June 12, 2015
Mr. James Sampson,
President
Buffalo Board of Education
801 City Hall
Buffalo, New York 14202
Dear Mr. Sampson:
This is the 4th
correspondence to you requesting that you exercise leadership in addressing the
egregious behavior of one of the members of the Buffalo Board of Education; Mr.
Carl Paladino, Park District Representative.
You received three previous memos from Dr. Nevergold, each prompted by
incidents in which Mr. Paladino showed blatant disrespect and disregard for
individuals with whom this District has professional interactions. The specific incidents that were cited in
prior requests were: Mr. Paladino’s
threat to Dr. Gary Orfield, OCR Consultant; the demand for Interim
Superintendent Donald Ogilvie’s resignation and threat to seek his termination
if he did not resign and the public defamation of a Board employee. To date you have not responded to any of
these matters, either in response to Dr. Nevergold’s memoranda or based on your
own knowledge and experience of what constitutes good governance.
Now, we find
ourselves (yes, as a Board member, Mr. Paladino’s actions impact this entire District)
the subject of yet another outrageous, unprofessional, racially charged remark
that Mr. Paladino made last Saturday about the “damned Asians” taking college
placements away from citizens. http://www.oleantimesherald.com/news/article_c1c5cd90-0cbd-11e5-aae2-ef48b4d3d121.html
Mr. Paladino’s comments were not only biased and insensitive;
they were based on inaccurate information, something that Mr. Paladino does
routinely.
This is behavior that is repetitive. In the past and to this day, Paladino has
denigrated Black women including Board members, former Superintendent Dr.
Pamela C. Brown and other administrative staff. Most recently Assemblywoman
Crystal Peoples-Stokes and new State Regent, Dr. Catherine Collins have been the
objects of his ire. Using descriptors
such as the “sisterhood, cabal, clueless, nonsensical and incompetent” he has
tried to reduce African American women to a position as self-serving individuals. He has alleged that these African American
females are motivated by an opportunity for “self-empowerment” and “do not care
about African American children”. His
behavior is unseemly, abusive and unacceptable for a publicly elected official.
Is this the example that we want to set
for our students?
The Board’s refusal to
address Mr. Paladino’s behavior, indeed the silence of the Board as an entity sends
the message that we all condone this behavior.
However, the four signers of this letter offer a resounding rebuttal to
this assumption. We have frequently
voiced disapproval of Mr. Paladino’s breaches of Board policies and
inappropriate racialized statements. Yet, in spite of his repeated violations,
this Board, as a body, has not taken any constructive or decisive action to
reject or dis-avow support of Mr. Paladino’s behavior. Our own Student Code of Conduct, which
applies to everyone in the District, in case you didn’t know, states that “The
Board of Education is responsible to lead by example….” (p. 29). Nearly 80 percent of our student population are
children of color, who are watching their representatives to see how we handle
this situation.
While we understand that New
York State Education Law does not give the Board authority to censure or
reprimand a school board member, the Board “may criticize the exercise of poor
judgement by one of its members (Appeal of Silano, Ed Dept Rep 20 (1993)”. Through
our Student Code of Conduct, we have set standards for acceptable student
behavior and consequences for not following those standards. So, we ask, are the Board members who continue
to maintain their silence expecting more of our students than they do of
themselves? As adults are you saying to
our students, “Do as we say, not as we do?”
If that is ultimately the answer, we say shame on you for taking this
hypocritical stance.
Some of you are quick to
label our students and our schools as failing.
Our students are not failing! Our
schools are not failing! Its members of
the Board of Education, who refuse to be accountable and prefer to allow one
errant member to tarnish our students, tarnish our District and ultimately tarnish
our City. You are the ones who are
failing! It’s time to “man” or “woman”
up!
Sincerely,
Barbara
A. Seals Nevergold, PhD, At-Large Member
Sharon
Belton-Cottman, Ferry District Member
Theresa
Harris-Tigg, PhD, East District Member
Mary
Ruth Kapsiak,
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