Regents chancellor considers replacing Buffalo School Board
Alleged improprieties, low test scores prompt alarm
By Peter Simon NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 04/22/08 8:00 AM
Alarmed by low pupil test scores and recent allegations of wrongdoing in the Buffalo schools, the chancellor of the State Board of Regents is exploring the possibility of replacing all nine members of the Buffalo Board of Education.
Chancellor Robert Bennett said allegations of improprieties at McKinley High School, Discovery School 67 and City Honors School — combined with poor academic performance — prompted him Monday to ask State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills and department attorneys to spell out the range of interventions available to the Regents.
Bennett said he is also disturbed by an ethics commission report concluding that at least one board member lied under oath about leaking confidential information to a newspaper reporter.
"I’m guessing by the end of the week I should know something," Bennett said of his request for possible options.
He said that Mills and the Regents will likely be "very deliberative" in dealing with the Buffalo Board of Education and that removing the board members "certainly isn’t our preference."
But he said problems in the city schools appear to be so severe and widespread that he wants to know the Regents’ full range of options, from increased state assistance and oversight "all the way to removal [of the board]."
"There are lot of issues here," Bennett told The Buffalo News. "They’re disturbing, to say the least."
Bennett said his concerns center on:
• Pupil tests scores and graduation rates that are far below local suburban districts and, in many cases, worse than other urban districts in the state.
• Allegations of improprieties at McKinley, including a lengthy suspension of Jayvonna Kincannon and claims that students were given advance notice of an essay question on a Regents exam and that computer and video equipment "disappeared" from the school. The suspension and related issues are being explored by a special investigator, and the other claims are being reviewed by the school district with state oversight.
• The claim of a teacher at Discovery School 67 that a teacher’s aide fondled an autistic kindergarten pupil in the school lavatory. Police and the boy’s parents weren’t notified until nearly four months later. District Attorney Frank J. Clark and the Buffalo police are investigating the alleged incident and the failure to notify authorities.
• City Honors Principal Williams
A. Kresse’s claim that a school administrator orchestrated a change in the school grading system that benefited his daughter and that board member Christopher Jacobs helped a former deputy county executive enroll his daughter at City Honors even though she did not meet the admissions requirements. Those charges have been referred to the state Education Department.
• An opinion from the Board of Education’s ethics commission that at least one board member lied about leaking confidential information to The News. That case has been referred to the state attorney general.
Bennett said that he has made his concerns clear in "bits and pieces" of broader conversations with Superintendent James A. Williams and that any formal actions would be preceded by discussions with board President Mary Ruth Kapsiak.
Kapsiak did not return a call seeking comment.
Bennett said the recent controversies appear to have taken the board’s focus away from improving student performance, which he described as by far the most crucial issue.
Bennett said some of the allegations are so serious that — if found to be true — they would warrant the strongest possible action, including removal of the board.
He pointed specifically to an allegation from a former teacher at McKinley that members of the basketball and football teams were placed in special-education classes so they could get assistance to keep their grades up and remain eligible to play sports.
"I really hope that didn’t happen," Bennett said. "If it did, I would recommend the highest form of discipline."
Bennett said his request to Mills centers on possible actions involving the Board of Education, which is the district’s governing body, and not Williams.
"I’m not going there," he said of Williams, who is under contract through June 10, 2011.
Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore said action should be considered against Williams, not the board.
"What has the board done that’s wrong, except trying to uncover things that the district has done, and is now doing its best to cover up?" he said. "It’s the wrong target completely."
In 1995, the State Legislature, at Mills’ request, passed legislation that dismissed all the board members of the Roosevelt Union Free School District on Long Island. That move was prompted by a state Education Department report that cited dismal student performance, misappropriation of funds, poorly maintained buildings and weak internal controls.
Education officials requested action by the State Legislature because of legal uncertainty over whether the education commissioner had the authority to remove an entire board of education, said Jay Worona, general counsel for the New York State Association of School Boards. It is clear, he said, that the commissioner can dismiss individual board members for just cause.
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