Lackawanna School Board Shenanigans
Recently, some friends were dining at the Blackthorn Restaurant in South Buffalo. They happened to witness the chef of the restaurant approach a table and start telling the patrons seated there that they needed to vote for John Makeyenko in the upcoming school board election. Apparently, the chef stated that he needed a job with better health insurance and John had promised him a job in the Lackawanna Schools maintenance department if he won.
After a little investigation, it turns out that "the chef" is Mark Daley, the brother of John Makeyenko's good friend Bob Daley - whose wife Courtney was put on as a teacher's aide last September.
5B APPOINTMENT OF COURTNEY DALEY/TEACHER AIDE POSTION
Motion by Member Friend, seconded by President Makeyenko upon the
recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, Nicholas D. Korach, to approve
the appointment of Courtney Daley to a 10 month Teacher Aide Position. Ms. Daley
meets the qualifications as outlined in the District posting. The effective date of
employment will be September 1, 2011. Her salary and benefits will be in
accordance with current CSEA contract.
Motion amended by Ronald Miller to appoint of Elizabeth Krakowski to this position,
seconded by Motyka.
VOTING ON THE AMENDMENT FIRST FOR Mrs. Krakowski
AYES: Motyka, Miller, Makeyenko
NAYS: Joyce, Friend, Sanders,
3-3
AMENDMENT FAILED
DULY PUT TO A VOTE ON THE ORGINIAL MOTION OF MS. DALEY
ALL IN FAVOR/NONE OPPOSED
6-0
APPROVED
After a little more investigation, it was revealed that Mark used to work at the Mulberry Restaurant in Bethlehem Park, but left because of...you guessed it-the owner wouldn't give him health insurance!!!
While YOU are on the subject.......
Patronage and nepotism breed incompetence.....I have said it a thousand times! We all know it, and have experienced working with some flunkie at some point because "daddy knew someone somewhere, and they could not hold down a job without " connections ". It is all over the County, and Lackawanna is the poster child for it......we know, and so do they, so they fight and pay their way in by buying their "cocktail party tickets ect. for the rest of their lives! They would not get away with their call-offs and no-shows/tardiness, grievances if someone looked at you funny, ETC., in the private sector, never .
Lots of us do not have health insurance, and many who do have BIG$$ money deductibles......we just deal with it, and would never compromise our integrity by sucking up to a candidate who does not have the children and communities interests at heart! Yuck! It is like selling your soul to the devil, and perpetrates an already broken system.
New subject.......on Truman School Bond vote which I felt boxed in to vote yes for.
$$6.65 mil is A LOT of money....right?! So, they could have closed Truman and sold it to whoever.........built a hall or two off of Martin Road School and put the kids in there like all other schools who always house K-6th.
Truman is Pre-K thru 2nd and then Martin Road 3rd thru 6th, then they go on to the Junior and Senior High in one building. Lackawannna is really a little district.
They keep threatening to pull Pre-K (I hope not but if they do, HEAD START will boom and they would love it!), and we have declining enrollment every year due to the Charter Schools ..........so.........
Seems to make sense to do this to save on busing, heat, electric, maintenance, GASOLINE for school vehicles and teacher trips, etc., etc., etc.!
Only one problem........less maintenance men, custodians, two men who sit in hall when you go to get your child out, LA cops security, ETC., ETC., ETC.!!
Patronage to build their political pyramid because they hang the good jobs of $15.00+/hr with FULL BENEFITS and minimal deductibles if any over their heads.....
Can't wait for Business First....tick tick!:hopelessness:
Please, Keep it in perspective Steeler Nation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Steeler Nation
I assume if you were on the school board you would only hire the most qualified individuals for every position that becomes available. Teachers, aides, maintenance workers, lunch ladies etc. and never give any special consideration to family and friends. Yeah Right!!!
I love to help people....and have helped people through-out the years with jobs, leads, references, and visited HR/bosses to put in a good word for them. I never said I had a problem with a job or two in a family.........but they have to be qualified for the position of course. Please keep this in perspective.
It is the blatant nepotism and patronage that creates incompetence that is out of line. It adds to low moral, unsafe working conditions, and not carrying your full share of the work-load that is wrong because your husband or daddy is so-and-so. Come-on, would you really want to go to work with that going on?!?
When kids don't have enough books to do their work from, when parents have to bring in school lists a mile long, and less buses so the kids have to walk far in the winter because the budget is cut.......BUT, there is lots of overtime, + created part-time jobs for people who are retired or have another decent outside employment is what I am talking about.
