "in the shadows." 
The audit examined records and procedures from July 1, 2011, through March 31, 2013. 
School officials, in a written response to the report, said they have taken steps to rectify some of the problems. "This Board acknowledges the many challenges that the District inherited and will strive to implement the necessary corrective action within the spirit of accountability, transparency, and full disclosure," it said. 
Board president Lamont Johnson said he could not explain decisions that were made before he joined the board in May 2013, but he pledged to make the body more open. Already, he said, the district is looking to eliminate duplicative positions and also will change its number of meetings going forward to two per month, which will reduce the need for special or emergency sessions. 
Bidding process ignored 
According to the comptroller's findings, released Monday, Hempstead also awarded $1.3 million in contracts without going through the bidding process and appointed four people -- a homeless liaison, assistant coach and two community aides -- who were not qualified for their jobs. One of the aides was overpaid by $26,000. 
The audit found that Hempstead also created a position from July 2011 through September 2012 that mirrored the clerk's and paid that person $94,000 before declaring the post a mistake and eliminating the job. District officials "could not state with certainty what work this individual performed," the report said. 
Hempstead also failed to apply for federal aid to help offset the costs of educating its special-needs population; it could have recouped $42,096 for 16 such children, the audit found. 
According to the report, when Susan Johnson was promoted to permanent superintendent, the board passed a resolution to pay her $210,000, which would have brought her biweekly checks to $8,077. Instead, they rose to $15,000, which would have brought her annual salary to $390,000. 
Former board president Betty Cross, removed from her post by the state this summer, ordered the increase, district employees told the comptroller. Johnson received the inflated checks for the next five pay periods, DiNapoli found. 
"We question why the former Board President misinformed the payroll department . . . and why the Superintendent failed to inform the Board of the overpayments," DiNapoli's office wrote. 
Johnson's salary was eventually decreased, but the comptroller said that despite this she was still overpaid $32,769 for the 2012-13 school year. She's on a payment plan; district officials did not immediately know whether she's returned what she owed. 
No desire for buyout 
Board president Johnson, who has no relation to the superintendent, said he could not explain her jump in pay. He has no desire to remove her from the post because he doesn't want to buy out her contract and pay for a new schools chief, he said. 
The superintendent could not be reached for comment. 
"You can't just keep hiring and firing people," the board president said. "I'm not willing to pay her and someone else. That has happened too much in the past." 
Lucas Sanchez, Long Island director for the advocacy group New York Communities for Change, called the overpayment "outrageous." 
"Based on these findings, the superintendent and all of the board members who presided during this period should resign immediately," he said. 
DiNapoli said, too, that while the board scheduled 13 meetings per year between July 1, 2011, and March 31, 2013, it held a total of 65. Most were labeled "special" or "emergency" and were held at times and in locations that could not accommodate the public. 
In addition, the office randomly selected 24 students out of 204 who were referred for special education services and found that while special educational plans were crafted for 19 of the children, Hempstead could not provide documentation to show the services were provided. 
The audit also examined payments to seven educational-service providers who were paid more than $3.5 million during the audit period. It found that four were paid $1.3 million outside the proper bidding process. Further, the district did not keep records to show whether these services were provided. 
<h2>AUDIT FINDINGS</h2> 
State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's office concluded there have been numerous questionable decisions made by leaders of the Hempstead school district. These are some of the key findings: 
Six administrators eceived $48,000 in benefits that were not in accordance with their contract or district policy. 
While the board scheduled 13 meetings a year between July 1, 2011, and March 31, 2013, it held 65 -- most labeled "special" or "emergency" and held at times and in locations not accessible to the public. 
Far too many people -- including a security aide -- had access to sensitive student data and could make changes to grades, attendance, enrollment and disciplinary activity. 
Four staffers -- a homeless liaison, an assistant coach, and two community aides -- were hired for positions for which they did not qualify. 
Substitute teachers were permitted to lead classes in excess of the state's cap on the number of days they can work. 
District administrators did not always ensure that special-needs students were evaluated within the 60-day time frame allotted by the state, that they were given all of the required tests necessary to determine an academic path forward and that they were not all provided proper services. 
From July 2011 through September 2012, the district made $95,000 in vendor payments to a school board assistant whose duties mirrored that of the clerk; officials claimed the creation of the post was a mistake.

Long Island

Education

LIHEMP30

Hempstead school district overpaid superintendent by tens of thousands of dollars, state audit finds

Audit: Supe overpaid by tens of thousands

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The Hempstead school board has laid off nearly 60 people, including 47 union members, an attorney for the district acknowledged Tuesday. 
Austin Graff, the district lawyer, said the cuts were made for financial reasons, and some employees may resume their jobs if money is found in the budget later. The trims included two administrators and 10 teaching assistants, he said. 
Graff released specifics about the job cuts after the leader of Hempstead's teacher union said scores of teachers had been laid off. 
Calls earlier Tuesday to superintendent Susan Johnson, board president Betty Cross and other board members were not returned. 
More than 200 educators rallied Tuesday outside the district's administrative offices on Peninsula Boulevard, protesting both the layoffs and the way in which the board approved them -- by voting for the cuts without explicitly stating what they were for and in a "consent agenda" so those who attended were unaware of the approval at Thursday's board meeting. People who attended that gathering, a raucous event that Cross abruptly adjourned amid crowd protests against the board, said they were not aware the vote took place. 
Many were at the meeting to object to Cross' May 20 re-election. Challenger Maribel Touré filed a petition with Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. saying she is the true winner, contending questionable absentee ballots threw the results. The Nassau district attorney's office also is looking into the matter. 
Elias Mestizo, president of the Hempstead Classroom Teachers Association, said the district sent layoff notices to 47 employees -- including 30 classroom teachers, mostly at the elementary level, 11 reading teachers, three attendance teachers and three guidance counselors. 
He said he sent emails to union members Monday night notifying them of the job cuts. The district has a total of 530 teachers, he said. 
The possibility of staff trims had been known since late May, when the teachers were given letters stating that their positions could be "excessed," he said. 
Among those receiving layoff notices was Juan Carlos Rincon, 39, a special-education teacher who says he often bought his own supplies, including ink and paper. While he faced many challenges this school year -- he went without a teaching aide for several weeks -- he said he adores his job and was thrilled to educate the children of the community's Latino population. 
"Those kids are growing because of my hard work," he said. 
Nicole Brown, 42 and a mother of four, said she has been a reading teacher for 14 years. She has worked throughout the district, most recently with third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Jackson Annex School, improving their reading comprehension, writing and grammar. 
"This is my livelihood," the Wyandanch resident said. 
Maria Lugo, 37, and a single mother of three from Suffolk County, said she has worked as a reading teacher for eight years. 
Lugo said her services are critical for many of the students in the district. Some of her third-graders are two years behind, she said, and at the start of the year, they did not know such simple words as "was," "for" and "from." 
"My heart's broken," she said of being laid off.

LIHEMP25

Hempstead school board lays off 59 in secretive vote at lights-out meeting

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The Hempstead school board last night unanimously rescinded its vote for an investigation of Superintendent Susan Johnson's professional conduct, though residents and activists loudly questioned the legality of both the board's meeting and its action. 
Board members, after meeting in executive session for more than two hours, voted 5-0 against conducting the so-called Part 83 investigation. 
As with Thursday's raucous public meeting in the Hempstead High School auditorium, the meeting brought an eruption of recriminations and charges of illegality from residents and local activists. 
Hempstead attorney Frederick K. Brewington -- who has appealed the May 20 school board election to the state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr., alleging voter fraud -- questioned the validity of Monday's meeting, saying proper notice was not given and accusing the board of acting "under cover of darkness." After the meeting, Brewington said the school board "committed a farce last Thursday and this evening what they committed was a fraud, and they need to be ashamed of themselves." 
Later, school board candidate Maribel Touré, who lost a disputed contest with board president Betty Cross in the May election and is represented by Brewington in her appeal of the vote, spoke with reporters as she pleaded with King to intervene. 
"Please, Dr. King, look at the news, look at what we are suffering in Hempstead. It's time for you to take action. The time is now," Touré said. 
A Part 83 investigation falls under the authority of the state education commissioner. Board member Shelley Brazley proposed the probe at the Thursday meeting, expressing concern about proposed teacher layoffs and the shadow cast over the district by a grade-changing scandal, among other issues. 
At that time, the investigation was approved in a 3-2 vote, with board president Betty Cross and first vice president JoAnn Simmons in the minority. At its hastily called special meeting last night, the board held a lengthy executive session while residents, members of local activist groups and reporters waited in the hallway outside the board room on the second floor of the high school. 
The vote regarding the Part 83 investigation was in the midst of being taken as members of the public were allowed to enter the small room. 
When Cross was asked by a reporter the subject of the board's 5-0 vote, she said to ask the board secretary. Finally, a school district attorney, Austin Graff, read the resolution rescinding the board's vote last week on the Part 83 investigation of the superintendent. 
That prompted much shouting among the public, many of whom wanted to know why they weren't let in earlier to hear what was being voted on. 
Johnson and high school Principal Reginald Stroughn -- who has said he cannot vouch for the grades of seniors -- left the private session before members of the public were allowed in. Neither would comment.

Nassau

LIHEMP24

Hempstead board rescinds vote at hurried meeting

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Scores of protesters suddenly found themselves in the darkened Hempstead High School auditorium last night after they shouted for school board president Betty Cross' resignation and preservation of nearly 40 teaching positions -- before Cross abruptly adjourned the meeting and the lights went out. 
The board, moments before, voted 3-2 for an investigation of district Superintendent Susan Johnson's professional conduct, saying an outside agency's evaluation is needed. 
The meeting's swift end came as about 100 demonstrators chanted, "Step down now, Cross!" during the public comment period. Cross banged a gavel, but the loud calls continued. 
School board candidate Maribel Touré -- who initially had the second-highest number of votes in the May 20 election and is challenging Cross' election -- began to address the trustees. A security officer took the microphone from her hand. 
Elias Mestizo, president of the 530-member Hempstead Classroom Teachers Association, also attempted to speak, saying, "We are not the problem. We are the solution," as the auditorium lights flickered on and off before going out. Mestizo earlier had said he was concerned about the proposed teacher layoffs. 
With security guards telling people to leave, attendees used the glow from their cellphones to light their way out. 
At a protest outside the school before the meeting, members of the citizens' groups New York Communities for Change, The Corridor Counts and United For Change questioned the validity of Cross' election and asserted she is at least partly to blame for a variety of problems, including a grade-changing scandal that called some students' marks into question. 
The crowd chanted, "Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Failing schools have got to go," while holding signs referring to poor graduation rates and questions about management of funds. 
Most of the rhetoric centered on the tenure and controversial election of Cross. 
"We're calling for the board to understand that you can't steal an election," said attorney Frederick K. Brewington, who is representing Touré and filed a petition last week with state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. that alleges voter fraud and misuse of absentee ballots. 
Separately, the election is being investigated by the Nassau County district attorney's office. 
District officials have said the election was fair and open. Cross and district clerk Patricia Wright have not responded to requests for comment. 
All voting materials have been confiscated by the DA's office, sources close to the investigation have said, and the district was served with three subpoenas. 
The petition sent to King -- which names Cross, Wright and the district -- asks the education commissioner to invalidate Cross' election or to remove her from the board and allow the seat to go vacant until he renders a decision. 
The petition says some residents were tricked into voting for Cross when her supporters showed up at their doorsteps in the days before the election, absentee ballots in hand, in violation of election law. 
Some voters said in sworn statements accompanying the petition that they did not qualify for, nor did they ask for, absentee ballots. Some of them said they had planned to walk to the polls later on election day. 
Seven candidates ran in the election for two at-large seats. 
Ricky Cooke, who ran as a team with Touré, drew 802 votes on election night. Touré had 712 to Cross' 691. 
On May 21, dozens of absentee ballots were counted at a hastily called meeting, and Cross beat Touré by six votes. 
Of the 344 absentee ballots included in the final count, 172 were for Cross. None were for Cooke and Touré had seven, the district reported.While King can render a decision in the case while the DA's office conducts its investigation, a decision could take up to 10 months, officials have said.

LIHEMP20

Lights-out on crowd at Hempstead school board meeting

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A Nassau County State Supreme Court justice has denied a motion by three fired Hempstead school district principals who had sued to be reinstated and given back pay and benefits. 
The decision by Justice Norman Janowitz denied a motion by David Evans, of the Academy of Music &amp; Art, Helisse Palmore, of Barack Obama Elementary School, and James Thomas, of the Academy of Business &amp; Law, who were fired in April 2013. 
Michael Starvaggi, the union lawyer who had represented the three in a previous legal action connected with the case, could not be reached. Hempstead lawyer Frederick Brewington, who said he now represents the three, said the school district was not off the hook. 
"This does not mean that the school district is absolved of wrongdoing," he said. "We will respond both legally and publicly after further study of the court's decision." 
The school district's attorney, however, said the case is finished. "This case is over, no matter what anybody says," said Jonathan Scher. 
The three principals, along with a fourth principal and a science director, were fired without explanation by the school board, which voted 3-2 to terminate them. The three involved in the court action were fired shortly before being eligible for tenure. All of the dismissed administrators were hired under former Superintendent Patricia Garcia, who resigned in 2012 after three years. 
Janowitz had ruled earlier this year that the school district legally failed to evaluate the principals as required before termination, but he denied them everything else including reinstatement, back pay and benefits. He also ruled the case could go forward. 
Thursday's decision was in response to another court action asking for reinstatement and benefits. 
Janowitz called that motion a re-argument of the principals' previous position. He noted that he had not earlier considered whether the terminations were justified, only that the board had failed to take into account all relevant factors before the firings. 
"That failure apparently has been rectified in proceedings instituted subsequent to my remand [decision]," he said.

TOSKUL20

Court rules against 3 ex-Hempstead school district principals seeking reinstatement

A Hempstead school board candidate who believes she won in last month's vote made allegations of election fraud, coercion and abuse of the absentee balloting process and appealed Thursday to the state education commissioner, her lawyer said. 
Frederick K. Brewington, who represents candidate Maribel Touré, the second-highest vote-getter on election night May 20, included 25 affidavits from residents who said they were directed to or tricked into voting for board president Betty Cross or that they observed unlawful practices at the polling site at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School. 
Brewington is asking Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. to invalidate Cross' election or to remove her from the board and allow the seat to go vacant until he renders a decision. The petition names Cross, district clerk Patricia Wright and the district. 
"There are many people in Hempstead who live in fear," the attorney said at a news conference. "We will not allow Betty Cross to run anybody out of town. When we go to the commissioner, it's no longer in her control. It goes to the commissioner, and we take legal issues . . . and make it so clear that anybody who can see the side of a barn can make it out." 
Cross and Wright did not respond Thursday to requests for comment. 
Nathan Jackson, a district spokesman, said Cross won the election and it was carried out in accordance with the law. 
"The people of Hempstead voted her in," Jackson said. "She was sworn in by the board of education. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing." 
Absentee ballots at issue 
Austin Graff, an attorney for the school district, said he had not read the petition and could not comment. Previously, he has said the district ran a fair and open election, and he was unaware of any improprieties. 
Brewington, in the petition, said some voters who did not ask for and were not qualified to receive absentee ballots were surprised when Cross' supporters arrived on their doorsteps in the days before the election with such ballots in hand, asking for a vote in her favor and instructing residents where to sign. 
Many of the absentee ballots were walked to the polling site, in violation of election law, he charged. He also took issue with Hempstead High School students being driven to the polling site. The high school, for safety reasons, has a closed campus, he noted. 
Brewington initially appealed to the state Supreme Court, but a judge found he did not have jurisdiction and that the state education commissioner has the authority to decide the matter. 
State Department of Education spokesman Jonathan Burman concurred. 
"If he finds that a school district election was improperly held, the commissioner may set aside the election results and/or may order the district to conduct a new election," Burman said Thursday. "However, there is a presumption of regularity in the conduct of school district elections. The burden of proof rests on the person who challenges the results to establish all the facts based upon which he or she seeks to have the commissioner overturn the election results." 
King had not received Brewington's petition. It was sent to Albany Thursday by certified overnight mail, the lawyer said. 
Burman would not answer questions about whether all the votes would be thrown out if a new election were called, saying he could not comment on specifics "because of the very real possibility that the election results will be challenged in an appeal or appeals to the commissioner." 
The race -- for two open seats, elected at-large -- drew seven candidates. The one with the most votes was to fill a full three-year term. The candidate with the second-highest number of votes was to serve one year remaining on the term of Waylyn Hobbs Jr., who resigned last year. 
Cooke not in question 
On the evening of May 20, Ricky Cooke, who ran as a team with Touré, drew the most votes, with 802. His election has not been called into question. 
Touré was found to have 712 votes to Cross' 691. On May 21, dozens of absentee ballots were counted at a hastily called meeting, and Cross was found by Wright and the school board to have beaten Touré by six votes. 
Of the 344 absentee ballots included in the final count, Cross received 172. Cooke did not get any of those votes, and Touré got seven, the district reported. 
Cross was sworn in May 21 over numerous objections from Touré's attorney about the votes' validity. 
In a separate action, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice is also investigating, her office has confirmed. Sources close to the case have said Rice's office confiscated all voting materials and has issued three subpoenas in the matter. 
It was unclear Thursday how King could consider the case without reviewing materials now in the district attorney's possession.

