[School Board Trustee Steven] Haun’s recent letter-writing campaign, outlining enrollment figures for Saugerties school from the ’60s and ’70s as the primary source and proof that we should close an elementary school, is nothing short of politics. Haun’s level of investigation is limited to antiquated enrollment data and misses the boat on the intricacies of what is required of public education these days.
There is zero understanding the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Part 200 regulations, Response to Intervention Strategies, Academic Intervention Services, or related space/instructional needs for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, et al. Never mind research on the benefits of smaller learning communities and class sizes.
Mr. Haun’s “campaign strategy” is to suggest that a closed school is a huge cost savings to the district. It is a shortsighted approach that would in reality throw a community into turmoil. Never mind that nothing is mentioned by Haun of the cost to maintain an unsalable building and its grounds, increased transportation costs and increased time spent on busses for students, the dramatic escalation of students with disabilities that would require out of district placements at whopping individual tuitions, the effect on homeowners who built homes based upon their children’s elementary schools...etc., etc.
I have been a part of the actual BOE suggested Consolidation Feasibility Study group over the course of two months. The committee has educators, parents and business representatives. The data and consideration given to the issues are real, and Haun does every person on the committee a disservice by suggesting otherwise. The investigation Haun wanted would have cost taxpayers at least $25K. To look at the same data he is digging up from 1969? Really?
If Haun wants to truly address the concerns of taxpayers then why doesn’t he address our local state representatives to find out what they are doing, or talk about school tax reform or the Omnibus Tax Relief and Reform Act. Perhaps that would require him to be a serious and responsible board member?
Please exercise your right to vote in this upcoming election. Our community has weathered a significant storm within the past several years with redistricting, and financial fiascoes. Do we really need controversy for controversy’s sake, or to benefit one person’s election?
Bill Ball
Saugerties
BOE CANDIDATE WAS ACCUSED OF SEX DISCRIMINATION
I offer the following as a private citizen.
This letter is about school board candidate Robert Thomann. However, before I begin, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not suggesting—nor can I prove—any wrongdoing on Thomann’s part. Read the letter, be your own judge and come to your own conclusion but, keep this in mind—he is running for a seat on the School Board.
With School Board elections rapidly approaching I feel duty-bound to inform potential voters that School Board candidate Robert Thomann , former BOCES site administrator, has been the subject of two separate sexual discrimination lawsuits filed in NYS Supreme Court, both of which were eventually settled out of court.
According to the court documents (obtained through FOIL), Mr. Thomann was a site administrator at BOCES in Port Ewen at the time. While I have not seen any proof that may have been offered to support the allegations contained therein, among the many claims alleged in the court documents:
that defendant Thomann was reportedly heard to tell another social worker that “the female teaching teams needed a ‘man’ in the room;”
that defendant Thomann disrespects female employees and his attitude creates a working environment that reduces females to second-class status;
that defendant Thomann’s demeaning attitude toward females has been expressed in sexual comments about a woman with large breasts made in the presence of co-workers, as well as having been conveyed by Defendant Thomann when, upon information and belief, he gave a teacher a valentine and commented to her that he wished it had been “edible underwear;”
that Defendant Thomann treats females differently by allowing them 30 minutes for lunch while allowing males 40 minutes; and that Defendant Thomann had demonstrated an attitude toward female employees as inferior beings who are there to serve their male superiors.
According to Kingston Freeman article titled “Deal near in action vs. BOCES” (September 15, 1996), Mr. Thomann was also accused (in a separate lawsuit) of sexual discrimination. According to the article, Teacher “X” filed her complaint after being fired as a BOCES teaching assistant, claiming that she had been dismissed after complaining to Thomann about a male colleague who “threw” her “against a wall” and “tried to kiss” her.
Teacher “X” claimed that Thomann told her he would not recommend her for tenure if she pursued this complaint any further.
What is particularly troubling to me about Robert Thomann›s run for the board is what he said when he contacted me a few weeks ago to ask if I would support him. I told him that I had some serious concerns about the disturbing rumors that I had heard about him while he was an administrator at BOCES. When asked about it, he said he didn’t understand why it had to be made public and I indicated that since he is running for a School Board seat there should be full disclosure. With that, he said to me, “What do I have to do to stop you from investigating me?”