Lackawanna has a lot of job-hoarding going on and the "family and friends club" greedily gobble the pie when other qualified LA citizens remain on the outside looking in. I did not create the downward spiral of LA City and Schools, I have fought against the hidden agendas and lack of transparency for years.
ie. Giving a Policeman's wife a wonderful job with Cadillac benefits on top of his from the City is what I am talking about.
A woman who is active in the schools for years was voted down from that job and "consideration" went directly to the Policeman/School Board Trustees wife. I am not putting them down.....maybe they can't live on his $35.00/hr+ salary due to personal reasons. I apologize in advance....
Again, I do not have any problem hiring competent people who NEED A JOB. LA due to the high levels of nepotism and patronage tries to shove a square peg into a round hole and putty it in for the next 30 years or so due to political paybacks. NOT every time or everyone, of course, but LA history speaks for itself! It is a known fact that you have to be "connected" in LA to "get-in" or be the only one with the proper credentials at the time. Even then they will cover for them to keep that golden paycheck coming! A Department Head recently said something to the effect that why shouldn't they get all the jobs....they are the ones in power and make the decisions. In other words, What resume'??!!............
I do not disagree with you Steeler Nation, just a few tweaks on the implementation of good management practices.:)
City Council TABLED Bocce Court as the ONLY 1st Ward School Voting Poll tonight!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
andreahaxton
What are we going to do about the 1 polling place in each Ward thing they concocted to keep the votes slanted toward the family and friends club?!?
It worked good for them on the Truman Bond VOTE when less than 1000 folks total came out. They even had appr. 100 yes votes in affidavit's to round out the suppression of voter turnout. Very cute, club.:rolleyes:
The First Ward Bocce Club is very isolated and the walkers will have a real hard time getting over here along the Turnpike. Especially the senior citizens.
So folks, we can assume will stay home, and the family and friends will drive their slanted/controlled voters over to plunk them.
WAKE-UP! WAKE-UP! WAKE-UP!
April 17, 2012 Board Mtg. to "Adopt Lackawanna School Budget 2012/13' by the Board.
Work Session on April 23, 2012 at 6pm Mckinley School.
*** Lackawanna School Budget COPY can be picked up on April 25, 2012.
School Board public meeting April 25, 2012 at 7pm at Martin Road.
Na Na Na Na- Na!
Good job City Council....even the school employee one questioned it at length!
Told you it was to suppress the First Ward Voters from casting their votes! City Council TABLED the sole use of the ISOLATED Beth Park Bocce Court and asked why St. Anthony's Or Yemen Hall is not included due to demographics(my word).
I guess there is a LSD Board mtg tomorrow to discuss the risen situation......
Anyone know where and what time? Is it on their WEB as the LAW states it should be?!?
Voter suppression.....did someone say Al Sharpton?!? This is really a BIGGIE folks!
Who else is running for Trustee? Maybe this is where my forte' is.......at least I will be fair, and NO shenanigan's! I started out in 1995 and had my first taste of poli-tricks......BTW.......it was the same year you-know-who ran against me and has been in control of his Fiefdom ever since!:rolleyes: If elected again he will have 20 years in as.........one of the famous "Lackawanna-ins who led OUR LA School Systems to.......fill in the blank.
5 PM Tonight......McKinley School on South Shore, 2nd fl Board Room of Superintendent
Communities » Lackawanna
Lackawanna
Use of city building for School Board election tabled
By Jay Tokasz
News Staff Reporter
Published:April 17, 2012, 12:00 AM
A legal notice in a local weekly newspaper already indicated that the Bocce Court, a city-owned building in Lackawanna’s Bethlehem Park section, would be the sole polling place for residents of the 1st Ward in the May 15 School Board elections.
It now appears that the April 4 notice was premature.
The city routinely provides the Lackawanna School District access to its buildings for elections.
But it was only Monday that the district officially approached the City Council with its request to use the Bocce Court facility at 175 Madison Ave.
And this time, the Council took the unusual step of tabling the district’s request, potentially putting the district in an awkward bind.
Council members and residents expressed concern that having just one polling site would prevent many residents in the 1st Ward from voting.
The School Board will have to address the issue at its meeting tonight, when it also expects to adopt a 2012-13 proposed school budget.
With just five weeks until the election, the district might not have enough time to properly advertise polling places in the legal notices of its official newspapers, the Front Page and the Am-Pol Eagle.
State law requires that districts notify voters of polling sites at least six times before the election. Both the Front Page and the Am-Pol Eagle are weekly newspapers.
