The day after a school board election and a few days before a Buffalo Teachers Federation election, Wednesday night's school board meeting was, at times, tense with politics front and center.Carl Paladino won't be on the board until July 1 but he was at the meeting last night to warn members there are limits to what they can and should do until the new board takes over. He told Board President Mary Ruth Kapsiak and Schools Superintendent Pamela Brown they committed fraud in the teacher evaluation deal with the teacher's union.
It's a system that was also attacked by Marc Bruno during the public comment. Besides being a Riverside High School teacher assaulted last year by a student, Bruno is running against longtime incumbent union President Phil Rumore. He is pushing for an end to the new teacher evaluation system imposed by Albany.
"This is not a good law. It's created havoc in our schools systems. It's taken time away from what we all should be doing, educating our children," Bruno said.
Paladino told the meeting he wants the board to stop most actions until the new body is seated.
"Pending the seating of a new board on July 1, this board and its superintendent must not take any action, execute or otherwise extend the employment contracts with administrators or executive staff, make any senior administrative staff appointments, or otherwise bind the Buffalo schools system and the newly-elected Board of Education," Paladino said.
Brown denies the charges and says she did the right thing.
"The legislation that required that evaluation process was passed in 2010, two years before I began my tenure here. We were able to get an agreement within the first few months of my tenure," Brown said.
While the school budget has to be in place before Paladino joins the board, he's likely referring to hiring a deputy superintendent, a new position Brown wants filled to do much of the management of the system. Some board members had expected to be asked to name someone last night.