LIHEMP13

Lawyer petitions state education commissioner on Hempstead school board election

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The principal who took over Hempstead High School after revelations of a grade-changing scandal says he has been shut out of responsibility for student scores for much of the school year and cannot vouch for the validity of graduating seniors' grades. 
District officials acknowledged Thursday that executive principal Reginald Stroughn was excluded from the process, but said they were justified in taking charge of grading and are confident that students' scores are accurate. 
Stroughn, who took the job in July 2013 as part of a management shake-up, said in an interview that he expects to be forced out at the end of this month and he wants the record to show that he does not bear responsibility for any further improprieties that may be uncovered. 
"I should have been in the loop. I'm not in the loop," said Stroughn, 62. "I came here with a good reputation. I'm going to leave here with my reputation intact. If I'd been in charge, I would have made sure our sons and daughters had the ability to graduate." 
Superintendent Susan Johnson, who took office in November 2012, confirmed through a spokesman that Stroughn will leave June 30. But the superintendent said that was the date agreed upon when he was hired -- a point disputed by Stroughn, who said the agreement was for a three-year stint. 
Stroughn, in a letter dated May 21 and sent to local and regional school officials, said Johnson earlier this year took responsibility for student grading out of his hands, though that normally is part of a principal's job. He said Johnson turned the task over to other managers. 
Consequently, Stroughn said, he could not verify the accuracy of more than 2,000 quarterly grades added to students' report cards this school year in an effort to fill in missing records, or the accuracy of transcripts of more than 300 students who are set to graduate June 29. 
Stroughn noted that the state Department of Education plans to conduct an audit of district grading practices as a follow-up to an initial, highly critical audit that was completed in April. 
Audit found grades altered 
That audit found that Hempstead officials routinely and improperly boosted students' grades from failing to passing during the 2012-13 school year, before Stroughn took over at the high school. Auditors reported that district employees changed 2,225 quarterly and final grades for 1,294 students that year, and that the district could provide reasons for only 8 percent of the changes. 
The 6,600-student Hempstead district is one of Long Island's poorest and has experienced frequent changes in political control of the school board and rapid turnover of administrators. Hempstead's graduation rate of 38 percent in 2011-12 was the lowest among the 124 districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties. 
The veteran principal, in his recent letter to Johnson, Nassau BOCES Superintendent Thomas Rogers and Roger Tilles, Long Island's representative on the state Board of Regents, listed his monthslong issues with the handling of high school students' grades, grade-point averages, transcripts and other records. 
He noted that large-scale problems with grading continued this academic year. As an example, he cited 2,200 grades found in February to be missing from the report cards of high school students for the first and second marking periods. 
Stroughn added that the job of filling in the missing grades was taken over by administrators in the district's information technology and guidance departments, working directly with teachers. 
Nathan Jackson, the district's public relations representative, Thursday confirmed the number of missing grades, and said they were missing for a variety of reasons. Those included technical problems with electronic record keeping, late data entries by some teachers and midterm departures by some other teachers who took medical leaves, he said. 
Jackson also confirmed that Johnson had excluded the principal from a group of administrators responsible for managing student grading. Jackson said the superintendent believed such action was necessary to make sure that corrections of student records went smoothly, especially because Hempstead was being monitored by state auditors. 
"The superintendent saw that Mr. Stroughn was not up to the task and intervened to avoid the potential mishandling of the situation, since the district is under scrutiny," Jackson said in a written statement. 
New electronic system 
The statement explained that Hempstead had moved to electronic recording of student grades before Johnson's and Stroughn's arrivals, and encountered technical problems with the new system. Previously, the district relied on teachers to keep paper grade books and enter grades manually into an electronic database. 
A report presented to the school board Thursday showed 326 seniors at the high school, including 111 who have been in high school more than four years. Of the total, 158 students were listed as definitely due to graduate later this month, 111 as potentially due to graduate and 57 as not expected to graduate. 
"We're going to make an intense effort the next 10 to 15 days to get students through Regents exams, whatever we have to do academically," added Betty Cross, the school board president. "I feel good about it." 
Tilles, of Great Neck, has urged the Education Department to press its inquiry into Hempstead's grading practices. 
"We haven't seen anything like this in my nine years on the Regents," said Tilles, referring to the number of grades altered that were cited in the Education Department's audit. 
Stroughn also was Hempstead High's principal from 2003 to 2009 -- a period when graduation rates peaked at 65 percent before falling slightly. In 2008, the School Administrators Association of New York State named him high school principal of the year.

LISKUL06

Hempstead High principal: I can't vouch for students' grades

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Hempstead school board candidate Maribel Touré, who is fighting results that gave incumbent Betty Cross a narrow victory in last month's election, joined dozens of community members Tuesday in a march on Village Hall to protest the mayor's contention that "outside influence" was being exerted on the outcome. 
Touré, alongside members of New York Communities for Change and The Corridor Counts, asked Mayor Wayne J. Hall Sr. in a board meeting Tuesday night why he stood by Cross, who won the election by just a handful of votes. 
Days after the election, Hall was the second speaker in a news conference held in Cross' honor. He said he was tired of outside influences trying to determine the election results. 
But Tuesday, he said he did not support Cross: He said he voted for Touré. 
"I'm for the kids," he said, adding that while he spoke at the news conference, "I wasn't supporting any candidate." 
He also said that while Cross has been blamed by some for the district's low graduation rates, parents and other board members are also responsible for how the children fare. 
"One person does not make a school board," he said. 
He and Deputy Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said repeatedly that they did not have influence over the school district -- that they are two different entities -- but community leaders pressed them to take more responsibility; one speaker asked them to sign a letter demanding that Cross resign. 
Hall did not respond. 
Touré and Ricky Cooke ran in the May 20 election as a team; Cooke had by far the highest vote count among seven candidates. 
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice is investigating the election. Her office has issued three subpoenas and confiscated all materials related to the vote, those with knowledge of the case have said. 
Touré's attorney, Fred Brewington, has said he plans to file a complaint with the state Department of Education. Commissioner John B. King Jr. has authority to decide the matter. 
On election night, Touré led with 712 votes to Cross' 691. 
The next day, when 31 absentee ballots were opened, Cross won by six votes. 
She and Cooke were sworn in that day, May 21. Cross, 67, has served on the board for more than 25 years and is its current president.Community members who participated in Tuesday's march said they want change. 
Mary Crosson, 66 and a Hempstead resident for 20 years, said her granddaughter had to move out of the school district to get a better education. 
Crosson said her own daughter, a Hempstead graduate, had to take remedial classes in college because she was poorly prepared in high school. 
"I want to see the children learn," she said.

LIHEMP04

School candidate joins march, presses Hempstead mayor on statements

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Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice is investigating a disputed Hempstead school board race, her chief spokesman said yesterday.
Sources with knowledge of the case said investigators were present in the school district Thursday, two days after the vote on two board seats and the district's nearly $185 million budget.
Shams Tarek, Rice's spokesman, declined to comment further.
Austin Graff, an attorney for the school district, confirmed that it received three subpoenas from Rice's office. Graff declined to elaborate. "The DA has her job to do," Graff said. "If the DA finds criminality, those people should be prosecuted."
Graff said the school district ran a fair and open election, though some people may be upset about the results.
A source close to the investigation said the district attorney's office took machines, paper ballots of all kinds, envelopes, notes, records, signature books and sheets, lists, logs, sample ballots and other correspondence relating to the election.
Hempstead attorney Frederick J. Brewington, representing candidates who contend there were voting irregularities, called the district attorney's probe "an appropriate step."
"We're saddened it had to come to that," Brewington said at a news conference Friday in his Hempstead office.
Absentee ballots the focus
At issue in the race are scores of absentee ballots.
On election night, candidate Maribel Touré led with 712 votes to Betty Cross' 691. The following morning, when 31 disputed absentee ballots were opened over Brewington's objections, Cross had a six-vote lead.
Cross was sworn in Wednesday, as was Ricky Cooke, top vote-getter among seven candidates for two at-large posts.
Cross declined to speak at a news conference held in her honor Friday on the steps of the school district's administrative offices.
Local elected officials and pastors by her side condemned so-called "outsiders" for inserting themselves into the situation.
"We are joining this morning . . . to discuss the outside influence in our village of people trying to pick our leaders," said Wayne J. Hall Sr., mayor of Hempstead Village. "We are tired of that. We want to be able to sit and work this out our own self."
The Rev. Joe L. Brown, pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Hempstead, concurred, saying the village can solve its own problems.
"We would like for all outsiders to leave us alone," he said.
In addition to the district attorney's investigation, a probe at the state level is possible.
Brewington, who represents Touré and Cooke, said he soon will appeal to state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. about the validity of the election.
Brewington made that announcement Thursday after State Supreme Court Justice Arthur M. Diamond granted a temporary restraining order to preserve all records associated with the vote. The judge did not take any other action after determining he had limited jurisdiction in the case.
State weighs in 
Jonathan Burman, a state Education Department spokesman, said Thursday that school board elections are handled locally. If King is asked to weigh in, a decision could take months, a department website detailing the appeals process said.
The commissioner will give "great deference" to decisions made by local officials, according to the site.
On Friday, Burman said an investigation by the district attorney "should not impact the commissioner's authority to render a decision in an administrative appeal" under state education law, if such an appeal is brought.
Touré, 52, and Cooke, 56, ran as a team. Neither has served on the school board previously. Cross, 67, has served on the board for more than 25 years and is its current president.
In recent pre-election interviews, all three spoke of what they consider the district's most pressing issues.
Touré, an X-ray technologist and certified mammographer, called for an independent audit into the district's finances to curb what she said is wasteful spending.
Cooke, an education consultant who has worked as a substitute teacher in district schools, said the culture of the administration must change, with school officials taking opinions of residents and staff into account.
Cross, a retired nurse, said she wants to grow the curriculum for science, reading and math.
The Hempstead school district serves about 6,300 students. About three-quarters of them were classified as economically disadvantaged by the state in a 2012-13 report. High school students had a 44 percent graduation rate that year, the report found.
The beleaguered school system recently was found by the state to have changed more than 2,200 quarter and final student grades, mostly from failing to passing.

Nassau DA investigating contested Hempstead school board race

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The attorney for candidates in a contentious Hempstead school board race said he will appeal election results to state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. after a state judge said he did not have jurisdiction in the matter. 
The announcement came after a hearing Thursday before State Supreme Court Justice Arthur M. Diamond in Mineola. The judge did grant a temporary restraining order to preserve all records associated with Tuesday's vote. 
At issue are scores of absentee ballots that led to the declaration Wednesday of incumbent Betty Cross' election over Maribel Touré by six votes. Ricky Cooke, top vote-getter among seven candidates running for two at-large posts, was sworn in to the other open seat. 
Hempstead attorney Fred Brewington said he will appeal to King as soon as possible. 
Jonathan Burman, a state Education Department spokesman, said, "School board elections are handled locally, and local school officials must determine if a candidate has been elected. Challenges to election results declared by the school district must be appealed, in the first instance, to the commissioner of education." 
Education law and the commissioner's regulations govern the appeals process. 
According to the department's website, "the commissioner gives great deference to decisions by local officials." Even if he would have decided the matter differently, "he will not substitute the district's judgment with his own" unless he can find "no rational, reasonable basis for the district's actions." 
The state's website said, too, that a decision could take several months. 
It said the commissioner can remove a trustee if he finds "willful misconduct or neglect of duty." But he will not do so "unless it is clearly established that the officer acted intentionally and with a wrongful purpose to . . . violate the law . . . neglect his duty, or . . . disobey a decision, order or regulation of the commissioner." 
The commissioner will not remove a school officer "if he or she has merely used poor judgment," the website says. 
Brewington and Touré believe she will be found to have gotten more votes than Cross after the disputed ballots are thrown out. The attorney said the judge's decision will help him prove the "criminal theft of this election." 
Austin Graff, an attorney for the school district, said he stands behind the handling of the election. "There is nothing to tell me that it wasn't done properly," he said. Cross was not present at the hearing. 
The district argued in court that only King could decide the matter and cited two cases as precedent. One involved an election in the Roosevelt school district that was decided in 1987, and the other concerned a vote for expansion of a North Hempstead school in 1964. 
According to the Nassau County Board of Elections, absentee ballots are given only to people who are unavoidably absent from the county on election day, are unable to appear at the polls because of illness or disability, are a patient in a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, or are in jail awaiting grand jury action or in prison for a non-felony offense. 
Roger Tilles, Long Island's representative on the state Board of Regents, which sets education policy, said he was concerned about the legal wrangling, but added there are no easy solutions to the Hempstead district's academic and political troubles. At a Regents meeting Monday in Albany, Tilles urged the panel to take significant action in the district, in part by appointing a distinguished educator as a state monitor of its school board. 
His call stemmed from results of a recent Education Department audit that found district employees routinely and improperly meddled with students' test scores, changing 2,225 quarterly and final grades for 1,294 high school students in the 2012-13 school year. 
However, in a phone interview Thursday, Tilles said he agreed with colleagues, including King, that the monitoring approach has limitations. 
"A monitor works only if the board works with the monitor," Tilles said. 
King had said Monday he will come up with recommendations for action in Hempstead. 
Regents have appointed monitors for a Long Island district once -- Roosevelt in 1995. The monitoring eventually led to a direct, 11-year state takeover of Roosevelt that ended last year. Tilles and other state officials have ruled out more takeovers. 
With John Hildebrand

LIHEMP23

Hempstead school candidates say they will complain to state

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The hotly contested Hempstead school board race remained in chaos last night with an incumbent being sworn in and her main opponent vowing to contest the election. 
A hearing is scheduled Thursday in Nassau Supreme Court to discuss, among other things, the validity of absentee ballots. 
Longtime school board member Betty Cross took the oath Wednesday after a raucous and hastily called meeting was held to count absentee ballots that were called into question Tuesday night. After the count, Cross had enough absentee ballots to overtake challenger Maribel Touré, who led Tuesday night with 712 votes to Cross' 691. 
Newcomer Ricky Cooke, the top vote-getter in the race and Touré's running mate, was also sworn in at the meeting. 
Tuesday night, 61 absentee ballots were called into question with 30 ruled invalid, leading to Wednesday's count. 
Afterward, Cross went ahead with 719 votes compared to 713 for Touré. 
She then resumed her role on the board after the results were certified by the school district's clerk. 
Attorneys for Touré and other Cross opponents requested a temporary restraining order Tuesday forbidding the certification of the election until the ballots and all other materials connected to it are inspected. 
At Wednesday's meeting to count the absentee ballots, Touré's attorney, Rick Montano, was nearly thrown out by school district security guards after he argued against the process. In her position on the school board, Cross told Montano repeatedly that he was forbidden from speaking on the issue. She changed her mind and allowed him to speak after huddling with the school district's attorneys. 
"We have a series of questions with respect to who won this election," Montano said. 
Earlier, attorney Frederick J. Brewington, the lead attorney for Touré and Cook, asked anyone in the school district who has witnessed election wrongdoing over the years to come forward to "cleanse their souls and tell the truth." 
Hempstead school board clerk Patricia Wright said there was nothing untoward about the voting process Tuesday. 
"I had poll watchers in the room," she said. "There were no irregularities." 
School board officials said the validity of the 61 absentee ballots was checked at the Nassau County Board of Elections Wednesday morning and it was determined that 30 were filed by nonresidents. 
Early Wednesday, Cooke and Touré announced themselves as winners, but Austin Graff, an attorney for the district, said that was premature. 
"In order for the election results to be finalized and declared, it has to be adopted by the board of education," he said in an interview prior to the board meeting. 
At the meeting, Touré said the hazy finish to the hard-fought race was "business as usual" in the beleaguered Hempstead district and the students are the ones who eventually suffer. 
Cross' critics blame the incumbent for the district's low graduation rate, for the lack of programs and services for children, and for creating a climate of fear in the district. 
The state Education Department found earlier this week that Hempstead changed some 2,200 final and quarter grades for its students, pushing many from failing to passing.

