The Center Moriches School District Run Amuck
by A Concerned Resident
(Center Moriches, Long Island)
So for those of you that do not know how democracy works in the small town of Center Moriches here are a few facts:
The school district forms “advisory” committees to give the guise of community involvement but ignores what they “advise!”
Case in point; we now have a 27 year old middle school principle who has zero (0) administrative experience. 3 years as a Gym teacher in the same district as our Superintendent! Coincidence? Hired in spite of the fact that other far more qualified candidates were interviewed and willing to work for the same salary. The committee was ignored! Hours and hours of time spent to be dismissed out of hand! Democracy? I think not! Is she a nice person? Absolutely! Is she qualified for the position though? Absolutely not!
Our Board of Education and Superintendent allow out of district children of district employees to attend our schools tuition free! 11 students being educated at our expense! They pay none of our taxes but we educate their children, for free! 3 of them belong to the Superintendent who makes $234,500 plus benefits! These are the same people that constantly complain about unfunded mandates from the State. This is an unfunded mandate created and allowed by them and thrown on the taxpayer’s backs. Money lost to the district forever. Money that could be put to so many good and needed uses. But they give it away free!
We also have an inordinate number of highly paid administrators for a district with just two (2) school buildings. A Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, Assistant to the Superintendent, Confidential Secretary FOR the Superintendent, 3 Principles, 2 Assistant Principles, Director of Special Ed… Far too many, costing all of us far too much, for such a small district taking our hard earned tax money away from the kids!
Now the community is being asked to support a $27 million bond. A bond initially pushed due to school overcrowding. Overcrowding and educating 11 extra children for free! Does that make sense? That was the reason at least until the numbers used to support overcrowding were questioned! Then, lo and behold, we did not have an overcrowding problem! We have safety concerns instead! What to believe? Who to believe? And this while the last bond has 9 years left on it! How much debt can this small community afford?
Some repairs are desperately needed but not everything that got thrown into the bond request for sure!
The district, our district, is out of control and the laughing stock of the education community! The community must rally and get involved. We must all tell the Board and Superintendent to come back to earth and address the pressing needs and ditch the pipe dream ideas!
Our taxes are more than high enough that we should expect far more from our district! But the community must demand it or nothing will be done! Nothing positive that is. If allowed they will continue to waste our money and bleed us all dry! And the kids are the ones that will suffer!