I asked myself: “What is he afraid of; is he afraid that I may uncover something?”
George D Heidcamp Sr.
Saugerties
NIGHTMARES FROM A NEW MATTRESS
I am writing this as a warning to the public. After years of sleeping on an old lumpy bumpy mattress, I decided to buy a new one. I had no problem finding one that felt like a dream to my poor old back. Two days later, the dream mattress turned into a mattress from Hell! I started to smell a strange odor coming from the mattress. The fumes made my eyes water, nose run, and gave me a bad headache. When I was not near the mattress, I felt better right away. The odor became so intense that I had to remove the mattress from my home, and put it in an outside space. I have suffered from multiple chemical sensitivities for years, so this was unbearable to me. I tried, for days, to call Ulster Mattress, the place where I had purchased it. No one answered at the phone number found on the receipt. I knew I could not get my money back, all I wanted was to know what chemicals were in or on the mattress. I than went to my trusty computer. What I found was a shock to my already messed up system! It seems that in 2007, the Consumer Product Safety Commission passed a law (16 CFR 1633) requiring all mattresses sold in the U.S. to meet open-flame fire proofing. Manufacturers put fire retardant chemicals inside and on mattresses. The chemicals included: formaldehyde, boric acid, antimony trioxide (like arsenic), and melamine, the same chemical recently found in pet food. All this added to the foams, plastics, and many petroleum based chemicals already in the mattresses. Some proven to be carcinogens. CPSC was very worried about us having a burning bed, but did not seem to care if we were exposed to, and suffer from common petroleum-based chemicals. Some of these chemicals have been shown to weaken or damage immune and nervous systems. Autoimmune disorders have also been linked to petroleum based chemicals. The horrible fumes from the mattress is called “off-gassing.” It can cause respiratory problems, and skin reaction.
It has been recommended that people allow up to two weeks to air out the mattress before sleeping on it, and even than most say to encase it in a thick plastic so no more “off-gassing” can occur. There were no caution labels found to let the public know what can happen. If you have just bought a new mattress, and are now suffering from strange flu-like symptoms, or sinus infections, do not rule out the possible connection to your new mattress. I will never buy another mattress, unless I have a script from a doctor defining what I cannot have in it for health reasons.
Barbara Terwilliger Ambrosano
Saugerties
NEXT UP: DEATHERS
Does Donald Trump want to send his personal physician to Pakistan to verify that Osama Bin Ladin is really dead?
Ellen Perantoni
West Saugerties
THOMANN WILL BRING CHANGE TO BOE
Bob Thomann is running for the Saugerties School Board of Education! YAY! You ask why I am so very excited? Well that’s easy to answer.
Experience: Mr. Thomann has 30 years of experience working as an Administrator in the education system.
Knowledge: Creating and maintaining quality education within a school’s budget are several of the duties Mr. Thomann does as an administrator.
Concern: Our community would be very lucky to have Mr. Thomann advocating for our children’s education not only as an administrator but as a concerned and very involved parent (his child attends the Saugerties High School).
Let’s put experience, knowledge and concern on the Saugerties School Board of Education!
Vote for Change – vote for Bob Thomann – May 17.
Katie Cokinos
Saugerties
THOMANN FOR SCHOOL BOARD
I am a concerned parent and attend most Saugerties Board of Education meetings to better inform myself regarding our school district. I also attend monthly SSP (Saugerties School Parent) meetings to hear directly from the administration about pressing school issues. Lastly, I go to PTA meetings to hear what concerns my own children’s school has regarding education. As a result, I feel I am a good judge of what is needed on our Saugerties Board of Education.
At a time when our school district is in economic crisis, our Board of Education is missing a person who can seek alternative financial sources to alleviate the burden on the taxpayers. The board also needs someone who can set a list of priorities and attainable goals that work for our district. Finally and most importantly, we need someone who makes education a priority.
I believe Bob Thomann is the candidate who can fill this void on our current Board of Education. Bob has been in education for over 30 years as an administrator. His experience is much needed in our district where curriculum has been directly affected by financial crisis. Bob understands the way a school works and will bring meaningful discussion to the table when programs and educational services are threatened.