LIHEMP22

Hempstead school board race disputed even as Betty Cross is sworn in

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Hats off to the Hempstead school district. On Tuesday, residents almost doubled previous numbers at the polls. And while results remained muddy Tuesday night, the board got one new member, Ricky A. Cooke Sr., who could be joined by another after an absentee ballot court challenge. 
What happens now? Actually, some 350 residents who met over a series of weeks to talk about schools have some idea. They're looking for greater community oversight for the board, along with fiscal transparency. 
For children, they're looking for better parent-school communications and smaller class sizes. And for Hempstead overall, they're looking for stronger community-school ties. 
The list seems so simple, -- mundane even. But what makes it extraordinary is that it's rising up from Hempstead. From teachers, parents and community members; African-Americans, immigrants and the district's majority Latino student population. 
It's a bottom-up, active, engaged coalition that Hempstead -- consistently, one of Long Island's lowest performing districts -- hasn't seen in decades. One that could -- and should -- seed clones in other segregated, low-performing districts. 
The narrative in Hempstead is that school board president Betty Cross needed to be replaced. That's wrong. Because much of the decades-long systemic dysfunction in that and other majority-black-and-Hispanic school districts does not rise from one personality. Or bad boards. 
In fact, forget about viewing them as purely education-related entities at all. 
Instead, they might be better understood as fiefdoms, with the ability to gift jobs and contracts -- potent power in neighborhoods lacking solid economic development and a strong tax base. 
They act like political machines because, well, they're machines -- which, sadly and far too often, makes self-survival trump the fortunes of students they serve. In Hempstead, for decades, Cross has been Boss. 
Hempstead's abysmal school graduation rate would not be tolerated, excused -- or shielded from view by manipulation of grades -- by parents anywhere. 
But in Hempstead, parents complained about being cut out of the process. And, in some cases, ignored or asked to leave board meetings. 
And Hempstead -- along with other districts -- also had to grapple with the region's changing demographics. As schools became mostly Hispanic, it was inevitable that Latinos would push for power -- no matter how hard entrenched African-American leadership pushed back. 
The conflict was compounded by the fact that, for decades in many segregated Long Island neighborhoods, districts were the only seats of power in town. 
But change comes. And, in Hempstead, it started at the public library -- long before Tuesday's raucous election. Beginning in March, the Long Island Civic Engagement Table pulled together 16 local organizations -- from the local Classroom Teachers Association to The Corridor Counts, a political advocacy group -- to talk about schools. 
Cross went to the first session but left before the group drafted its first suggestions for pulling up Hempstead schools. No matter the final results, Hempstead's new coalition must stand up, and stay together, to get that work done.

Columnists

Joye Brown

LIJOY22

A simple to-do list for Hempstead schools

ALBANY -- The Hempstead Union Free School District routinely and improperly boosted students' grades from failing to passing, according to a State Education Department audit that for the first time quantifies the scope of the grade changes. 
The audit, discussed Monday by a State Board of Regents committee, found district employees changed 2,225 quarterly and final grades for 1,294 high school students. The district could provide reasons for only 8 percent of the changes. The audit covered the 2012-13 school year. 
Newsday reported last year that the district had rounded some grades up to passing. But the Education Department audit provides the first accounting of the total number of changes, both up and down. 
"The district has a longstanding informal policy in which grades ranging from 61 to 64 have been changed to 65," the audit stated. 
Hempstead has long trailed other Nassau and Suffolk county districts in performance, yet spends $3,400 more per student than the average Long Island district, Regent Roger Tilles said Monday. 
"It is clearly a dysfunctional school," Tilles said of Hempstead High. "This district is clearly failing them." 
He urged the board to take significant action, just short of a state takeover of the high school. The state could appoint a "distinguished educator" as a state monitor, who with district cooperation would work to hasten improvements. 
"We have to take action when you see kids falling in a hole year after year," Tilles said. "They just don't have a chance." 
"To me, it's all about quality of leadership, quality of teachers, quality of curriculum and governance," Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said. 
The Board of Regents Monday ordered an investigation into the district over widespread grade inflation and will consider more changes in how the district operates. 
State Education Commissioner John King Jr. said he will deliver a plan for action, while officials said the department's audit unit will dig deeper into grade inflation and spending in Hempstead. 
Education Department officials said grade inflation and any misuse of state funds will be examined for possible criminal action. 
Hempstead board president Betty Cross did not respond to a request for comment Monday. 
In March, the district said it had drafted polices to address the grade inflation issue based on the state's recommendations. 
District Superintendent Susan Johnson said in December that in many cases no reasons for grade changes were provided by employees who made them. She referred to an "old district practice" of rounding up grades of 63 or 64 to passing. That practice was revived in May 2013, Johnson said. 
The audit of student test scores found many of the students whose grades were raised were out of school for disciplinary or medical reasons and their grades were increased by "home school tutors." 
Johnson said the policy for students being tutored at home for disciplinary or medical reasons is for the classroom teacher to provide a "low or minimal grade," which is replaced by the grade from the home school tutor. Insertion "of the home-school tutor's grade was the grade change," Johnson said. 
The district, with nearly 6,000 students, long has struggled to raise its graduation rate, which in 2011-12 was 38 percent, the lowest of any of Long Island's 124 public school districts, the audit said. In 2012-13, Hempstead High graduated 222 students, according to the audit. 
Boosting grades could improve the district's graduation rate. Student grades also can be factors in job evaluations for teachers and principals. 
During the audit period, the state considered whether to add Hempstead to its list of districts requiring immediate improvement. 
While auditors did not detail how many of the 2,225 grade changes boosted students from failing to passing, they said they examined a sample of 180 students who had had their grades changed in 2012-13. Of the 180, 115 -- 64 percent -- had one or more grades changed from failing to passing. 
The sampled students had a combined 463 grade changes, and 220 -- 48 percent -- were from failing to passing. Other grade changes did not affect whether the students passed or failed the course."We did receive copies of memorandums, which date from June 1999 to June 2009, from district administrators to teachers instructing them not to use any grades ranging from 61 to 64," the audit said. "We noted that these memorandums did not constitute formal Board approved District policy." 
The school board met in "July 2013, just prior to our audit and adopted a policy barring such a practice," the audit said.

Politics

Audit: District changed grades for 1,294 students

NY audit finds Hempstead routinely inflated grades to passing 

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The Hempstead school system perennially steals its students' futures. 
Year after year, it fails miserably in its mission. That failure is all the more disturbing because the community it serves is beset by entrenched poverty and racial tension. 
Education should lift up the young and provide pathways to success.
But Hempstead's graduation rate is 38 percent, the lowest on Long Island. Hundreds of students as young as kindergarten age are taught in moldy, leaky trailers. Race relations are a daily tinderbox.
Fixing the schools is an economic imperative, too. The district's ineptitude threatens to undermine a $2.5-billion plan to revitalize downtown Hempstead, once the throbbing commercial center of Nassau County. The project is exciting but could be doomed. Who would move there to be part of a renewal if it means sending their children to Hempstead's schools? 
Many of the district's problems stem from a pernicious lack of leadership. Hempstead's school board has been ineffective and intransigent.
School board elections take place Tuesday. It's time for a change. A big change.
Because of the magnitude of the problems and the urgency to get things right, Newsday's editorial board is taking the unusual step of making endorsements in a local school board race.
Two of the board's five seats are open. They are held by president Betty J. Cross and fellow incumbent Leonard Myers. Cross is at the heart of the board's dysfunction. Her tenure has been marked by nepotistic hiring, backroom deals, a lack of transparency, high turnover of key administrators, indifference to poor relations between blacks and Latinos, and hostility to parent and teacher input. Myers, her former campaign manager whose board appointment Cross engineered in December, is her yes-man. Both must go.
Fortunately, the other five candidates understand the challenges and the need for reform. But two rise above the rest.
Newsday endorses Ricky A. Cooke Sr. and Maribel C. Touré.
Running as a team, Cooke and Touré are backed by several key community groups. Both have had or have children in district schools and each speaks with an understanding of Hempstead's problems and with passion about its promise. Cooke, an education consultant, is a 1976 Hempstead grad who yearns for a return to those better days. Touré, an X-ray technologist who emigrated from Mexico and whose husband is black, embodies a district that is 59 percent Hispanic and 37 percent black. She has been a persistent critic at board meetings. The duo says the board must be transparent, willing to work with teachers and parents, and spend more wisely; Hempstead's $24,000 per-pupil expenditure is $3,000 a year above the state average. Both candidates deplore racial tensions in the district. Cooke recalls how poorly blacks were treated by whites upon moving into Hempstead several decades ago and laments, "Now we're doing to new people what happened to us."
Hempstead's problems can't be fixed overnight. But they won't be fixed if the school board is not committed to fixing them.
Hempstead needs new leaders. Newsday endorses Cooke and Touré.

Opinion

VPHEMP16

Editorial: Elect new board members to fix Hempstead schools

Editorial: Time for change on the Hempstead school board

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Hempstead schools Superintendent Susan Johnson may have erred when she demanded that a fired principal leave district property after he tried to attend a school board meeting on Tuesday, according to experts on public meetings. 
Johnson confronted David Evans in the school district's office outside a closed-door executive session the board was holding during a special meeting at school headquarters. Evans was one of three principals who sued the district last year after the school board dismissed them, dissolved the academy system and re-created one large high school. 
"You are not allowed on school district property," Johnson told Evans in front of members of the public, saying he had been notified he was banned from school grounds. 
Johnson summoned security officers to the office, but Evans, who was nonconfrontational, had already left. 
"I was never told verbally or in writing that I was banned or couldn't come onto school property," Evans, former principal of the Academy of Music &amp; Art, said in an interview Wednesday, adding he attended the meeting to give his business card to board members and tell them he wanted to work again for the district. "I've never done anything anywhere to get banned." 
Earlier this month, district officials appealed a Nassau County Supreme Court ruling that found the district failed to comply with state law when it fired the principals before conducting a performance evaluation. 
Terminated employees or individuals who have sued the district should have the same access to board meetings and school facilities as other members of the public, unless there is a protective order signed by a court barring an individual access, said David Albert, spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association.Evans and his lawyer, Michael A. Starvaggi, said there was no such notice. 
"Whether they like him or not . . . it doesn't matter," said Robert J. Freeman, executive director of the Committee on Open Government, which oversees the state's open meetings law. "The person has a right to be there." 
School officials did not respond to a request for comment. 
During the meeting, the board voted 4-1 to adopt a proposed budget of $184.96 million for 2014-2015, under the 2 percent tax levy cap. 
There will be another school board meeting Thursday at 7.Trustee Shelley Brazley, who said she had less than 24 hours to review the proposal, voted against the budget, which calls for a 3.42 percent increase from the current budget.

TOHEMP24

Experts: Superintendent wrong to order fired principal from school property

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The Hempstead school district has appealed a court ruling that found it had failed to comply with a state law when it fired three principals last year. 
The school district filed a notice of appeal last week with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the state of New York, after a Nassau County Supreme Court judge decided last month in favor of the fired principals -- David Evans, Helisse Palmore and James Thomas -- who had sued the district in July. 
“As a general rule, the district does not comment upon pending litigation,” spokesman Nathan Jackson said in a statement. 
The lawsuit stemmed from the school board voting in April 2013 to dismiss Palmore, then principal of Barack Obama Elementary School; Evans, of the Academy of Music &amp; Art; and Thomas, of the Academy of Business &amp; Law. 
Justice Norman Janowitz in Mineola ruled that the school district failed to evaluate the principals as required by a 2010 education law that calls for an “Annual Professional Performance Review” to be a “significant factor” in all employment decisions, including terminations. 
“I am confident that the appeal won’t be successful because I think the case is pretty straightforward,” said Michael A. Starvaggi, the attorney for the Council of Administrators and Supervisors. He said the principals are entitled to be reinstated with back pay. 
After the dismissals, the school board voted to dissolve its high school three-academy system that started in September 2010 and return to one large high school. It later hired Reginald Stroughn, Hempstead’s principal from 2003 until he retired in 2009, to be executive principal of the high school, along with four assistant principals.

District appeals over firing of principals

Hempstead school district appeals over firing of principals

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It really should come as little surprise that a judge has found that the Hempstead school board acted improperly when it fired three principals last year. The ruling exposes once again the dysfunction, deception and ineffectiveness that has characterized this board for years. 
The school board violated state law in firing the principals in April 2013 because it failed to evaluate them through a required annual professional performance review, according to Nassau Supreme Court Justice Norman Janowitz. The relevant statute says a review must be "a significant factor" in employment decisions, including termination. It doesn't get more basic than that. Without a review, the board's decision to fire the trio looks suspiciously like many other arbitrary decisions made by a body notorious for cronyism and nepotism. 
One of the justifications offered in court by Hempstead's attorneys was that "dismal" student scores likely would have led to poor reviews and termination anyway. By that measure, hardly anyone should be retained in Hempstead, one of the poorest-performing districts on Long Island. But that and other post-firing rationalizations disguise some simple truths yet to be learned by this school board. 
Process matters. Transparency matters. Law matters. 
The episode highlights the need for strong advocates in the community, and opposition on the ballot to give residents choices. Fortunately, we're seeing more of both as school board elections approach in May. And that will give residents a chance to decide what kind of school board they would like to have.

