Board still not whole
Kline's Position Goes Unfilled
Up to Their Old Tricks Again ??
|
Paterson planners OK school addition
|
|
Friday, February 4, 2005
By TOM MEAGHER
HERALD NEWS
PATERSON - The Board of Education will be one
member short for a few more months, after failing
to fill an open seat.
In the band room at John F. Kennedy High School,
the board was scheduled Wednesday night to choose a
replacement for William Kline, who resigned Dec. 1.
Two members left before a vote could be taken,
preventing the board from having a quorum. "We've
not been able to resolve the open-seat situation,"
board President Jonathan Hodges said Thursday.
"We will try to determine what other options we
have, if any, at this particular point in
time."
Without five board members required to legally
hold a public meeting, the board could not vote.
The state Department of Education had given the
board 60 days to appoint a replacement after
Kline's resignation.
The department also granted an extension for the
board to finish its deliberation on Wednesday.
Now the open seat will remain vacant until the
Board of Education elections in April, unless state
Commissioner of Education William Librera decides
to appoint someone.
Hodges said the three candidates for the open
seat were so qualified that the board could not
agree on one to choose.
On Wednesday night, the meeting began an hour
late after the board waited for other members to
arrive. The meeting was called to order with
Hodges, Alonzo Moody, Juan "Mitch" Santiago, Andre
Sayegh and Willa Mae Taylor in attendance. Board
member Joseph Atallo, who had been waiting, left
the room before the meeting began.
The board then left the room to go into a
closed-door session to discuss the open seat.
While the officials were gone, the school's fire
alarms began to shriek, although the audience
disregarded them.
More than an hour later, a smaller group
returned to address the public.
Atallo and Santiago, however, did not return to
the table.
"We did have a quorum and, inexplicably, two
members just went home," Sayegh said Thursday. "It
was surreal."
Santiago said he had to leave the meeting to
return to his job.
"I scheduled myself to be there between 5 and
6," Atallo said Thursday. "They didn't hold the
special meeting. If they're not going to be
respectful of my time, then I'm leaving."
Atallo, who returned to the meeting later
Wednesday, said he was drafting a letter to ask the
board to recommend a substitute candidate at its
meeting next week. "There's nothing to preclude us
from making a recommendation next week, and I'm
sure the commissioner would honor that," Atallo
said.
Hodges said the lack of a full board will not
affect its work in the coming months, including the
selection of a permanent schools
superintendent.
"I'm not overly concerned," Hodges said. "The
board is performing at a level it hasn't in a
number of years. I'm heartened by that. We'll
continue to do that and step up to our
responsibilities."
Perfect Home remedies ??.
1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don't
panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your
throat and presto! The blockage will be almost
instantly removed.
2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing
vegetables by getting someone else to hold them
while you chop away.
3. Avoid arguments with the misses about lifting
the toilet seat by simply peeing in the sink.
4. High blood pressure sufferers: simply cut
yourself and bleed for a while, thus reducing the
pressure in your veins.
5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm
clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going
back to sleep when you hit the snooze button.
6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of
laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.
7. Have a bad tooth ache? Hit your thumb with a
hammer, then you will forget about the tooth
ache.
|
Saturday, February 5, 2005
By Tom Meagher
PATERSON - The Planning Board this week approved
plans to add a four-story, 35,000-square-foot
addition to School 24. The board members also,
however, asked the New Jersey Schools Construction
Corp. to find more room for open space for the
students.
"In Paterson, we're forced to add on, rather
than build a new school," board Chairman Robert
Cornish said at a meeting Wednesday. "I know it's a
very difficult task that you have."
The district has been operated by the state
since 1991 because of numerous deficiencies and is
now the recipient of special state aid intended to
bring its buildings and programs up to modern
standards. The corporation plans to renovate the
century-old building at 50 19th Ave. by using the
addition to provide a cafeteria, classrooms,
gymnasium and multipurpose rooms. The K-8 school
serves 730 students.
The Planning Board will submit its approval to
the state Department of Education, which must sign
off on the addition before ground can be broken.
The School 24 plans may have to return to the board
for it to consider any changes to the open space in
the project.
According to the SCC website, the facility will
receive renovations and alterations, new masonry,
metal panel/tile, and glass structure of
approximately 33,000 square feet that will be
constructed on the site of the existing school and
linked to the facility by a new closed entry
element.
Renovations and additions include construction
of a state-of-the-art media center, alterations to
the main office, 9 general classrooms for grades 1
and 2, community health center with classroom, and
auditorium, alterations and an addition to the
cafeteria and kitchen, addition of a new gymnasium
and 2 new science rooms.
Site improvements include regarding the
8,600-square-foot enclosed open courtyard, new
paving in the courtyard, new concrete sidewalk,
steps and ramps, relocation of existing playground
and installation of synthetic playground surfaces,
new fencing.
The corporation hopes to complete construction
in August 2006.
Board of Education and
Legislative Elections are coming sooner
than you think.
Be part of the solution ...