Bob Thomann is an experienced grant writer and can help our district seek funds that may be available to us. We currently use BOCES for a fee to obtain grants. It was Bob who rallied last year to write a grant for sports program funding.
He has the knowledge of grants that can help us financially and at no cost to the tax payer.
Bob also has a vision for the school district that is reasonable, attainable and involves a monthly discussion about curriculum and education. At present, there is not one board committee that specifically focuses on the education of our students. I have watched as our board discussion has focused on backhoes and whether to charge the public to use school grounds. There is little or no mention of delivering a better quality education to the children of Saugerties. Our financial woes are well known and the burden of property taxes is a heavy strain on all homeowners. This is why we need someone on the board who has a vision for providing the highest quality education for every dollar spent in our district. Board of Education membership is a position where finding creative and long-term solutions will improve things for all of us, taxpayers, families, teachers and students. Saugertiesians, together we can make a difference. Please support Bob Thomann for Board of Education on May 17.
Jennifer Mangione
Saugerties
FRACKING MYTHS
Underlying the brilliant astronomer Bob Berman’s thesis about gas drilling in his Night Sky column are three invalid assumptions which undermine his conclusions.
1) “Natural” gas is cleaner than coal. This premise ignores recent peer reviewed studies reflecting natural gas’s entire life story. The air pollution over Wyoming gas fields is a black pall over the land. Deadly ground ozone there just surpassed Los Angeles. If hydro-fracking takes off in NY›s shale (to our windward), every gas well, compressor station, and waste fluid pool will emit toxic plumes day and night for the life of the gas “play.” True, it is not coal›s CO2, but methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas. “Cleaner than coal” is a slogan which belies the true costs of natural gas.
2) Gas drilling will be regulated safely in New York. New York can expect up to 100,000 gas wells; each frack consumes 3 to 8,000,000 gallons of clean water mixed with literally tons of toxic chemicals. The N.Y. DEC has 16-19 staff members to monitor spillage (a lot comes back up), blow-outs, stream water theft, illegal frack fluid dumping. Our northeast aquifers are shallow, replenished by ground water. Dead trout, hairless horses, sick children, poisoned wells abound in Pennsylvania since the 1500 spills and leaks in that relatively new gas land. With an eviscerated DEC budget and no industry bonding, will it be done safely in New York? No way.
3) We must choose a poison from coal, gas or uranium fuels. Ten years ago, the German Parliament guaranteed equal access to the grid to any company producing renewable energy. It paid fees way less than our subsidies to the oil/gas conglomerates. Germany, the second cloudiest country in Europe, has since gone solar. Recently tens of thousands of German citizens insisted their government reject plans for more nuclear plants because that populace is empowered by the solar revolution there. They know it is practical to invest in both economic sustainability and public health. That is the only “energy independence.” (China is already buying into our northeast shale gas.)
A day trip to the gas country of Pennsylvania could move this discussion from the abstract to the visceral. There is NO night sky in gas drill country. Industrial lights, gas well flares, compressor noise, truck lights, billowing methane plumes assault the senses 24/7. There, a stream I slip into to be deliciously wet in summer tastes of ethelene glychol (which belongs in our car radiators in winter). Natural gas, like most chemicals, may be “natural” but does not belong in our water-soaked cells. These devilish details bring this discussion back down to earth. Poison our earth and we poison ourselves.
Joan Walker-Wasylyk
Woodstock
THOMANN IS COMMITTED
As a parent with a child in the Saugerties school system, I feel that Bob Thomann would be a great asset to the community. Recently, I had the opportunity to hear Bob Thomann speak at a meet and greet and I am very pleased that he is running for the Saugerties Board of Education. He is a professional with over 30 years experience as a school administrator and has already shown a strong commitment to making sure that our children will not be shortchanged by the budget shortfalls passed down from Albany. As a result of the budget cuts last year, he became involved in the fund raising efforts that restored enrichment programs to our students. On his own initiative, he wrote grants to bring additional funds to reinstate the sports programs. Having Bob on the Board of Ed would be a step in the right direction for Saugerties. I urge everyone to come out and support Bob Thomann on May 17.
Melanie Avallone
Saugerties
With one win, the independent line it will be hard to beat the republican,conservative,and democrat in the november 8th elections, so with that i will be supporting Mike Harkavy for ulster county legislature in district 1