VPHEMP03

Editorial: Hempstead school district is exposed again

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A Nassau County Supreme Court judge has ruled that the Hempstead School District failed to comply with a state law when it fired three principals last year who could now be reinstated. 
The March 12 decision from Justice Norman Janowitz in Mineola comes after the fired principals -- David Evans, Helisse Palmore and James Thomas -- sued the district in July. 
The lawsuit stemmed from the school board voting in April 2013 to dismiss Palmore, then principal of Barack Obama Elementary School, Evans of the Academy of Music &amp; Art and Thomas of the Academy of Business &amp; Law, along with three administrators. 
Janowitz ruled that the school district failed to evaluate the principals as required by a 2010 education law that calls for an "Annual Professional Performance Review" to be a "significant factor" in all employment decisions, including terminations. 
"Since they [the school board] didn't do the evaluation at all, there is no way they could have taken the evaluation into consideration before firing them," said Michael A. Starvaggi, the attorney for the Council of Administrators and Supervisors. "They violated the law." 
The three principals are entitled to be reinstated with full back pay and benefits, Starvaggi said. All were eligible for tenure at the time of their dismissals. Attorneys representing the school district acknowledged in court documents that the evaluation procedures were not completed before the three principals were terminated but attributed it to not receiving the necessary data to conduct the evaluations. They also argued that the positions held by Evans and Thomas would have been eliminated in the subsequent restructuring of the high school. 
The school district attorneys also claimed that "dismal" student scores and the principals' conduct after they were told of their terminations would have provided additional reasons for denying them tenure. 
Hempstead schools spokesman Nathan Jackson declined to comment on the ruling, saying in a statement that "the District's policy . . . is not to comment on that pending litigation, until all matters are finally concluded, including any and all issues that may be appealed." 
The court dismissed petitions of the three former administrators challenging their firing -- English Language Arts director Keshia Rucker, technology director Carlos Ramirez and science director Francisco Roca. After the dismissals, the school board voted to dissolve its high school three-academy system that started in September 2010 and return to one large high school. It later hired Reginald Stroughn, Hempstead's principal from 2003 until he retired in 2009, to be executive principal of the high school, along with four assistant principals.

Judge: Hempstead school district wrongly fired principals

More than 150 community activists, parents, students and education officials debated ways to improve the Hempstead school district during a heated forum Tuesday night. 
Civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington of Hempstead and Adelphi University professor Sergio Argueta spoke at the packed meeting at the Hempstead public library about the school district's poor academic performance, low graduation and high dropout rates, questionable spending and revolving door of leadership. 
"We're not here to point the finger, but we're here to shine light," said Argueta, director of Adelphi's undergraduate social work program and a former Hempstead district student. 
Current and former Hempstead school board members at the meeting objected to Brewington's and Argueta's assertions of impropriety. In the audience were Superintendent Susan Johnson, school board president Betty Cross and board member Lamont Johnson. 
"There are three sides to every story," said Cross, who shouted from the audience. "Anybody can get up and point the finger. We need to sit down and come together and work together." 
The meeting was the first of three workshops organized by the New York Civil Liberties Union's Nassau Chapter and several community groups. The others will be held at the library on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. and April 3 at 6:30 p.m. 
The district that serves about 6,000 students has a $179 million budget. The dropout rate for Hempstead High School was 18 percent and the graduation rate was 40.7 percent in 2012. The district has a history of not meeting state standards in English and Math, Brewington and Argueta said. 
Meanwhile, the number of professional staff, such as social workers, fell from 107 in 2008-09 to 37 in 2010-11, Argueta said. 
"If the supports mechanism that serve as safety nets for the children are not necessarily there, there is a cocktail for danger," Brewington said. 
Other concerns in the school district include violence and strained racial relationships. 
"The next adult that tells me there is no racial tension in this school district, you are either blind or straight-up ignorant," Argueta said. 
Among the potential solutions discussed were a need for cultural diversity education and more Spanish-speaking staff. 
"If they translate, the students would learn more," said Jorge Eduardo Guerrero, 10, a fourth-grader at Jackson Annex School in front of 50 people."We need more Spanish speakers." 
Some attendees also supported the idea of term limits for board members. 
But setting term limits by the board or residents is not possible, said Barbara Bradley, spokeswoman for the New York State School Boards Association.

TOHEMP20

Hempstead School District problems argued at packed meeting

When it comes to secrecy and deception, the Hempstead school board has few peers. Alas, that's the only standard by which the board can be judged exceptional. It continues to flunk basic tests of openness and transparency required of all public institutions. 
The latest example was the firing of Deputy Superintendent Julius Brown. Whatever the merits of his termination -- Brown was dismissed after publicly admitting last summer that the district was routinely rounding up final course grades of 63 and 64 to passing marks of 65 -- the process was lacking. 
The board discussed his firing during the private executive session that preceded its regular meeting on Jan. 16, and all five members agreed to the termination. But a vote must be done in public, and no specific vote on Brown's firing was taken that night. A district spokesman said the resolution to fire Brown was part of the consent calendar -- a group of resolutions voted on as one when board approval is unanimous. But Brown's firing was not on the agenda given to the public that night and was not amended verbally at the meeting. So no one was aware the board was voting to fire Brown. 
The spokesman said the board has nothing to hide. It is true the board met its legal obligation to put the resolution to fire Brown in the meeting's minutes. But it long ago forfeited the benefit of the doubt on matters related to secrecy and misleading the public. On several occasions, for example, it has called special meetings on controversial issues and failed to notify the public and media. 
The district has myriad problems, including an abysmal graduation rate and continual turnover of top academic officials. These issues are best dealt with openly. "If there are steps we have to take to ensure people we have nothing to hide, we'll do that," the spokesman said. 
The board is on notice. The shenanigans must stop.

VPHEMP06

Editorial: Hempstead school board should stop playing games

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The Hempstead school district board has dismissed Julius Brown, the deputy superintendent who last year admitted the district rounded up final course grades of 63 and 64 to a passing mark of 65. 
Brown was fired after a 5-0 vote at the Jan. 16 school board meeting, according to trustee Shelley Brazley and other district officials with knowledge of the move. 
"Mr. Brown was terminated," Brazley said Wednesday. 
Attempts to reach school board president Betty Cross were unsuccessful. Brown did not respond to requests for comment. District spokesman Nathan Jackson and the district's attorney, Monte Chandler, declined to comment, citing the need to keep personnel matters private. 
The school board in December 2012 voted to hire Brown as deputy superintendent until Dec. 31, 2016. Brown received compensation of $215,165 in 2013, according to the New York State Teachers Retirement System. 
Brown, 60, of Baldwin, had worked for Hempstead Public Schools since 1978, including as assistant superintendent for personnel and principal of the Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School. 
Brown had said before the grade-changing policy was rescinded by the school board in July that rounding up grades is standard in public schools. He said at the time that the practice had been designed to prevent confrontations among teachers, parents and students, and to give students a better chance of attending college. 
The school board fired Carlos Ramirez, district director of technology, in July. Ramirez told state authorities in June that the 6,000-student district systematically rounded up some students' failing grades to passing scores. Ramirez filed a lawsuit in November claiming wrongful termination and violation of the state's whistle-blower protection law. 
"It shows they do everything behind doors and there is no transparency," Maribel C. Touré, mother of a high school senior, said Wednesday, adding that she was not pleased with Brown's performance. "It's like nothing surprises us anymore from the board of education."

TOSUPE30

Hempstead school board fires Julius Brown

The question of how to fill a vacant trustee seat provided the Hempstead school board with another chance to demonstrate some integrity, to show it is responsive to community concerns, and to indicate it takes seriously its educational mission. But once again, the board failed miserably. Its selection of Leonard Myers to fill the open seat smacks of the cronyism and dysfunction that for years has held down Long Island's worst-performing school district. It simply fails the smell test -- on its merits, on the process, and on its symbolism.
Myers, 80, a former businessman, has lived in Hempstead Village for 50 years. More important, he is a former campaign manager and longtime confidant to board president Betty Cross, whose nepotistic hires and backroom dealing is the stuff of legend. It's not like the board lacked for candidates. In August, it asked for resumes and cover letters from anyone interested in serving. Eleven people responded -- but not Myers. The board conducted interviews in November. Then it chose Myers. Cross has not explained the decision or said anything about the qualifications of the 11 respondents. Included in that group were two Hispanic candidates, both of whom were interviewed. Some community members had lobbied loudly for such representation in a district where nearly 60 percent of the students are Hispanic. Instead, the board remains entirely African-American.
The Hempstead school district is beset by myriad problems. Its graduation rate is the Island's lowest. Cross' reign of error has featured continual turnover of district superintendents and building principals. Residents should take matters into their own hands. Those seeking Hispanic representation should draft candidates for May's elections and vote for them. And anyone frustrated by the corrosive lack of leadership should note that Cross' seat is one of those up for grabs.

VPHEMP27

Editorial: Hempstead school board fails to lead -- again

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A small group of outraged Hempstead Village community activists and parents rallied Thursday, demanding a probe into why the district board of education appointed a trustee not on its candidate list, despite calls to hold a special election or appoint a Hispanic trustee. 
 Advocates said that last week, without giving sufficient notice, the school board met and voted 3-1 to appoint Leonard Myers, 80, to replace trustee Waylyn Hobbs, who resigned from the board in July with two years remaining on his term. 
 "It seems like the community and the kids are being bullied by the board because everyone is being cut out of the process," said retired NYPD Det. Dennis Jones, 52, of Hempstead, parent of a high school sophomore. "We're looking for the board to go back with their power and rescind their decision because it's outraging the community." 
 About 10 people from New York Communities for Change rallied Thursday outside the district's central administration office before marching to deliver a copy to the district of a letter that calls on the state education commissioner to investigate potential board misconduct and violations of open meeting laws. 
 State education spokesman Tom Dunn declined to comment because the matter could come before Commissioner John B. King Jr. as an appeal under education law, which allows people considering themselves aggrieved to appeal to the commissioner for a review of such action. 
 Myers, a 50-year village resident who was a stock and insurance broker, was not on the list of 11 people who submitted a resume and cover letter by the September deadline to express interest in serving on the five-member board. The all African-American board put out calls in August, then held interviews in November. 
 "The process was a complete sham, a farce," said lifelong village resident Melissa Figueroa, an office manager and a former fourth-grade teacher in Hempstead schools, who went through the process. "The community got played, I got played, and ultimately the children continue to be taken advantage of." 
 Board president Betty Cross and Myers did not return calls seeking comment. 
 "The board is very proud of their choice for the new trustee," district spokesman Nathan Jackson said.

Hempstead parents demand probe of school board appointment

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The Hempstead school district board of education has appointed a new trustee to fill a vacant seat, snubbing calls from advocates to hold a special election or appoint a Hispanic trustee.
Leonard Myers, a 50-year village resident who once headed the Hempstead Chamber of Commerce, was selected by a vote of 3-0, with one member absent, during Thursday night's meeting, officials said. Myers, 80, replaces former board member Waylyn Hobbs, now Hempstead Village deputy mayor, who resigned in July from the school board with two years remaining on his term. 
"This appointment is not about me; it's about the kids," Myers, who worked as a stock and insurance broker, said in a statement Saturday. "The children need to be respected and to have respect for themselves. And I want to be part of any team that wants to get back to the basics."
Myers was not on the list of 11 people who submitted a resume and cover letter by the September deadline to express interest in serving on the five-member board, after the board put out calls in August. The all African-American board then held interviews in November.
According to the list provided by school district clerk Patricia Wright after the deadline, the individuals were: Rickey A. Cooke Sr.; Colette Eason; Melissa Figueroa; Tina Hodge Bowles; Patricia McNeill; Lorenzo Sistrunk; Doran Spleen; Randy A. Stith; Maribel C. Touré; David Ventura; and Rashid A. Walker. 
Board president Betty Cross and Myers did not return calls seeking comment Sunday.
"That's insane," Touré, an X-ray technician and parent of a high school senior, said about the board circumventing the list. "It's like they keep slapping the community in the face and they can do whatever they want to do."
Advocates in August had called for the appointment of a Hispanic person because of the district's nearly 60 percent Hispanic student population. Then they called in October for the state education commissioner to order a special election to fill the vacant seat because they did not want the school board to choose a successor.
But school officials said a special election would have cost the district thousands of dollars. They added two Hispanic candidates were interviewed for the school board seat. Myers, the new appointee, is black.With Deon J. Hampton

LIHEMP16

Hempstead school board accused of community snub in trustee selection

Leonard Myers, a longtime resident who once headed the local chamber of commerce, will fill a vacant seat on the Hempstead Board of Education, district officials said Saturday.
The board made the appointment during Thursday night's meeting, officials said.
"This appointment is not about me; it's about the kids," Myers, 80, said in a statement. "The children need to be respected and to have respect for themselves. And I want to be part of any team that wants to get back to the basics."
Myers, a 50-year resident, replaces former board member Waylyn Hobbs, who resigned in July with two years remaining on his term.
In August, a diverse group of 70 Hempstead Village community leaders and residents called for Hispanic representation on the school board, citing the district's steadily growing Hispanic student population.
The district's student body was 57 percent Hispanic and 39 percent black in the 2011-2012 school year, according to the state Education Department.
School officials said Saturday that two Hispanic candidates were interviewed for the school board seat. Myers is black.
Myers worked as a stock and insurance broker. He was a former president of the Hempstead Chamber of Commerce.

LIHEMP15

Hempstead school board fills seat

A former Hempstead school employee who informed state officials about the district's practice of systematically changing some students' failing grades has filed a federal lawsuit alleging wrongful termination in retaliation for his action. 
 Carlos Ramirez, the Hempstead school district's former director of technology, sent a letter in June to state education officials informing them of his concerns about the district's grade-boosting practice. The district decided to stop rounding up final course grades of 63 and 64 to passing scores of 65 in July -- just days before it fired Ramirez. 
 Ramirez filed a lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn seeking back pay for wrongful termination and an unspecified amount of damages, said his attorney, Aymen Aboushi of Manhattan. 
 The lawsuit describes Ramirez as an "exemplary employee" who was "subject to unlawful retaliation" because he reported activity that was "in detriment of public school students and their families." 
 The case has not been assigned a court date, Aboushi said. 
 "We hope one of the things that comes out of this is some transparency," he said. "Money is not the driving force for this lawsuit." 
 Attempts to reach school Superintendent Susan Johnson were not successful. 
 School board member Lamont Johnson declined to comment. 
 District officials do not discuss personnel issues publicly, said Todd Shapiro, a district spokesman, who declined to comment further. Austin Graff, an attorney for the district, said, "The district is unaware of any lawsuit." 
 Hempstead has nearly 6,000 students and is consistently one of the lowest-performing districts on Long Island. Its graduation rate in 2011-12 was 38 percent -- lowest among the Island's 124 public school districts. 
 Ramirez's lawsuit alleges that district officials "sought to mask their failures while duping the public, parents and students into thinking that the school district was improving" its record. 
 The Hempstead school board approved a resolution in July that stated it will "be policy and practice of the Hempstead Union Free School District that all grading and/or scoring shall be strictly recorded and reported in accordance with the results of actual student performance in all testing." 
 Attempts to reach Ramirez, who lives in Westchester County, were unsuccessful. He is seeking new employment and "trying to get his life back on track and dealing from the fallout from this situation," Aboushi said.

TOHEMP22

Ex-Hempstead school employee files wrongful termination suit

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A coalition of 10 Hempstead Village community groups called on the state education commissioner Friday to order a special election to fill the vacant seat on the Hempstead School District Board of Education. 
 About 30 people rallied Friday outside the district's central administration office before marching to deliver a copy of petitions with about 1,000 signatures to the district clerk. 
 The vacancy was created when Hempstead Village Deputy Mayor Waylyn Hobbs resigned in July, two years before his school board term was to end; and protesters do not want the school board to make the appointment. 
 "We want our voices to be heard," said village resident Diane Goins, a member of advocacy group New York Community for Change, who hand-delivered more than 50 pages to the clerk and plans to mail copies of the petitions to the state. 
 The school board has no plans to, but it can call a special election to fill a vacancy within 90 days after it occurs or appoint someone. The BOCES district superintendent may also fill the vacancy by appointment, or the commissioner can order a special election, state education spokesman Jonathan Burman said. He declined to comment about how commissioner John King Jr. might respond to the petition. 
 "Because of the possibility that this matter may be brought to the Commissioner for a decision ... I can't comment on actions the Commissioner might consider taking," said Burman, referring to an education law that allows persons to appeal a school district's action to the commissioner for review.." 
 The all African-American board put out calls in August seeking candidates to fill the vacant seat on the five-member board. Advocates have called for the appointment of a Hispanic person because of the district's nearly 60 percent Hispanic student population. Eleven people submitted a resume and cover letter by the Sept. 26 deadline to express interest in serving on the board, including the coalition's choice, Maribel C. Touré, an X-ray technician and parent of a high school senior. 
 "The main reason I want to do it is for the Spanish-speaking community," Touré said. "They need somebody that they can trust and the community needs someone who is able to ask questions."

TOSEAT12

State asked to OK special Hempstead school board election

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A group of 30 village community leaders and residents rallied Thursday at Hempstead High School to demand a vacant seat on the school board be filled by the community through a special election instead of being appointed by the four board members. 
 Critics claim that an election is necessary to prevent the board of education from making backroom decisions on the next board member without community involvement. 
 "The selection of someone to fill this vacant seat should not be entrusted to four individuals," George Siberon, executive director of the Hempstead Hispanic Civic Association, said at the rally held before the board's monthly meeting. "The community at large should be involved in this important decision." 
 Board president Betty Cross said at the meeting that an election could cost the district thousands of dollars. She added the district held a school board election in May. 
 "The money we could use in an election, we could use in our classrooms," Cross said in response to a written question from a resident. 
 Last month, the board put out calls for qualified candidates to fill the vacant seat on the five-member board, after advocates touted the recent vacancy as a chance to appoint a Hispanic board member and improve diversity in a district with nearly 60 percent Hispanic student population. 
 Cross has said the board would seek candidates from any ethnic group to fill the vacancy. 
 The deadline to submit a resume and cover letter is next Thursday at 5 p.m. 
 The board will review the submissions and hold interviews to fill the position, vacated in July when Hempstead Village Deputy Mayor Waylyn Hobbs resigned two years before his school board term ended. 
 So far, about three candidates have applied, district spokesman Nathan Jackson said. 
 "We want to know how they are going to select," said village resident Diane Goins, a member of New York Community for Change, a community group, before the meeting. "We know we want that person to be elected by the community and we're going to stand by that. Not to be selected by them, but elected by the community."

Hempstead residents demand special election for vacant seat

toHEMP20 cropped

More than 100 years after it first opened, Hempstead's Prospect School has been reborn. 
 As hundreds of kindergartners worked on their lessons inside, officials on the front step cut a big blue ribbon Monday, reopening the building that had been shuttered for 10 years. 
 The ceremony in the school's parking lot drew elected officials and community members to celebrate the return of the school built in 1906 and transformed by a 16-month $18.1 million renovation. 
 "It is a bright, beautiful day in the Hempstead Union Free School District," Superintendent Susan Johnson told a crowd of hundreds of residents, elected officials and educators gathered in front of the school on Peninsula Boulevard. 
 One parent was delighted with the school's new facilities. 
 "The school is beautiful. I couldn't believe what they did," Stephanie Mills said in a phone interview. "I like the way they did the classrooms and when you walk into the hallways, it's so bright and nice." 
 She said her son Christian, 5, had a great first day. 
 Johnson said an estimated 598 students have enrolled at the school, which will serve as a districtwide kindergarten. 
 The Prospect School was closed in 2003 because of structural issues. For a decade, students were housed in temporary trailer classrooms. Renovations, which began in 2012, were delayed for months because of asbestos abatement and superstorm Sandy damage. 
 Now, the school has more than 30 learning spaces, a library and wireless Internet access. Renovations were financed primarily with state grants after a 2011 bond vote, with the district paying $500,000. 
 The reopening of the Prospect School has been heralded as a turning point for the troubled district, which this summer acknowledged a long-standing policy of raising failing grades to passing and the new placement of the high school on the state's "priority" list. 
 The retired principal of the Franklin School, John Moore, said this year's enrollment in the district's schools has increased by 300 students over last year. "This district must be doing something right," he said, and added, "Let's let Prospect be a prototype of things to come." 
 The school's sunny cafeteria is painted bright blue and hallways are color-coded, including a section of lemon yellow. "Don't run!" Principal Carol Eason said as she directed a line of fidgeting children after they ate lunches of turkey and ham sandwiches with fruit and milk. 
 Architect Roger Smith of BBS Architecture in Patchogue, which renovated the school with Elite Construction of Garden City, said the building was in "so much disrepair." 
 "We had to bring the building back to full restoration, and also make it a space for the little guys in terms of size and colors," he said.

TOPROS10

Hempstead's Prospect School reopens after a decade

liPROS10 - prospect school cropped

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's recent suggestion that failing schools on Long Island and elsewhere should face a swift operational "death penalty" if they don't shape up has stunned local educators, who say meaningful reforms generally take years to achieve.
Cuomo's remarks -- the first indication of how he might deal with low-performing schools -- came at a news conference last week in upstate Lockport, near Buffalo.
The governor, in response to a reporter's question, floated the idea that such schools might be taken over by private charter operators or other agencies, after the schools were given "a short time to repair themselves."
"There has to be a death penalty for failing schools, so to speak, where we say the children come first, before the bureaucracy," Cuomo said.
The governor has not yet proposed specific legislation, which would be required to change the management of any public schools. Cuomo aides Wednesday could not say when such a proposal might be made.
The most likely candidates for any takeover legislation would be the 220 schools posted on an Albany "priority" list, as they rank academically in the bottom 5 percent statewide. Six of them are on Long Island, in the districts of Central Islip, Hempstead, Roosevelt and Wyandanch.
Five of those schools showed no substantial academic improvement during 2011-12, the latest year on record, according to an analysis last month by the state Education Department. The sixth, Hempstead High, was new to the list and not included in the analysis.
Some district administrators have objected to Cuomo's call for swift action against schools that don't improve students' test scores within a relatively short time.
Those educators note that Albany took over management of the 2,850-student Roosevelt district for 11 years, and that the system's academic status continued to be deemed subpar when the takeover expired in July.
"There will be incremental gain -- that I predict," said Pless Dickerson, superintendent of Wyandanch schools. "But to say we're going to meet these [state academic] standards overnight is unrealistic. Don't set us up for failure."
Wyandanch's Milton Olive Middle School is on the "priority" list.
Local school administrators also said they have taken steps to improve. Central Islip reorganized its Ralph Reed Middle School, also on the list.
Roosevelt recently brought in an experienced new superintendent, Deborah Wortham.
"I feel that, with the new administration we have now, a very well-qualified superintendent, and a well-organized curriculum, we will succeed," said Willa Scott, a Roosevelt school board trustee.
Scott questioned the governor's suggestion that charter-school operators might take over failing public schools, noting that charter-school students on average score about the same as their public school counterparts.
Disappointing results with the state's recent Roosevelt takeover have left some state lawmakers leery of repeating that experience. The state Board of Regents has sought authorization for the past two years to appoint governing panels for failed schools, but the proposals have not gained traction in the State Legislature.
One leading lawmaker on Wednesday indicated a willingness to work with the governor to fashion a plan to deal with failed schools, though he added that the death-penalty phrase "only exacerbates people's emotions." 
"I would have chosen my words differently," said state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), chairman of the Senate's Education Committee. "But that doesn't mean that we can't get something done that's good for everybody."
With Yancey Roy

LISKUL05

Educators stunned by Cuomo's school 'death penalty'

students in classroom crop

Hempstead High School educators outlined plans Friday to address the school's placement on the state low achievement list, including greater school security, increased outreach to parents and a stronger focus on individual student academics. 
 "We are turning Hempstead around," said Betty Cross, Board of Education president. "It is indeed a job that we know we have to do, and we will do it." 
 Hempstead's latest reported graduation rate of 38 percent, for 2011-12, was Long Island's lowest. The state Education Department recently placed Hempstead high on a "priority" list, meaning it officially ranks among the lowest 5 percent of schools statewide. 
 Friday, members of the Hempstead Board of Education as well as school administrators held a news conference to discuss plans to turn the troubled 1,600-student school around. 
 Newly hired Executive Principal Reginald Stroughn said he plans to handle discipline, boost parental involvement and identify and intervene on behalf of seniors who are not on course to graduate. 
 Stroughn was hired by Cross and other members of a new school board majority last year. He was brought in as part of the board's plan to dissolve its three college preparatory academies and consolidate them along with the Senior Academy under the name Hempstead High School. 
 Each grade will have its own principal and guidance counselors, Stroughn said. 
 Other efforts include creating a night school for failing students and monitoring Regents exams performance to provide extra help. Cross said programs will be offered in math, science and reading with small groups of students. 
 Administrators plan to strengthen the dress code and crack down on lateness and absenteeism. The guidance department will produce bilingual newsletters to inform parents of exams. Cross said the school will match students with mentors. 
 In June, state officials had warned the high school that it could be placed on the "priority" short list if the district dissolved the separate academies within the building, which had been established three years ago in an attempt to improve student performance. 
 But Stroughn said Friday the structure did not work. 
 Friday, New York State Department of Education spokesman Jon Burman said the department has made a number of resources -- including grant opportunities, technical assistance and professional development -- available to the district to help raise the achievement level at the high school. 
 "The Board of Regents continues to advocate for legislation that would authorize the Education Department to intervene in chronically underperforming schools, like Hempstead High School," he said. "We will continue to work with the district to help ensure that Hempstead's students graduate high school ready for college and careers."

Hempstead High officials outline improvement plans

Hempstead High School has been posted on a state "priority" list -- the lowest academic rung -- and 34 other Long Island schools have been placed on a newly created watch list. 
Hempstead High's new designation as a "priority" school by the state Education Department means it officially ranks among the lowest 5 percent of schools statewide. 
District officials, in phone interviews Thursday, vowed to work toward boosting their high school's standing. 
"I'm not pleased with it at all, but if that's what the state says, we have to respect it," said Betty Cross, president of Hempstead's school board. "And I can tell you the high school won't be on the list long. We have a reading plan, we have a math plan, and an overall academic plan for the district."
Hempstead's latest reported graduation rate of 38 percent, for 2011-12, was Long Island's lowest.
In June, state officials warned that the 1,600-student Hempstead High could be placed on the "priority" short list, if the district dissolved separate academies within the building that had been established three years ago in an attempt to improve student performance.
A plan for improvement 
The school's new executive principal, Reginald Stroughn, confirmed in a recent letter to parents that the academy system -- which some considered unworkable -- had been eliminated. Stroughn's letter went on to outline new alternative steps taken to try and bring about improvement.
Stroughn said the district was reinstating a night school for about 100 teens who struggled academically in a traditional school setting. The principal added that he was re-emphasizing a disciplinary code that banned wearing of hats and headgear within the building, use of cellphones and other electronic equipment, wearing of "inappropriate or suggestive clothing" and unauthorized early departures from the school campus.
"What I'm looking to do is bring unity," said Stroughn, who returned to the high school earlier this month. He had served in the equivalent capacity from 2003 to 2009, when graduation rates were higher. 
Stroughn was hired by Cross and other members of a new school board majority that took over the district last year.Hempstead High's posting brings to six the total number of "priority" schools on the Island. An additional 16 schools are in the "focus" category, meaning they fall in the bottom 10 percent. Another 105 buildings are "reward" schools, signifying either high achievement or rapid improvement, and making them eligible to apply for certain state grants. 
A new category
All listed schools except Hempstead High are holdovers from last year, when the "priority," "focus" and "reward" categories were created. This month, the Education Department created yet another category -- Local Assistance Plan schools -- which state authorities describe as a watch list of buildings that need to improve to avoid slipping into "focus" status. 
Schools on the new list are located in a variety of poor and middle-class communities. One building, John F. Kennedy Elementary School, is part of the Great Neck system, which is one of the most affluent and high-achieving on the Island. The state's posting does not explain why Kennedy school was included, and Great Neck's school superintendent, Thomas Dolan, did not return Newsday's call Thursday. 
The new list also includes Roosevelt Children's Academy, a public charter school. The academy, like other charter schools, is run by a private nonprofit board and receives public funding based on the number of students it attracts.
Academy officials said they recently took steps to raise test scores that included summer school for 160 students. 
"We realize that the rates have been sliding, but I can tell you something -- Roosevelt Children's Academy is taking education very seriously," said Ella Portero, a spokeswoman.

<h4>The new list</h4>

Schools on New York State Department of Education's Local Assistance Plan list:
Amityville: Northwest Elementary School, Edmund W. Miles Middle School
Babylon: Babylon Memorial Grade School
Baldwin: Meadow Elementary School
Bay Shore: Gardiner Manor School
Brentwood: North Elementary School, Brentwood High School
Center Moriches: Center Moriches Middle School
Elmont: Gotham Avenue School
Glen Cove: Robert M. Finley Middle School
Great Neck: John F. Kennedy School
Hampton Bays: Hampton Bays Elementary School
Hicksville: Hicksville Middle School
Lawrence: School No. 2, Lawrence Middle School
Long Beach: Lindell Boulevard School
Malverne: Davison Avenue Intermediate School
North Babylon: Belmont Elementary School
Patchogue-Medford: Tremont Elementary School, Bay Elementary School, Medford Elementary School
Plainedge: Charles E. Schwarting School
Riverhead: Roanoke Avenue School, Phillips Avenue School, Pulaski Street Elementary School
Sachem: Gatelot Avenue School, Hiawatha School
South Huntington: Oakwood Primary Center, Maplewood Intermediate School, Henry L. Stimson Middle School
Westbury: Westbury Middle School
William Floyd: William Floyd High School, William Paca Middle School
Also: Roosevelt Children's Academy Charter School

LISKUL23

Hempstead High on state's lowest academic rung list

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About 20 community activists and residents rallied outside Hempstead High School Tuesday to denounce alleged mistreatment of Latinos and parents by the board of education and school district staff. 
 Critics from New York Communities for Change and the Workplace Project said the district offers no translators at board meetings, that board president Betty Cross denies concerned citizens the right to speak at board meetings, that the board needs a Latino trustee and that some residents have been verbally abused by staffers. 
 School district representatives denied most of the charges at their own news conference, which followed immediately. 
 Village resident Simeon Yanes said the district's parent liaison, Tina Lake, made derogatory comments to him and another Latino during a rally in June outside the high school, where protesters called for the state Education Department to investigate the board and the district. 
 "She called us drunks and vagabonds," Yanes, 55, said in Spanish. He has a grandchild in a district elementary school. 
 Pedro de Jesus Diaz, 55, of Hempstead, said he heard Lake make the comment. "It's not fair for one lady in the high school would treat us like this," he said. 
 Lake, who is president of the high school's Parent Teacher Student Association, adamantly denied the claims. 
 "He must be talking about a different Tina," Lake said. "Clearly, I have a good rapport with the Latino community and the Afro-American community." 
 After complaints from protesters, district spokesman Todd Shapiro said there would be translators at future board meetings. 
 "It has been done in the past, but not at every school board meeting," said Shapiro, adding the district already provides key documents to parents in English and Spanish. 
 Village resident Diane Goins complained the board refuses to address questions from nonresidents and asks residents to write down their queries, but applauded the decision to provide translators. "It is a wonderful thing and I hope they do it," Goins said. "I just hope that they also let us speak at board meetings." 
 Shapiro said district policy is to let only district residents speak at meetings. 
 Protesters reiterated last week's request from a coalition of community leaders and residents calling for a Hispanic trustee, citing the district's nearly 60 percent Hispanic student population and a recent vacancy as a chance to improve diversity. 
 The board will seek the "best qualified candidate" to fill the vacant seat, said Shapiro, adding former middle school dean Kelvin Ortiz was hired recently as a high school assistant principal to help meet the Latino community's need.

TOHEMP21

Rally over school officials' treatment of Latinos

Current Hempstead students have grown up in a public school district bereft of stability. Its glaring absence in both district governance and administration has only exacerbated existing fault lines, including power-hungry elected officials who have lost the community's trust and racial tensions among both children and parents. 
 Students have understandably struggled to gain their academic footing on such a precarious foundation. Nowhere is it more noticeable than at Hempstead High School, which the district began separating in 2010 into distinct college preparatory academies, a massive structural shift reversed in April by a trigger-happy school board. 
 The regular high school's graduation rate fell to 38 percent during the short-lived experiment. Envisioned as a way for students to specialize and work more closely with teachers, it was abandoned largely due to administrative inefficiency. But it's impossible to say whether the academies would have been successful long-term. The school board pulled the plug before the construct could be properly analyzed and refined. 
 Now -- as Hempstead High School seeks to return to its old model and boost its disgraceful graduation rate -- the last principal to oversee progress at the school is returning to pick up the pieces. 
 Reginald Stroughn, 61, was hired last week as the high school's executive principal, a position he held from 2003 until his retirement in 2009. Along with closing campus during school hours, pushing for Regents exam preparation and instituting night classes, the no-nonsense disciplinarian began to change the school's learning climate. Graduation rates jumped from 38 percent to 65 percent over his first five years as principal. Within three years of his retirement, however, those modest academic gains disappeared as violence, often racially motivated or gang-related, picked up. 
 Stroughn was brought back to shepherd the consolidation. While students will still be able to specialize in specific fields of study -- the highlight of the academy system -- they'll share the same administrative roof. He plans to reapply many of the successful reforms from his first stint at the helm. And he's seeking a Spanish-speaking assistant principal to round out his cast of four deputies. 
 That's a smart move in a district with rapidly changing demographics -- 57 percent of students are Hispanic, nearly half of whom speak limited English, and 39 percent are black. The school board should at least consider following Stroughn's lead when it appoints a member to its vacant seat. Hispanic members of the community, meanwhile, should run candidates in May's election if they want a more representative school board. 
 What would also help is for this overly reactive school board to stay out of the way of Stroughn and other administrators. It made seven superintendent changes over the past eight years. That volatility prevents the district from establishing a clear direction, an instability that cascades down the ranks. The board fired all three college preparatory academy principals in April. And the high school saw 32 percent annual turnover among teachers from 2009 to 2011. 
 Now that the school board and superintendent have settled on Hempstead High School's structure, they must stick with it. It's far from certain whether Stroughn can mimic his previous successes. But he can't move forward if he's constantly looking over his shoulder.

VPHEMP15

Editorial: Returning Hempstead High principal needs leeway

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A diverse group of 70 Hempstead Village community leaders and residents are calling for Hispanic representation on the Hempstead school board, citing the district's steadily growing Hispanic student population and a recent vacancy on the board as a chance to improve diversity. 
 Advocates with the Hempstead Promise Neighborhoods coalition gathered at the Hempstead Public Library on Monday to discuss asking the board of education to appoint a Hispanic trustee to the position vacated last month when Hempstead Village Deputy Mayor Waylyn Hobbs resigned two years before his term ended. They plan to create a search committee to find a "viable" Hispanic candidate. 
 The district's student body was 57 percent Hispanic or Latino and 39 percent black or African-American in the 2011-2012 school year, according to the state Education Department. 
 "We would like to see at least a Hispanic person get consideration to be on the board," said Reginald Benjamin, executive director of ABBA Leadership Center. 
 School board president Betty Cross said Tuesday the board will be sending out a notice seeking candidates to fill the vacant seat on the board rather than wait until next May's election. 
 "Nobody from the Spanish community has come to me about wanting to be on the board," Cross said. "They shouldn't want just one ethnic group. We will open it up to whoever applies." 
 George Siberon, executive director of Hempstead Hispanic Civic Association, said at Monday's meeting that some Hispanic residents have indicated interest in being on the board. 
 Cross expressed disappointment she was not invited to the meeting. "This is a stab in the dark. They did not come up to us about this meeting," Cross said. "If you really want to be fair, you send people a letter and make a phone call." 
 Board member Lamont Johnson said Latino representation on the board is not the issue, noting that last year's district graduation rate of 38 percent was the lowest among the Island's 124 public school districts. 
 "The main problem is that the parents are not involved," said Johnson, adding he found out about the meeting through a Facebook post because he was not invited. 
 Maribel Toure, a parent of a high school senior, said more Spanish-speaking parents would be involved if there was someone at board meetings who could interpret. 
 Cross refuted that claim. "We do have translation at some of the board meetings. We treat the Spanish kids very well in Hempstead. We treat the parents well," Cross said.

TOHEMP14

Hempstead school board needs a Hispanic trustee, group says

The long-shuttered Prospect School in the Hempstead school district will welcome back students next month, 16 months after the beginning of major reconstruction -- a period that included a 31/2-month delay due to asbestos abatement and superstorm Sandy damage. 
 The newly refurbished school, located on Peninsula Boulevard, is slated to be used as a districtwide kindergarten center. It was closed in August 2003 because of nagging structural issues. 
 "This building will signal a significant change to the community of the serious approach this administration is taking to upgrading the educational environment," Lennitt Bligen Sr., community representative on the Prospect Renovation Oversight Committee, said at a board of education special meeting last week. 
 The opening of the Prospect School, built in 1907, will allow the district to move students out of portable classrooms in other buildings and help alleviate overcrowding. 
 The school's first day of class and grand opening ceremony are scheduled for Sept. 9. 
 "We're bringing the building in on time," board president Betty Cross said at the meeting. "This is the first time that I was here in 30 years that we bring in anything on time." 
 The project, funded by an $18.1-million bond approved in March 2011, is being paid for almost entirely from state grants -- the district allocated $500,000 for the project, district officials have said. 
 Among the improvements are a new playground in the rear of the property, a library, colorful classrooms and energy-saving fixtures. All-new furniture is scheduled to be moved in by the end of the week, officials said. The paving of the parking lot and landscaping are expected to be completed by Aug. 19, the construction managers said. 
 "We're well underway," Eze Small, chief operating officer and president of Garden City-based Elite Construction of NY, told the board at its meeting. "You'll be in, in September." 
 The Prospect School had been an elementary school before closing. The new kindergarten center will house 550 students, officials have said.

TOPROS13

Hempstead school shut since 2003 to reopen

toPROS

The Hempstead school board has brought back the man named the state's high school principal of the year in 2008 in an attempt to improve the district's troubled high school. 
 The board hired Reginald Stroughn, Hempstead's principal from 2003 until he retired in 2009, to be executive principal of the high school. Stroughn, whose hiring is retroactive to July 22, will receive $550 a day. 
 "I have had success in turning the school around," said Stroughn, 61, of Baldwin. "The district welcomed me back overwhelmingly. It brought tears to my eyes that people wanted me to come back. I know that I can do this job." 
 When Stroughn first was named principal in 2003, Hempstead's graduation rate was 38 percent. When he left in 2009, it reached 59 percent. Last year, it was back to 38 percent, the lowest among the Island's 124 public school districts. 
 "They should have brought him back a long time ago," said Terri Noble, treasurer of the high school's parent-teacher association, who has a daughter who graduated in 2006. "He had a good relationship with the kids and he is a strong figure." 
 Stroughn was brought in as part of the board's plan to dissolve its three college preparatory academies and consolidate them along with the Senior Academy under the name Hempstead High School. 
 The district will request a waiver from the state Education Department that would allow Stroughn to serve as principal and collect more than $30,000 in salary on top of his $150,000-plus state pension. 
 "If they don't get the waiver, I would suspend my retirement for two years," Stroughn said. 
 Stroughn's team will include three assistant principals: Olga Young, a Hempstead High School dean who will oversee the 10th grade, at a salary of $138,919; Rachel Blount, a Hempstead middle school dean, who will be in charge of ninth grade, at $131,192; and Claude Irwin, a former Amityville school district math director who will oversee 11th grade, at $125,753. 
 Stroughn said he's seeking a Spanish speaker to fill the 12th grade assistant principal spot. 
 In 2007, Hempstead High was removed from the state's list of low-achieving schools. Because of the upcoming high school consolidation, the state will likely designate it a "priority school" -- among the state's lowest-performing schools, a department spokesman said. 
 "I hope to get it in about two years off the failing schools list and increase the graduation rates," Stroughn said. "Unite the staff and students and get away from the division that happened with the four schools." 
 Stroughn said he plans a variety of measures to boost performance, including identifying areas where student achievement lags, bringing back Regents preparation programs and reinstituting the high school's night class program. He said he also will review class grades and graduation data, require all seniors to apply to the City University of New York and State University of New York, and hold meetings with students and their parents. 
 "We are looking to change it back to where students are coming in looking to graduate," Stroughn said. 
<h3> Hempstead High School graduation rates</h3> 
 Reginald Stroughn was named principal in 2003 and retired in 2009. 
 2002-03: 38 percent 
 Stroughn's tenure: 
 2003-04: 45 percent 
 2004-05: 50 percent 
 2005-06: 50 percent 
 2006-07: 64 percent 
 2007-08: 65 percent 
 2008-09: 59 percent 
 After Stroughn left: 
 2009-10: 56 percent 
 2010-11: 53 percent 
 2011-12: 38 percent 
 Source: State Education Department

TOHEMP11

Former Hempstead High School principal returns

The latest plot development in the sad, decades-long saga of Hempstead schools shouldn’t surprise anyone. 
 Carlos Ramirez, the former director of technology who exposed the district’s grade-inflation policy in June, announced Monday that he plans to sue the school system for wrongful termination. 
 The Hempstead school board voted 3-1 Thursday to fire Ramirez. But officials at the meeting didn’t specify why and haven’t since. Instead, they vaguely claim the termination was because of poor job performance. 
 If this were anywhere but Hempstead, those officials could probably be taken at their word. But this is a district with a 38 percent graduation rate, a school board that’s dysfunctional at best and a never-ending administrative merry-go-round. Being a slouch hasn’t been grounds for getting sacked by Hempstead schools before. 
 Why should it now? 
 Ramirez very well could have been a dismal worker who blew the whistle to settle a score. The school board also attempted to terminate him at an April meeting but failed, 3-2. 
 Nevertheless, he and his lawyer consider the termination an act of retribution, alleging a violation of the state’s whistle-blower law. Their lawsuit will seek undisclosed monetary damages. 
 Such a he-said, she-said exchange is only fitting given Hempstead administrators’ storied tradition of deflecting blame. The forthcoming case’s depositions — sure to make you shake your head — should only buttress that fabled past. 
 Surrounded by well-performing districts such as Uniondale, Garden City, West Hempstead and Baldwin, Hempstead schools are an island of corruption and mismanagement. For whatever reason, Ramirez was voted off that island. 
 But he’s not alone. Superintendent Susan Johnson has been fired by the district on multiple occasions — first when she was director of personnel and then less than a year after she was named superintendent for the first time in 2004. If Ramirez is optimistic, he could just look at this as a steppingstone to bigger and better things.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Uberti: A sliver lining to Hempstead's grade inflation?

Uberti: A sliver lining to Hempstead's embarrassing grade inflation?

Hempstead High School Cropped

In a functioning district, the school board would at least try to explain the decision-making process that led to institutionalized grade inflation and a typo-ridden summer reading list. 
 But this wasn’t a functioning school district. This was Hempstead. 
 About 75 people watched as the board, led by district autocrat Betty Cross, voted 3-1 to fire Carlos Ramirez, the director of technology who publicized Hempstead’s grade-fixing policy. For years, administrators had rounded up failing marks of 63 and 64 to passing grades of 65. 
 Cross didn’t give a reason for the termination, merely saying that she couldn’t discuss personnel issues. The crowd groaned. They’d seen this movie before. She and district administrators later said they’d decided this month to change the policy – at a closed meeting, of course. 
 And as for the reading list? “Trust me, we’re dealing with it,” Cross said. Several onlookers scoffed at the statement. 
 Instead of discussing those two very public gaffes, Cross spent most of the meeting deflecting blame. 
 “We need help from you and you and you,” she said, pointing toward the audience. “We don’t need you all to throw stones at us. 
 That’s rich in a district with the dubious honor of having Long Island’s lowest graduation rate in 2011-2012: 38 percent. Parents would be hard-pressed to find anything or anyone in the administration to support. 
 Cross failed to provide answers about grade inflation and the bungled summer reading list. She refused to address questions from non-residents, while silencing audience members trying to clarify their queries or ask follow-ups. 
 Board member Shelley Brazley, the only vote against firing Ramirez, pressed Cross regarding a July 9 meeting in which the board agreed to pay Superintendent Susan Johnson for 16 additional vacation days. Brazley couldn’t attend the meeting because it was scheduled at the last minute, she said. 
 “You know we don’t discuss that in public,” Cross said of the decision. 
 “We have to be more transparent in our community,” Brazley replied, eliciting an eruption of applause. “Is this even legal?” 
 Cross failed to restore the meeting to order after that. As onlookers’ heckling continued, she announced an executive session, and the board retreated to a back room. 
 When it returned five minutes later – with the audience still chirping – Cross promised an “open forum” with parents and students in the near future. But she didn’t provide any details and abruptly adjourned the meeting. 
 “I’m sorry that you think this was a waste of time,” she said before departing the stage. 
 Indeed.&nbsp;

Uberti: Hempstead school board deflects blame

Uberti: Hempstead school board deflects blame for recent gaffes

toHEMP07 - crop

The former Hempstead school district director of technology who exposed a grade-changing campaign in the district announced Monday that he will sue the school system for wrongful termination. 
 Carlos Ramirez, who was fired by the school board on Thursday, informed state authorities last month that the 6,000-student district systematically rounded up some students' failing grades to passing scores. 
 He and his attorney said Monday that Ramirez considers the firing an act of retribution, and that he will file a notice of claim this week, citing wrongful termination and violation of the state's whistle-blower act. 
 The district voted July 9 to no longer round up final course grades from 63 and 64 to a passing mark of 65, approving the change in an emergency board meeting. 
 Ramirez was removed nine days later. 
 "I feel that I'm being punished for just bringing up something that was wrong," Ramirez said during a news conference in Manhattan. "It's corruption and it's lying to the parents. It's lying to the community." 
 The district maintains that Ramirez was fired because of job performance, said Nathan Jackson, a district spokesman. He declined to elaborate on the nature of Ramirez's alleged performance problems. 
 "There's no correlation between him blowing the whistle and being fired," Jackson said. 
 Rodney Gilmore, the district's associate superintendent for human resources, declined to comment and attempts to reach other district officials were not successful. 
 The school board attempted to terminate Ramirez at an April meeting in which five other top administrators were fired, but the motion failed on a 3-2 vote. 
 Ramirez's attorney, Aymen Aboushi of Manhattan, said the lawsuit will seek monetary damages yet to be determined. Aboushi said he has not determined in which court he will file the lawsuit, as he believes the district also might have violated federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws in terminating Ramirez. 
 The district will be served with a notice of claim this week, Aboushi said. The lawsuit likely will follow within three months, he said. 
 "We're here today to stand against the injustice that we believe is going on," Aboushi said during the news conference. "My client is here today as a whistle-blower and someone who stood up for the right thing." 
 Hempstead is consistently one of the lowest-performing districts on Long Island, with a 38 percent graduation rate in 2011-12 -- the lowest among the Island's 124 public school districts. 
 District officials, including Deputy Superintendent Julius Brown, said before the grade-changing policy was rescinded that the practice of rounding up grades is standard in public schools. 
 But officials from other districts said they believed it was unique to Hempstead.

TOHEMP23

Fired grade-change tipster to sue Hempstead

hempstead sd whistleblower

The Hempstead board of education has ended the district's practice of systematically changing some students' failing grades into passing ones. 
 The decision to stop rounding up final course grades of 63 and 64 to passing scores of 65 was approved, 3-0, by the board at an emergency meeting last week. 
 "We decided unequivocally to make 65 passing and nothing else," board president Betty Cross said Thursday. "We will settle for nothing but the best. We know where we are academically and we are working to change that. And we will change that." 
 Thursday night, the board voted at its regular meeting to dismiss Carlos Ramirez, the district director of technology, who sent a letter in June to state education officials spelling out his concerns about the district's grade-boosting practice. 
 Deputy Superintendent Julius Brown said at the time that the practice had been designed to prevent confrontations between teachers, parents and students, and to give students a better chance of attending college. 
 Brown also said rounding up grades is standard public school practice. But other local school officials denied that and said the policy appeared unique to Hempstead. 
 Hempstead, with nearly 6,000 students, is consistently one of the lowest-performing districts on Long Island. Its graduation rate in 2011-12 was 38 percent, the lowest among the Island's 124 public school districts. 
 Cross and trustees JoAnn Simmons and Lamont Johnson voted to end the decades-long practice; trustees Shelley Brazley and Waylyn Hobbs Jr. were absent. 
 The resolution approved by the board stated: "Whether permitted by custom, practice, rules, regulations or otherwise, it shall henceforth be policy and practice of the Hempstead Union Free School District that all grading and/or scoring shall be strictly recorded and reported in accordance with the results of actual student performance in all testing, whether grade-related, uniform, standard, mandated, non-mandated or otherwise." 
 Hobbs, who resigned Thursday after one year on the board, said, "I was always under the belief that it wasn't a board policy, even if it was common practice. . . . I couldn't see the policy being that it was OK to change grades." 
 Ramirez -- fired by a 3-1 vote, with Brazley dissenting -- applauded the new policy. 
 "The most important thing is that they actually do it," Ramirez said before Thursday's meeting. "They are accepting and acknowledging that needs to be corrected." 
 Brown ordered Ramirez in a June email to amend the district's new computer score-recording program to automatically record grades of 63 and 64 as 65. But Ramirez expressed reluctance and called the policy "inappropriate" in an email exchange. 
 "This whole thing about the administrator getting fired, it had nothing to do with whistle-blowing," said Cross, who said Ramirez's job was on the chopping block before he wrote to the state. 
 Roger Tilles, Long Island's representative on the State Board of Regents, said of the decision to stop boosting grades, "I'm encouraged by their quick response to an unfortunate situation." 
 Tilles has said he was informed of the grade-changing by a high school administrator and forwarded the information to the State Education Department for investigation. 
 The Nassau County district attorney's office contacted and interviewed one staff member involved in the grade-changing and a state Education Department investigator was in the district last month, two Hempstead sources have said. 
 A state education department spokesman said Thursday it had no "findings" from Hempstead yet and would not confirm or deny an investigation. A Nassau district attorney spokesman declined to comment. 
 Maribel Toure, a parent of a rising high school senior and one of about 100 people at Thursday night's meeting, said, "If I see my son's report card, I am not sure if that really is his grade. If they are boosting the grades up, what is the real graduation rate?"

TOHEMP19

Hempstead school board ends grade-changing policy

The Hempstead school district announced Thursday that it has disciplined an employee responsible for releasing an error-filled summer reading list, but did not reveal the punishment -- or the worker's job title or identity.
At an afternoon news conference, spokeswoman Alicia Figueras said that "disciplinary action had been taken." Superintendent Susan Johnson was not present and Figueras did not take questions.
The district has said it was "embarrassed" by the errors in the summer reading list for students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.
The document butchered the titles and names of the authors of such classics as F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" -- calling it the "The Great Gypsy."
Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" became "The Lovely Bone," and "Animal Farm" was said to be written by George Ornell rather than George Orwell.
"Wuthering Heights," the document said, was penned by Emily Bonte, instead of Bronte. The names of David McCullough and Frederick Douglass also were misspelled.
Roger Tilles, a member of the state's Board of Regents, said such problems can arise when a school district lacks strong, stable leadership.
"As long as you have a situation where the administration is fluid, you are going to have crazy things going on," he said Thursday.
Figueras, reading from a statement, apologized for the errors and called it an isolated incident.
"In response to the technical errors contained within the district's summer reading list, I would like to announce that disciplinary action has been taken against the personnel who made the unfortunate clerical errors while compiling the list," she said. "This should not reflect the district itself and we continue to pride ourselves [on] offering our students the highest quality standards of education."
Earlier Thursday, the district announced in an email that it would hold the news conference to "address actions against an employee who made multiple errors on a computer while compiling the district's summer reading list."
With Gary Dymski
and Amy Onorato

LILIST12

Hempstead district disciplines worker over summer reading list errors

06-29 li hempsteadgrades g

The Hempstead Public Schools has some unique items on its summer reading list this year: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gypsy,” and authors George Ornell and Emily Bonte, to name a few. 
 The list, for students pre-K to “twelve grade,” has more than 30 mistakes, including misspellings of authors’ names and book titles. 
 A call to Hempstead superintendent Susan Johnson was not immediately returned. 
 In a statement provided to News 12 Long Island, Roger Tilles, a member of the New York State Department of Education’s Board of Regents, said, "It indicates again that a stable administration is absolutely essential for kids to get the kind of education they need. Hempstead has not had a stable administration for a long time and the kids are suffering."&nbsp; 
 <a href="http://www.hempsteadschools.org/cms/lib07/NY01920790/Centricity/Domain/73/Summer%20Readling%20List%202013.pdf">Click here to see the full reading list, or scroll below</a>. &nbsp; 
 <iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772727272727273" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_11121" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/152787589/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-ybnmnxd9r3v9tl2jv8y&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe>

‘Great Gypsy’? Errors on school reading list

'The Great Gypsy,' Ornell on Hempstead reading list

Schools

Hempstead schools trustee Waylyn Hobbs announced plans Wednesday to resign from his post after a year on the board. 
 Hobbs, who served as first vice president of the school board, said he plans to submit his resignation on July 15. 
 His announcement came a day after the board's annual reorganization meeting Tuesday, when Betty Cross was reappointed president by a 3-2 vote. Hobbs and trustee Shelley Brazley voted against her appointment. Hobbs said the board needs leadership, but he would not directly link his resignation to Cross' reappointment. 
 "I'm resigning because I feel that with the state of the district and the work that is going to be necessary to see improvement and changes, it is definitely going to require more time and someone to dedicate more time," Hobbs said. 
 Hobbs, 51, was elected Hempstead Village trustee in March and was later appointed deputy mayor. The board would have to appoint a replacement, he said. 
 Cross said he has not informed her of his plans. "We'll wait until July 15, and we wish him well," she said. 
 Hempstead has been one of Long Island's worst-performing school systems. Last month, Carlos Ramirez, the district's director of technology, sent a letter to state education officials spelling out his concerns about the district's policy of raising students' failing course grades of 63 and 64 to a passing grade of 65. 
 Hobbs said he was not leaving due to the changes. "I believe the board has to be more transparent and communicate. I think when you inform people, you show that you have nothing to hide." 
 Hobbs voted against the school board's attempt to terminate Ramirez in April, but the board is expected to try again to fire him at its July 18 meeting.

TOHEMP04

Hempstead school board member to resign

The closely guarded salary of recently rehired Hempstead school district Superintendent Susan Johnson is scheduled to peak at $265,000 by 2016, with supplemental merit pay as high as $40,000 annually based on her performance. 
 The school board, after negotiating two months, approved the contract on May 23, retroactive to November and extending through June 30, 2016. But the board only revealed her salary to Newsday last week, after numerous requests. 
 The salary is toward the high end of base salaries for most Long Island school superintendents, whose income for 2011- 12 ranged from $200,000 to $280,000. 
 Several critics questioned the rationality of Johnson's salary. 
 "The whole community is bobbleheads if we are letting this happen," said Maribel Toure, a frequent school board critic and parent of a high school student. "This whole situation is insane." 
 But school board president Betty Cross defended the move. "It's great to have her on board. It is great to have a Hempstead graduate back to lead us to excellence .?.?. Under the direction of Susan Johnson we will return back to basics." 
 Hempstead consistently has been one of Long Island's worst-performing school systems. Its 2011-12 graduation rate of 38 percent was the lowest of the Island's 124 public school districts. 
 The state Education Department is reviewing its decision not to classify Hempstead High School as a "priority school" -- a short list of the state's lowest-performing schools — according to a May 15 letter to the district. 
 The district also is facing questions over its policy of routinely raising students' final course grades of 63 and 64 — both failing marks — to a passing grade of 65. 
 Johnson, 62, has declined to comment on the practice. She came out of retirement to run the troubled school system, her third term as Hempstead superintendent, when former Superintendent Patricia Garcia left on Nov. 2, after three years in the job. 
 Johnson's salary is $250,000 until Dec. 31, according to the employment agreement obtained by Newsday after a Freedom of Information Law request. Her annual base salary is scheduled to increase to $255,000 by June 30, 2014, then rise to $260,000 for the period from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015. It is to peak at $265,000 from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016. 
 Johnson, who lives in Freeport, could qualify for the additional merit pay starting in January. She would need to improve the district's academic achievement and high school graduation rates, according to the contract. Johnson did not respond to requests for comment. 
 "We are looking for her to produce," school board trustee Waylyn Hobbs said. "We are not rewarding anybody who doesn't meet the goal. We are not celebrating failure. We are working toward achievement .?.?. Our goal is to get our graduation rates up." 
 The district has agreed to pay 86 percent of Johnson’s health insurance coverage cost and 100 percent of her dental insurance tab. She also is entitled to 25 vacation days, 3 personal days, 15 sick days, more than 13 paid holidays, and as many as 10 paid leave days per year, with board approval. She also has the right to a district vehicle with insurance, gasoline, maintenance and repairs paid by the district, or $500 per month as compensation for car expenses, per the contract. 
 Johnson “is an ideal candidate for this job because she does not need supplemental pay upon retirement in the form of banked sick days or vacation days” the contract said. 
 Johnson was required to give up her pension of more than $100,000 after the state denied a waiver request that would have allowed her to collect the pension and be paid more than $30,000 as superintendent.

TOHEMP01

Salary of Hempstead school superintendent revealed

toHEMP07

The Hempstead school board at its July 18 meeting will consider firing the district administrator who informed state officials about its grade-changing policy, according to documents obtained by Newsday.
Carlos Ramirez's attorney, Michael Starvaggi of the Hauppauge-based Council of Administrators and Supervisors, said the proposed firing is a clear case of retaliation and would violate whistle-blower laws. 
Last month, Ramirez, the district's director of technology, sent a letter spelling out his concerns about the grade-changing to state Education Commissioner John King and Nassau BOCES Superintendent Thomas Rogers. The district has routinely lifted final course grades of 63 or 64 to a passing score of 65 for all students in grades 6 to 12, according to district Deputy Superintendent Julius Brown, who has defended the policy.
School board member Waylyn Hobbs said Monday that the board has not yet been informed of the proposed firing, but he was aware that Ramirez was reassigned to work from home.
A letter from district Superintendent Susan Johnson to Ramirez, obtained by Newsday, said Ramirez's termination would be effective Aug. 18, if approved by the board.
"The superintendent wants to fire a clear whistle-blower," Starvaggi said. "This is something that they clearly can't do."
Johnson did not return calls seeking comment Monday. Other district officials also did not return calls.
Hobbs declined to comment further, beyond saying: "Hempstead is full of rumors." Attempts to reach other school board members were unsuccessful.
The Nassau County district attorney's office contacted and interviewed one staff member involved in Hempstead grade-changing, two Hempstead sources have said. A state Education Department investigator has also visited the district, the two sources said.
Johnson has instructed school administrators not to talk to the media about grade-changing, according to an email obtained by Newsday.
The Hempstead Classroom Teachers Union has also instructed middle- and high school staff members to issue "no comment" to state investigators, the district attorney's office, BOCES and the media about grade-changing, according to an email obtained by Newsday.

TOHEMP02

Hempstead schools ponder firing grade-change whistle-blower

If you can't achieve your goals the right way, cut corners. 
 That's the message Hempstead school district administrators are sending their nearly 6,000 students by automatically rounding up failing marks to make the cut. 
 School leaders say the systematic grade inflation has been official policy in the dysfunctional school district for years. Grade-recording software programs raise failing final course grades of 63 or 64 to passing scores of 65 in grades 6-12. A district administrator said boosting marks is standard procedure on Long Island, though other districts denied the claim. And in a school district with a 38 percent graduation rate in 2011-12 -- worst among Long Island's 124 public school districts -- the policy doesn't so much nudge borderline high school students toward college as it masks the difficulties of just graduating. 
 Hempstead students are already plagued by underlying challenges: poverty, limited English proficiency and racial tensions, to name a few. The district's admission of grade boosting highlights yet another way administrators have failed to help students overcome those hurdles. 
 Hempstead director of technology Carlos Ramirez finally blew the whistle on grade inflation in June, emailing other school officials, "I personally consider the process inappropriate." 
 Critics have also alleged mismanagement and irresponsible spending in programs ranging from special education to English as a second language. Students, meanwhile, have seen seven superintendent changes in the last eight years. And the school board voted in April to consolidate the district's three college prep academies and one senior academy -- a construct created less than three years ago -- back into one four-year high school. 
 Underperforming schools need leaders who set examples by making the tough choices, not by cutting corners. Hempstead school district is cheating its students. That's a failing grade that can't be rounded up.

VPHEMP02

Editorial: Hempstead grade inflation cheats students

The Hempstead school district has been systematically changing some students' failing final course grades into passing grades. 
 The district has routinely lifted final course grades of 63 or 64 to a passing score of 65 for all students in grades 6-12, according to district Deputy Superintendent Julius Brown. One district source involved in changing the grades estimated as many as 800 grades were changed this school year. 
 The decades-long policy was designed to prevent confrontations between teachers, parents and students, and to give students a better chance of attending college, Brown said. 
 Brown added that rounding up grades is standard public school practice. But other Long Island education officials said that is not the case and that the policy appears unique to Hempstead. 
 Roger Tilles, Long Island's representative on the State Board of Regents, said he was informed of the grade-changing by a high school administrator and forwarded the information to the State Education Department for investigation. 
 The Nassau County district attorney's office contacted and interviewed one staff member involved in the grade-changing, two Hempstead sources said. A state Education Department investigator was in the district last week, the two sources said. 
 Spokesmen for the district attorney's office and the Education Department declined to comment. 
 Hempstead, which has nearly 6,000 students, is consistently one of the lowest-performing districts on Long Island. Its graduation rate in 2011-12 was 38 percent, the lowest among the Island's 124 public school districts. 
 Classification reviewed 
 The state Education Department is reviewing its decision not to classify Hempstead High School as a "priority school" -- a short list of the state's lowest-performing schools -- according to a May 15 letter sent to the district. 
 Four high-ranking Hempstead officials said the district's policy of lifting grades was designed to boost the graduation rate. 
 Brown denied that and described the practice as common. 
 "I don't know of anyone who doesn't do it," he said. "Our grading practices and policies are consistent with laws and the authorities that are vested with the school district and the superintendent." 
 Asked to identify other districts that change grades in similar fashion, Brown cited Uniondale and Malverne. 
 Officials from both districts denied Brown's contention. 
 "Uniondale School District does not round grades," spokeswoman Donna Janine wrote in an email. "If a student earns a 63 grade, that is the grade the student receives." 
 Two past presidents of the New York State Council of School Superintendents -- Jericho Superintendent Henry Grishman and Rockville Centre Superintendent William Johnson -- said they had never heard of a district enforcing such a policy. 
 "It's not a policy across the board that just any student that gets a 63 or 64 gets bumped up to 65," Johnson said. 
 While noting that grades are not automatically increased, Malverne school district officials said parents could appeal a child's grade and the principal would review such requests on a case-by-case basis. Grishman and Johnson say that is common practice. 
 Computer makes changes 
 Brown said the systematic changing of grades had been district policy for decades, and that it was done automatically by computer more than 10 years ago. Reginald Stroughn, the high school's principal from 2003 to 2009, said grades were changed that way during his tenure. Brown said teachers entered the grade changes manually over a two-year break while the new grade-recording system was installed. 
 The current controversy began earlier this month when Hempstead director of technology Carlos Ramirez was ordered by Brown in an email dated June 13 to amend the district's new computer score-recording program so that grades of 63 and 64 were automatically recorded as 65. Ramirez, who started work in Hempstead in 2010, expressed reluctance to do so and called the policy "inappropriate" in an email exchange with Brown and seven other officials obtained by Newsday. 
 "I just want to remind all administrators addressed in this email that I have been directed to perform this [sic] changes in our Student Management System and I personally consider the process inappropriate due to the lack of policy and procedure in regards grade changes processed massively . . . ," Ramirez wrote in the June 17 email. 
 Ramirez sent the emails and a letter spelling out his concerns about the policy to state Education Commissioner John King and to Nassau BOCES Superintendent Thomas Rogers. In the letter, Ramirez complained about being ordered by Brown to give a teacher and an outside consultant access to the PowerSchool grade-recording system and the ability to change grades, calling it an "opportunity to manipulate school data." 
 Accountability concerns 
 Ramirez wrote that he was worried about accountability. 
 "After business hours and later at night as shown in the log, changes to individual grades to 65 (passing mark) were done using DDA/DDE which is a feature in PowerSchool that prevents full tracking of the actual student records change on the logs," Ramirez wrote in the letter. 
 Rogers said Nassau BOCES "neither confirms nor denies" that it is investigating. 
 Brown said the state has a duty to investigate any allegations but said Hempstead has done nothing wrong. He declined to label the district's practice as changing grades, instead calling it "district policy." 
 "I have no concept how many grades that are impacted by this policy and practice," he wrote in a text message. "We have never run such a report to determine which students or how many students impacted by this practice; as that would suggest we would be attempting to affect student results instead of merely applying District policy." 
<h3> STUDENT ENROLLMENT</h3> 
 Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School: 1,345 
 HIGH SCHOOLS 
 Academy of Music &amp; Art (grades 9-11): 403 
 Academy of Math &amp; Science (grades 9-11): 402 
 Academy of Business &amp; Law (grades 9-11): 402 
 Senior Academy (12th-grade only): 421 
 Source: Hempstead School District

TOHEMP29

Hempstead schools change failing grades

A Hempstead Village elementary school was renamed Wednesday night for one of its most famous graduates: David A. Paterson, the state's first black governor. 
 Students, teachers and residents filled a tent on the front lawn of Fulton Elementary School for a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included speeches by Paterson and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). 
 The school will be the first in the state named after Paterson, who served as governor from 2008 to 2010. 
 The Hempstead school board had approved the renaming during Paterson's final year in office, but the change will not be official until the school year resumes in September. 
 On Wednesday night, Paterson recalled the challenge of attending school after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision mandating desegregation. Many white parents feared sending their kids to school with minority children, he said, and pulled them out. 
 The Hempstead school system survived that challenge, and others that followed, he said. 
 "The name on the building will reflect the achievement of one person," Paterson said. "But the institution will reflect how thousands of people overcame" difficult times. 
 Many students credited him for inspiring a sense of social justice as governor. 
 Fifth-grader Nia Lariosa thanked him for his efforts to stop bullying. 
 "Thank you, Gov. David Paterson, for being our voice," she said. "One day I will also be the voice of the people." 
 Paterson, 59, has spoken fondly of his 25 years in Hempstead. Though he was born in Brooklyn, his parents relocated to Hempstead in 1958 because the New York City public school system would have placed Paterson, who is legally blind, in special education classes. 
 After graduating from Hempstead High School, Columbia University and Hofstra Law School, Paterson followed his father's footsteps by winning a New York State Senate seat in 1985. He went on to become the Democratic leader in the Senate in 2003, and was then elected to serve as Eliot Spitzer's lieutenant governor in 2006. 
 Following Spitzer's resignation amid a prostitution scandal in 2008, Paterson served as governor for the remainder of the term.

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David A. Paterson School in Hempstead new name of Fulton Elementary

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About 15 community activists and residents rallied outside Hempstead High School Thursday calling for the state Education Department to investigate the Hempstead school board and the school district. 
 Critics say the district’s poor academic performance, spending, management decisions, lack of transparency and compliance with state laws need to be reviewed. 
 “We want this investigation,” said Mary Crosson, 58, of Hempstead, a member of the advocacy group New York Communities for Change whose granddaughter attends Franklin Elementary School. “We pay too many taxes here and we’re not going to take it anymore.” 
 Hempstead Deputy Superintendent Julius Brown denied claims the school board and administration are not transparent, saying the board holds public meetings and has held several forums to discuss issues affecting students. 
 “Why would they want them to investigate us?” asked Brown, adding district officials have agreed to meet with the group Thursday. 
 State Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn said anyone with information pertaining to fraud or mismanagement of public funds should report it to the department’s Office of Audit Services. 
 Brown acknowledged the Education Department is already investigating the district’s alleged noncompliance with laws governing special education programs and that it recently completed an audit of the English as a Second Language and bilingual program. 
 He also cited an audit under way by the state comptroller’s office. 
 The Education Department is also reviewing its decision not to classify Hempstead High School as a “priority school,” a short list of the lowest-performing schools in the state. Hempstead qualified to be identified as such in July 2012 but was not listed this year because the district had begun phasing out the large high school, which was slated to close this month. 
 In April, the Hempstead school board approved a plan to dissolve the three college preparatory academies — each with students now in grades 9-11 — and the Senior Academy, with 12th-graders, and consolidate all four grades under the name Hempstead High School. The plan requires state approval. 
 “The four-school concept is operationally impossible,” Brown said. “We’re not happy about the graduation rate as well. The things that we are doing are to try to address the graduation rates.” &nbsp;

Activists: Investigate Hempstead schools

Activists seek probe of Hempstead district, school board

Hempstead School District trustees last night approved a nearly four-year contract for Superintendent <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Susan Johnson</a>, shortly after community leaders, parents and students rallied against budget cuts. 
 About 30 people protested outside Hempstead High School Thursday, demanding the school board stop creating high-paid administrative positions at the expense of students. "We don't want cuts to the classroom," said Fatimah Jeffries, president of Jackson Main Elementary's parent-teacher association. 
 Jeffries called for improved school transportation, more textbooks and smaller classroom sizes. "If there must be cuts, it has to be at the administrative level. The cuts need to be at the top, not the bottom," Jeffries said. 
 At a special meeting last night, the school board unanimously approved <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Johnson</a>'s contract, retroactive to November and extending through June 30, 2016. The terms of the contract were not disclosed. "My team and I will not let you down," <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Johnson</a> said to cheers from parents attending the meeting. 
 The critics claim the district's proposed $178.8 million budget for 2013-14 includes $2.7 million in cuts to teaching positions for English language learners, students with special needs and elementary students, while allocating $3.7 million to create administrative positions and increase salaries of existing administrators. 
 "We are here to bring to light that they are cutting from the budget," said Mimi Pierre-<a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Johnson</a>, an organizer for the advocacy group <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> Communities for Change. "You cannot keep cutting from the kids and adding to the administration." 
 Board president Betty Cross insisted that the budget would not reduce teaching positions. "That's absolutely not true," she said after the meeting. "We will still have the same staff." 
 The proposed budget calls for a 2.99 budget percent increase and a 1.98 percent local tax levy increase, which is within the state tax-cap limit of 2.87 percent. 
 The budget also includes the addition of 17 staffers, with assistant principals at all elementary schools, more teachers and elementary reading and math specialists. There would also be added advanced-placement classes and smaller elementary and secondary classes, district officials have said. 
 The district elections will be held on Tuesday. 
 The board voted 3-2 last month to fire five top administrators -- four principals and a science director -- without public explanation. 
 The board also approved a plan to dissolve the three college preparatory academies -- each with students now in grades 9-11 -- and the Senior Academy, with 12th-graders, and consolidate all four grades under the name Hempstead High School. The plan requires state approval. 
 "I don't feel we should have the academies anymore," said high school senior Gadd Guerra, 17, at the meeting. "We are one school and one student body. We shouldn't be separated."

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Hempstead school superintendent contract OKd

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The Hempstead school board has approved a plan to dissolve the high school academy system it adopted almost three years ago and return to one large high school -- a move greeted with mixed reactions and still requiring state approval. 
 A recommendation by Superintendent <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Susan Johnson</a> to dissolve the three college preparatory academies -- Business and Law, Math and Science, and Music and Art -- and consolidate under the name Hempstead High School was approved, 4-1, at a special meeting in her office Wednesday night. 
 Board president Betty Cross and trustees Waylyn Hobbs Jr., JoAnn Simmons and Shelley Brazley approved the restructuring. Trustee Brandon V. Ray voted no. 
 The troubled district began the division into separate academies in September 2010. The restructuring was the first of its kind on <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>. 
 Returning to one high school, said Alan Singer, a <a href="/topics//Hofstra_University">Hofstra University</a> education professor who focuses on minority school districts, "doesn't address the challenges that Hempstead faces: students that live in poverty and students who don't speak English that need a lot of assistance." 
 Roger Tilles, <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>'s representative on the state Board of Regents, said, "One of the most important things is stability. The restructuring is certainly not adding to the stability of the high school." 
 State Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn said Thursday he could not respond to the district's plan because "the district has not shared their plan with the state department." 
 "I think what they did is good," Caprice Rines, co-president of the <a href="/topics//Special_Education">special education</a> PTA, said after the Wednesday meeting. "The superintendent knows what she is doing." 
 Parent and student reaction at a restructuring forum Thursday night at the high school was mixed. Some criticized the district, saying it did not give the academies a chance. 
 "The bottom line is that you are destroying something without seeing the results first," said Maribel Toure, a parent of a high school student. 
 Deputy Superintendent Julius Brown said, "Four autonomous schools simply were not working. Operationally, we had some serious issues." 
 But, he conceded, he did not know whether the academies were successful because they have not operated long enough to produce graduation rates. 
 The four academies were identified by the state Education Department as needing improvement for the 2010-2011 school year. Only the Senior Academy referred to as Hempstead High School was listed that way for 2011-2012. The district also was listed as needing improvement because of its low performance in English language arts and graduation rates. 
 The board should have analyzed the performance data for another school year before making a decision, said David <a href="/topics//David_Evans">Evans</a>, outgoing principal of the Academy of Music and Art. Evans said 70 percent of his students are on target to graduate. "The small school environment allows you to have personal contact as an administrator or a teacher in the classroom," he said. 
 Evans was one of five administrators -- including the three academy principals -- fired without public explanation by a 3-2 board vote last week.

TOHEMP26

Hempstead school board votes to scrap academy system

Without public explanation, the Hempstead school board has voted to fire a third of its principals. 
 The board voted 3-2 on Thursday to let go five top administrators -- four principals and a science director. President Betty Cross and trustees JoAnn Simmons and Shelley Brazley approved the terminations. Vice president Waylyn Hobbs Jr. and trustee Brandon V. Ray voted against the firings. 
 Cross said at the start of the meeting at Hempstead High that personnel matters would not be publicly discussed. 
 Those terminated were Principals Helisse Palmore of <a href="/topics//Barack_Obama">Barack Obama</a> Elementary School, Dagoberto Artiles of the high school's Academy of Math &amp; Science, <a href="/topics//David_Evans">David Evans</a> of the Academy of Music &amp; Art, <a href="/topics//James_Thomas">James Thomas</a> of the Academy of Business &amp; Law; and Francisco Roca, district director of science. The fired principals either could not be reached or declined to comment. The effective termination dates are May 20 or June 30. 
 Roger Tilles, <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>'s representative on the state Board of Regents, attributed the dismissals to a regime change. "It seems like a lot of people who are being fired," Tilles said. 
 All the dismissed administrators were hired under former superintendent Patricia Garcia, who resigned in November after three years. <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Susan Johnson</a>, a former two-time superintendent, took over when Garcia departed. 
 "Everybody knew that they were going to fire them," said Maribel Toure, a parent of an 11th-grader at the Academy of Math &amp; Science, who attended the meeting. "They have no shame . . . Now the district taxpayers are going to have to pay if they sue the board." 
 Hempstead civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington said he represents one of the axed administrators and anticipates representing several others. 
 Alan Singer, a <a href="/topics//Hofstra_University">Hofstra University</a> education professor who focuses on minority school districts, said the principals "serve at the pleasure of the school board. The school board doesn't want to give an explanation of why they were removed because it opens them to litigation." 
 While district officials did not explain the firings, the district has struggled academically. 
 After the meeting, <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Johnson</a> declined to discuss the terminations. She acknowledged, however, that the state Education Department is investigating the district's alleged noncompliance with laws governing <a href="/topics//Special_Education">special education</a> programs. 
 District officials also declined to comment on an audit under way by the state comptroller's office. Comptroller's spokesman Brian Butry confirmed the audit but declined to give details. 
 Town Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby said she is concerned about the litany of issues facing the district. "We are adults, and we are supposed to look after the young ones," she said. "I am worried about the students in the district."

Hempstead district fires 5 administrators

The Hempstead School District board of education delayed its vote on a new contract for Superintendent <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Susan Johnson</a> last night, citing ongoing negotiations. 
 At a special meeting, the board did not say when the contract would be completed or when a vote on it could be expected. Board members did indicate they plan to approve a contract once the final details are worked out between <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Johnson</a>'s attorney and the district. 
 "We are expecting that reasonably soon there will be a contract ready," the district's <a href="/topics//Carle_Place,_NY">Carle Place</a>-based attorney Jonathan Scher said. 
 <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Johnson</a>, a Hempstead graduate, said last week after the State of the School District address that she would come out of retirement and accept a three-year contract to run the school system. 
 "Our goal is to give the superintendent a contract," board president Betty Cross said. 
 Last month, the state Education Department denied a request for a waiver that would have allowed <a href="/topics//Susan_Johnson">Johnson</a> to serve in the superintendent job and collect her $210,000 salary through June 30. A state law requires retirees younger than 65 with state pensions make less than $30,000 in order to collect their pensions. She would not need state approval if she waives her $100,000-plus state pension. 
 Johnson would need to repay any pension amounts if she earned more than $30,000 this year while she was getting her pension, state comptroller spokesman Eric Sumberg has said. 
 Johnson returned to the position she held twice previously after former Superintendent Patricia Garcia abruptly resigned in November. Garcia is set to receive a payout of nearly $320,000 until December.