By:Angela Marshall
Trustee Jack Matthews had just finished praising Krisel for her hard work on proposed school-related legislation, when a resident asked the board why they had failed to respond to his letter calling for the use of outside council on those bills.
The letter, co-authored by Frank Schroeder and Michael Guararra, said they felt there was a potential conflict of interest on Krisel's part because she is a board member of a group, the National Council of Jewish Women, that is lobbying for the passage of the legislation.
Schroeder expressed disappointment that the board did not respond to the May letter.
"The board is disappointed that you would impugn the integrity of our council," Trustee Greg Rinn responded. He said he had a few responses in mind but none that he would care to share publicly.
The five bills at the heart of the argument, would among other things, change where private schools are allowed in the village and include a definition of a "school."
The board was advised to make the changes by its planners and by Krisel in order to comply with New York State law. They began to explore the changes in earnest when the Rosa Lee Young Childhood Center sued the village.
The childhood center wants to build a new facility on Woods Avenue in Residence A zone. Without changes to the village code, this is not possible.
Schroeder and Guararra do not want to see the code changed to allow private schools in residential areas nor do they believe the law requires it.
Schroeder said he is not impugning Krisel's integrity, but pointing out a "rather blatant" conflict and appearance of impropriety.
He said, if Krisel was a member of a civic association opposed to the legislation, she would have been removed from the process.
Starting with Deputy Mayor Wayne Lipton, all board members defended Krisel and denied a conflict.
The mayor told Schroeder that the board has worked for hours on the legislation and that they will make the final changes, not Krisel.
In fact, the board's present definition of a school was written by Trustees Mary Bossart and Jack Matthews. After having read through all the paperwork and proposed definitions by residents, Krisel and other lawyers, the two trustees presented a new definition to the board last week.
The new school definition reads, "an institution for learning providing minors with day, non-resident instruction in an academic curriculum which is general in nature and not limited to individual bodies of knowledge, artistic talents, athletic skills or other single-focus learning experiences, taught by certified/licensed teachers at a site or location deemed safe and healthful for this use by the Superintendent of the Rockville Centre Building Department and the Nassau County Fire Inspector, and whose curriculum shall be a progressive learning experience culminating at regularly scheduled intervals with advancement to the next level of study or receipt of a diploma upon graduation."
Bossart and Matthews said they included as many of the residents' requests as possible under the law.
The board also got an earful from representatives of the childhood center, tired of waiting for the legislation. Catherine Pucciarelli, co-president of the center's board, said the organization did not mount a campaign earlier, like the residents against their proposed facility did, because "We knew we had right on our side [and that] the village board [would] do the right thing."
A few weeks ago, the childhood center representatives decided to "fight fire with fire," Pucciarelli said.
She handed the mayor 99 letters and a petition with 250 signatures asking the board to pass the legislation as written.
A public hearing on the proposed legislation will be held at Village Hall on Thursday, June 20 at 8:15 p.m.
