JORDAN -- The public portion of Tuesday’s special Jordan–Elbridge School Board meeting only lasted a few minutes. It was just long enough to read the pledge of allegiance and do a roll call before the board president asked everyone to leave and then went into private executive session.
While the board discussed their next move in private, neighbors and parents met in the hallway to talk about their strategy. Maureen Doyle is leading an effort to get New York State's Education Commissioner involved in Jordan-Elbridge's issues.
"We need to get the commissioner up to date and then see where we go from there,” said Doyle. “We will not stop until our district is back in the business of educating children."
The school board has been sharply criticized by a judge in two recent court decisions regarding suspensions, job changes and the outgoing superintendent’s severance contract. The Board may face more legal challenges. Local attorney Jarrod Smith is representing a concerned parents group on a pro-bono basis. Smith said he is gathering information now but wouldn't rule out more legal action against the board.
"School districts can do what they're doing but not the way they're doing it,” said Smith. “There's procedures - it's called education law, I think everyone is pretty familiar with it - and they're just not doing it."
Several parents like Lisa Long say they've learned a lot about education law and plan to continue coming to board meetings even after the current issues are resolved.
"I guess all the checks and balances weren't working out with the superintendent and the board of education,” said Long on Tuesday night. “Hopefully with a new superintendent coming - hopefully they make a better choice, a good choice. Hopefully we'll see change for the better."
Tuesday’s meeting was largely spent in executive session but the Jordan-Elbridge School Board is expecting a crowd for their regular meeting on Wednesday. The meeting will be held in the high school auditorium at 7:00 pm.
Original Story:
Concerned Jordan-Elbridge parents are taking steps towards replacing members of the J-E school board.
District resident Maureen Doyle has started a letter campaign aimed at removing the entire school board. The letter is addressed to the commissioner of the state education department.
Officials with the education department say they can not remove any board member without a formal appeals process.
Doyle says she is aware of the process, but she wants to get the attention of the commissioner first.
"If he gets thousands of letters, that will be an attention-getter," Doyle says. "Yes, the next step could possibly need to be the appeal process, but right now let's get his attention because there's a lot of catching up to do."
The J-E school district has had constant turnover recently, and has been involved in three court cases. Five high-ranking administrative officials have been replaced.
Jordan-Elbridge officials did not respond to e-mails asking for comment.
