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Mostly Cloudy Passion rules at Malverne Board of Ed meeting
Some 150 people crowded into the library at Malverne High School last week, where the Board of Education held its monthly business meeting. Many were there in protest.
Dozens of teachers attended the meeting to protest the board’s failure to settle their contract, which expired July 1, 2010. To show solidarity, they wore black shirts baring the slogan “Teachers, Malverne’s Other Pride” on the front and “Working Without A Contract,” on the back.
There were a handful of students who came to the June 7 meeting to object to teacher layoffs. They held large poster boards that asked district administrators and board trustees to “Save Our Schools. Save Our Teachers.”
At least a dozen Malverne High School alumni also turned out for the meeting in protest. They were there to vocalize their opposition to a proposed school renaming. To show their own solidarity, many alumni wore T-shirts and pinback buttons that read “Malverne High School. Then. Now. Always.”
Although emotions ran high and opposing groups were forced to face each other in a tightly packed room, the meeting remained orderly — even jovial at times. Regardless of their reasons for being there, everyone had school spirit that night. When the board honored Boys Varsity Basketball coach Darryl Lopez for being named Nassau County Coach of the Year, people clapped and cheered. The applause was thunderous when students were honored for academic and athletic achievements, when the high school’s Select Choir performed and when teachers were awarded certificates of tenure. Attendees gave a standing ovation after the board honored Robert and Marie Schuler, octogenarians who recently retired after serving the district for more than 30 years as budget-vote and election-booth coordinators.
But people were just as impassioned when they came up to speak about their causes.