A single polling site in Bethlehem Park for 1st Ward residents would shut out voters who don’t live in that area, which is separated from the rest of the 1st Ward by Smoke’s Creek and accessible only from Route 5, said residents and Council members.
The 1st Ward is the most impoverished area of the city, and many residents do not have cars.
“It’s unreasonable to think that people could walk down Route 5 to go to a polling place in Bethlehem Park,” said Henry Pirowski, Council president.
The Council voted, 4-0, to table the district’s request to use the Bocce Court facility.
In an interview after the meeting, Pirowski said the lone polling site in the 1st Ward “seems like disenfranchisement to me.”
“I’m not going to concur with something I think is wrong,” he said. “I don’t agree with it.”
Pirowski planned to express his concern to the School Board at its meeting tonight.
“This is not fair to the residents of the 1st Ward,” added 1st Ward Councilman Abdul Noman, who suggested that the district add either St. Anthony Church on Ingham Avenue or the Yemenite Benevolent Association on Ridge Road as polling places.
First Ward resident John Ingram said he and others will ask the state Education Department to intervene if the district doesn’t change its plans.
“They want to control the vote,” said Ingram. “It’s purposely being done to control the vote, in particular the minority vote.”
The 1st Ward has a large population of Arab-Americans and African- Americans.
The district used to have two polling sites for each of the city’s four wards.
jtokasz@buffnews.com
Too Funny! TYPICAL Lackawanna mindset. I can't stop laughing!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
andreahaxton
Na Na Na Na- Na!
Good job City Council....even the school employee one questioned it at length!
Told you it was to suppress the First Ward Voters from casting their votes! City Council TABLED the sole use of the ISOLATED Beth Park Bocce Court and asked why St. Anthony's Or Yemen Hall is not included due to demographics(my word).
I guess there is a LSD Board mtg tomorrow to discuss the risen situation......
Anyone know where and what time? Is it on their WEB as the LAW states it should be?!?
Voter suppression.....did someone say Al Sharpton?!? This is really a BIGGIE folks!
Who else is running for Trustee? Maybe this is where my forte' is.......at least I will be fair, and NO shenanigan's! I started out in 1995 and had my first taste of poli-tricks......BTW.......it was the same year you-know-who ran against me and has been in control of his Fiefdom ever since!:rolleyes: If elected again he will have 20 years in as.........one of the famous "Lackawanna-ins who led OUR LA School Systems to.......fill in the blank.
Lawmakers, education officials at odds
School Board faces off against Council in Lackawanna
By Jay Tokasz
News Staff Reporter
Published:April 19, 2012, 12:00 AM
A tug of war between the Lackawanna Board of Education and the City Council took a strange turn this week, when School Board members rescinded their approval of a councilman’s request to hold meetings with city residents in a school.
Fourth Ward Councilman Keith Lewis can no longer use the Martin Road Elementary School for town hall meetings May 9 and June 13. Board members had approved Lewis’ use of the school back in February.
“Fun and games in Lackawanna,” Lewis said in reaction to the board’s vote Tuesday. “I thought it was petty, and I thought it was uncalled for.”
The about-face came a day after the City Council tabled a school district request to use the city-owned Bocce Court as a polling site for the May 15 School Board election and budget vote. Lewis joined in the unanimous vote.
Council members and some residents expressed concern that having just one polling site in the 1st Ward would prevent many residents from being able to vote.
Board members took sharp exception to the Council’s unusual vote during a special meeting Tuesday.
“It’s never happened. It’s unheard of,” said School Board member Maureen Gambino. “If the city is going to dictate what the school district is going to do, it’s going to go both ways then.”
Another board member, Kenneth S. Motyka, said he was appalled by the action of the Council, which he termed unprecedented.
“They’ve disenfranchised the people of the 2nd Ward by not appointing a 2nd Ward Council member. And they’re going to get involved in our business?” said Motyka, referring to Council seat that has remained vacant since former member Geoffrey Szymanski was sworn in as mayor in January.
Motyka accused Council President Henry Pirowski of ulterior political motives. Pirowski could not be reached Wednesday to comment.
Lewis said the Council tabled the district’s request intending to have a conversation with School Board members Tuesday. The conversation didn’t happen, even though Lewis and Pirowski showed up at the board meeting.
A public comment period is not included in special meetings of the School Board, and the Bocce Court polling site was not on the agenda, said various board members. A measure rescinding Lewis’ ability to use the school also was not part of the agenda, but board members agreed to waive the rules during the meeting to add it.
“They waived the rules . . . to play petty politics, but they wouldn’t waive the rules to have a conversation with two sitting councilmen,” said Lewis.
