Retired Sewanhaka official accused of theft

Gerald Waldman, of Huntington, the former assistant principal of Sewanhaka High School, was arraigned on charges of grand larceny and official misconduct on Feb. 18, accused of taking $113,000 from a union fund. Waldman, 59, was arrested by investigators from the Nassau County district attorney’s office.

Waldman served as treasurer of the Sewanhaka School District Department Chairpersons Association, an education collective bargaining group representing department chairs, from 2004 to June 2010. According to the district attorney’s office, he had unrestricted access to an account funded by members’ dues that was used to pay the School Administrators Association of New York State, which represented the Chairpersons Association in its dealings with the Sewanhaka district.

Waldman allegedly stole money between November 2004 and May 2010. District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that Waldman made 136 checks out to cash and made one check out to himself to pay for credit card bills and personal expenses. When the school district discovered that there was money missing from the account in June 2010, Waldman resigned from his position as assistant principal.

“This is the utmost betrayal by a man entrusted to educate our young people and to represent his colleagues honorably,” Rice said. “Instead, he failed them both by using his position to fatten his own wallet.”

Waldman began working at Sewanhaka High in 1981 as a business teacher. He was promoted to assistant principal in 2007.

At his arraignment in Nassau County District Court in Hempstead, Waldman pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and official misconduct. He was released without bail and is due back in court on March 2.

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