Sign up for APD Donations to P.E.A.P.C.
!
LOOK FOR THE FLYERS IN YOUR
WORKSITE OR ASK YOUR P.E.A.
DELEGATE
|
English 101 ??
We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of
mice; yet the plural of house is houses, not
hice.
If the plural of man is always called men, why
shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet, and
I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, why
shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose, and the
plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren, but
though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.
|
Ex-School Supervisor GUILTY in Bribe Case
Friday, February 18, 2005
By KATHLEEN CARROLL
RECORD STAFF WRITER
A former Paterson schools maintenance supervisor faces 10
years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to accepting
bribes from a construction company in exchange for approving
its bills without checking its work.
The admission by Louis Milone in federal court in Newark
is the first time a school employee has acknowledged
defrauding the state-controlled school district during a
blitz of publicly funded, multimillion-dollar building
renovations from 1999 to 2002.
Milone, 46, of Pompton Lakes, has agreed to cooperate in
an investigation of the district's finances by the U.S.
Attorney's Office. He pleaded guilty to accepting bribes
Thursday, after several months of negotiations with federal
investigators. The plea coincides with federal grand jury
testimony on the matter heard earlier this week.
In the late 1990s, the crowded school system began to
renovate schools, and outfit rented office buildings and
warehouses as classrooms. Local contractors billed tens of
millions of dollars for repairs. But today, many schools
still have broken toilets, leaky windows, and half-painted
classrooms. State audits also have reported cases in which
work was billed for, but never done.
As the district's maintenance supervisor, Milone was
supposed to verify construction and building maintenance
work and sign off on purchase orders, triggering payment to
private contractors.
In his testimony, he admitted accepting several gifts
from Olympic Window Installers in Hawthorne from 1999 to
2001. The gifts included two Caribbean cruise vacations for
himself and his family, $1,000 in onboard ship credits and
airline tickets to Florida.
And, he testified, he did not inspect Olympic's work when
he signed off on bills for $2.5 million. He admitted that he
knew doing so was illegal.
Similar charges are included in a civil suit filed by the
district in Superior Court in Paterson, in which Milone and
Olympic Window Installers are co-defendants.
Olympic Window co-owner Russell Babb, reached at his
Hawthorne home Thursday, declined to comment on Thursday's
plea. He said he had retained a lawyer. The company is
barred from public contracts in New York State for failing
to pay prevailing wages, according to the New York State
Department of Labor.
The plea hearing didn't answer whether the company's
bills to the district were accurate. In the 17-count civil
suit, the district alleges that Olympic submitted inflated
bills and bills for work it never did, and conspired with
Milone to conceal the fraud. The district is seeking
restitution of $6 million, as well as tripled damage awards
in that suit, under civil provisions of the federal and
state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
(RICO).
Paterson Schools Superintendent Dennis Clancy, who has
led the ongoing internal investigation and legal effort to
recoup financial losses, declined to comment Thursday.
The district is one of three in New Jersey operated by
the state Department of Education, which seized control in
1991, citing poor student achievement, financial chaos and
political battling on the Board of Education. A spokesman
for the department declined to comment Thursday.
In a statement, attorney Tom Humick from Schenck, Price,
Smith & King, the district's representative in the civil
suits, said "Today's news came as no surprise."
An investigation published in The Record in May found the
district misspent $50 million from 1999 to 2002 by paying
construction companies in full for repair work on rented
buildings. Taxpayers throughout New Jersey paid for the
spending spree: Paterson schools received $755 million in
state funding from 1999 to 2002, covering 80 percent of
their expenses. Many affluent districts get by with the
state contributing 10 percent of their budgets, or less.
The construction work was all assigned by Milone or the
former district facilities director, James Cummings, under
open-ended contracts to politically connected companies.
Milone resigned under pressure in 2001. His boss, Cummings,
was fired in 2002.
A half-dozen other employees in the district's buildings
and facilities departments resigned, had their jobs
eliminated or were fired in 2002 and 2003. Former district
Superintendent Edwin Duroy, a state appointee, resigned
under public pressure after details of the fraud became
public in 2004.
One contractor has been convicted of defrauding the
district, as part of an ongoing investigation by the state
Attorney General's Office. In 2003, officers from Paint
Smart of Nutley pleaded guilty to bilking three districts -
Paterson, Ridgewood and South Brunswick - out of $1.5
million by overstating employees' wages.
Federal investigators have discussed the district with
state investigators, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for
the U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie. He declined to
provide further details.
Milone signed a plea deal with the U.S. attorney dated
Nov. 26, 2004. On Thursday, he appeared calm as he spoke
directly to U.S. District Judge Jose L Linares. Before the
hearing, he exchanged pleasantries with Assistant U.S.
Attorney Scott Resnik and FBI Agent Tom Coyle.
The guilty plea, to a single count of receiving corrupt
payments, means Milone faces a statutory prison sentence of
10 years, and a fine of at least $250,000. He was freed on
$10,000 bail and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9.
E-mail: carroll@northjersey.com
|