By Rebecca Shalomoff
Hundreds of residents, many waving placards and chanting, packed the Lawrence Middle School auditorium, awaiting the decision about whether Andre would receive tenure.
Instead, board members tabled the issue. When some residents refused to heed the board's command not to discuss personnel issues including if superintendent Dr. Mark Rosenbaum should receive a contract after holding the position for only one year the meeting exploded into an ugly affair.
Board members decided to temporarily end the meeting when Lawrence school board candidate Vicky Fishof refused to stop talking about Rosenbaum even though the board warned her not to. The board called for a recess and marched off the stage and out of the auditorium to a disapproving chorus of boos.
I guess the board had a very legitimate request not to discuss personnel issues, said Jay Gelman, another candidate running for a seat on the board. To me, it is the true democratic process. Unfortunately, it resulted in this [fiasco].
As the board members were in private chambers, Fishof proceeded to take over the meeting, standing on the stage before the audience, criticizing the way the school district is being run and calling for the removal of central administrators, which drew a round of applause from audience members.
Shortly after, board president Frank Argento returned to the stage and stated that the board wanted to continue with the meeting under the strict understanding that personnel issues should not be discussed.
People's careers are at stake, Argento said. For three meetings, this community has been ripped apart by this issue [with coach Andre].
The board reconvened the meeting, as a handful of police officers were called in to stand on the sidelines of the auditorium and ensure the meeting did not get even more out of control.
But speakers still flirted with discussing the forbidden topics. One Lawrence junior, Nataly Amezquita, argued passionately for several minutes with the board to allow her to read her speech about Coach Andre.
The Andre controversy has divided the Lawrence school community in recent weeks with many saying he should be retained and others calling for him to be booted out of the school district. Granting tenure to Andre would give him job security.
Many felt that Andre should not keep his job as coach and physical education teacher, after he allegedly hurled anti-Semitic slurs at colleague David Yaker.
In February, district officials conducted an investigation into a personnel matter between Andre and junior varsity coach Yaker. It stemmed from a September 2001 confrontation in which Andre allegedly threatened Yaker and made anti-Semitic remarks, sources said.
Since then, Lawrence faculty members, students and local residents both opponents and supporters of Andre flooded into the middle school auditorium for the past several school board meetings, often sitting on opposite sides of the room. They turned out to make passionate speeches about neither tolerating bigotry nor condoning hatred. Others implored compassion for a dedicated, hard-working coach acting out in an angry moment.
Andre, who led Lawrence to a 9-1 record and the Nassau Conference II championship game last year, was directed to receive anger management and sensitivity training.
But at Tuesday night's meeting, public comments on the matter of Andre's tenure were not allowed. It was an unusual step taken by the school board because in the past, board members permitted speakers to address a personnel issue, even though such a topic is usually off limits.
Rosenbaum said it was not appropriate to have those speeches made because the matter was to be handled solely by administrators. Furthermore, he felt the outburst of public comments and media exposure about the conflict between two staff members provided an inaccurate portrayal of what really happened and only served to divide the Lawrence school community.
The fact that some members of the staff extended the conflict by making it a public issue has not been helpful to the community, he added. It was an inaccurate portrayal based on a lack of information. The matter was resolved appropriately and the board was given the results of my findings.
At the Tuesday, April 23 meeting the board refused to budge on allowing public discussion on personnel matters, prompting speakers to hurl nasty comments at the board and blasting them for failing to effectively run the district.
They criticized the board for an incomplete job in developing the budget for 2002-2003, eliminating more than 70 teacher and civil service positions. In the audience, people upset about budget cuts made to educational programs held signs with pictures of children and statements like It isn't about money, it's about me, and Cut administration, not my potential.
Speakers also condemned the board's hastiness in suggesting interage classrooms be instituted in the Number Five and Six schools, where fourth and fifth graders would be grouped together in the same class. In the end, assistant superintendent of curriculum Michelle Lineal announced that she was not recommending the program and other measures could be taken to increase classroom size in the two underpopulated elementary schools.
