School District Notebook: Business Affairs to Meet Wednesday

Meetings

While the will be busy week with three meetings and parent-teacher conferences, there is just one meeting set for this week.

The Business Affairs Committee will meet on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Joseph M. Barton Building on New York Avenue.

Notes

During last Tuesday's meeting Board of Education member Grace Plourde responded to .

In a prepared speech Plourde stated: "Since that meeting I've apologized, a lot, I even apologized to the public ...  tonight, however, I'm forced to call Mr. Saggese out for a persistent, pernicious lie. He has claimed in this room and elsewhere that I spit at him – I did not ... Mr. Saggese then doubled-down on his allegation and claimed that he had been assaulted. I know I had a fever that evening but I think I would have recalled this. The fact is it didn't happen."

Saggese replied to Plourde, stating he believed her actions during the meeting where the alleged spitting and cursing took place was uncalled for when he was criticizing the board's overall meeting behavior.

"I understand you have apologized to people but you have not apologized to me, that's OK ... it’s just common courtesy to not be petty," he said. "I was just addressing the moral compass of the Board of Education at these kinds of events, so I don't think you should fault the messenger for what your message was."

Also during the Tuesday meeting the board asked its legal council if there was a conflict of interest if a board member served on the audit committee as a representative of the board.

Eugene Barnosky, attorney for the district, stated the laws surrounding the question and said from a legal perspective there isn't a conflict of interest.

A conflict of interest as defined under general municipal law as when a board member has the opportunity to benefit financially from the decision he or she may make as a board member ... from what I have heard so far I don't see any conflict whatsoever," he said.