Some residents maintain that a single polling site in the Bethlehem Park neighborhood would shut out voters who don’t live in that area, which is separated from the rest of the 1st Ward by Smoke’s Creek and accessible only from Route 5.
But School Board members maintained that they have no intention of excluding voters.
“It’s just basically a cost-saving measure for everybody. We’re just doing what’s right for the taxpayers,” said School Board President John W. Makeyenko.
No one complained about the use of the Bocce Court facility as the lone polling site in the 1st Ward during the March 27 vote on renovations for Truman Elementary School, Makeyenko added. And if Council members had issues with the Bocce Court site, they could have approached the School Board earlier.
Some might BIG words being thrown around LA......
Why don't they just swallow their whatevers, and change their Voter Suppression tactics to include another poll in the First Ward?!?
Simple solution to a mean-spirited attempt to pull one over on the First Ward. Their tactic worked on March 27 because we were boxed in to vote for the $6.65 Truman.......
But not now for the real-deal!
:witless:
The board is proceeding with plans to use the Bocce Court site, which already has been advertised as the 1st Ward polling place, Makeyenko said.
-----
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly indicated Maureen Gambino was a Councilwoman.
jtokasz@buffnews.com
A real " hot potato " if there ever was one!
Communities » Lackawanna
Lackawanna Schools
Crowd blasts lack of polling spots
By Charity Vogel
News Staff Reporter
Published:April 26, 2012, 12:00 AM
One per ward won’t work — and isn’t fair.
That was the message about polling places delivered to the Lackawanna School Board on Wednesday night, during a meeting crowded with seniors, homeowners and members of the city’s minority groups.
The residents delivered a united— and strong—message to the School Board, telling school officials that one polling place per ward in the city is not acceptable to residents for the upcoming May budget and school election vote.
One voting place per ward — for a total of four polling places in the city of slightly more than 18,000 people — was recently established by the School Board as the plan for the May 15 vote.
In recent years, there have been eight polling places for school votes. Before that, there were even more.
“Having four polling sites in the entire city is unfair — to the elderly, to the handicapped, to those unable to drive,” said resident Mohamed Albanna. “We’re urging you to change the position you have taken, and allow voters to exercise their constitutional right to vote.”
Residents especially focused on the situation in the First Ward, where the lone polling place would be located in a spot difficult to access for many residents.
“You gentlemen and ladies know Lackawanna,” said John Ingram of Church Street. “You know the problems getting to the polling sites. What you did was wrong. You’re denying the voting rights of residents — especially minorities.”
Andrea Haxton, a Bethlehem Park resident whose family has lived in the same First Ward home for four generations, held up a yellow sign reading: “BOE of LSD: Would You Walk Over a Mile to Vote? Voter Suppression.”
“It’s retaliation for us voting no for the budget last year,” Haxton said, of her views on why the board decided to change the polling places this year. “But we can’t afford it.”
Some 75 residents attended the one-hour meeting in the Martin Road Elementary School.
During the meeting, School Board members voted to authorize the district’s attorney, Carl Morgan, to pursue an Article 78 proceeding against the city’s Common Council, over an issue in which the city body tabled a request from the schools to use a certain site as a polling place in the First Ward for the May vote. Article 78 is the statute under which the actions of public bodies can be appealed.
The school budget of slightly more than $45 million, as well as three seats on the School Board, will be put before voters, said Morgan.
School Board members made no public statement about the polling places at the meeting.
The inception of the Article 78 action bothered some in the audience, including City Council President Hank Pirowski.
“It’s very unfortunate that this School Board found it necessary to pursue an Article 78,” Pirowski told the board. “I think it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars. Pirowski said the Council tabled the request at a mid-April meeting.
cvogel@buffnews.com
*************************************************
After the meeting I asked Lackawanna Policeman/School Board Member you know who, if he would walk over a mile to go vote, he answered, " Yes, I would ". I said, " No, you wouldn't ". He said, "Yes, I would"----I said, "No, YOU wouldn't". I said, " OK, on election day, I will meet you at your house and troll along in my car to see you go back and forth to walk the mile to go vote". He then said, " I don't care WHAT YOU think about me, I don't care anything about YOU!"
He next HOLLARED, "What about ALL THOSE LIES YOU write about me on that blog that I read about?!!!!!?
I said, " Tell me one lie that I said ".
He said, " The stuff you write about me and my wife and my salary!!!!!!!!!" I said, "You yourself once told me YOU make $35.00/hour".
I said, "Public information".........turned and walked away........ALL in front of an eye witness.
Boy, I always liked Officer you know who,.......what is happening here?!:rolleyes: