Maintain state oversight for Hempstead schools
Jack Bierwirth's two-year term as a state-appointed special adviser to the Hempstead school district has ended. Credit: Barry Sloan
Forever is a long time. But for Hempstead's schoolchildren, that's roughly how long they've waited for the severely troubled district to turn itself around and begin functioning like an effective school system.
Lately, there have been signs of progress. Some academic performance numbers are creeping up, bills are being paid on time, a new elementary school is being built, boilers are being maintained. Simple stuff, but a sea change for Hempstead.
Now, the district is at a critical point. Jack Bierwirth, the state-appointed adviser who has helped to guide Hempstead, has finished his two-year term. But it's too early to back off on tough love. Bierwirth's reports have made clear that school board dysfunction is still a problem and still the biggest impediment to success. Continued intervention is needed.
The State Legislature passed a bill in June to establish a three-person board of monitors for Hempstead who would have veto power over virtually everything except labor contracts. The legislation is not perfect. It was rushed, with too little discussion. But its heart is in the right place — with the kids of Hempstead, failed by generations of so-called leaders more concerned about themselves, their supporters, their cronies and their fiefdoms than about the students they were elected or hired to serve.
Current school board members, like their predecessors, rail against the loss of local control. But they haven't proved they deserve the benefit of the doubt. Take the case of Randy Stith. A board member since 2017, Stith pleaded guilty in March to misdemeanor charges that he forged a letter of recommendation in applying to become a Hempstead Village police officer and stole thousands of dollars from the village fire department as a volunteer firefighter. Forgery and embezzlement are non-starters for school board members. But Hempstead's board never acted to remove Stith, an appalling lack of judgment. Nor, disappointingly, did the state Education Department take steps to remove Stith.
A similar warning about the fragility of success came last month when the district's former chief of facilities pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a $50,000 scheme in which he got $15,000 in kickbacks from a district contractor to whom he gave a district credit card for the contractor's personal use. Other criminal investigations are underway.
A version of the bill must be signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Negotiations with the bill's sponsors and the state Education Department center on whether there is a better model of state control for Hempstead. One possibility: something like what's being used in Rockland County's East Ramapo district, where a monitor makes recommendations, but if the board takes other actions, the state education commissioner can overrule. That would require the department to be more decisive than it has been to date. One thing is for sure: Bierwirth should be asked to stay on until a solution is reached.
The rebuilding of Hempstead's schools is just starting, The state must keep the district's guardrails in place, so the future that Hempstead's children have been promised doesn't take forever to arrive. — The editorial board
