By Hector Flores
Marsha Birnbaum, an East Meadow resident, said, ³I¹m outraged! The last time I came to a board meeting, [board members] walked out. I¹m not voting for the board. I¹m not going to vote for the budget.²
Janice Oldak, a teacher in East Meadow, added, ³The community voted for the board, and the fact that they didn¹t appear is an affront to the community.²
Debbie Coates, president of the East Meadow Board of Education, said that the board met and conducted its business, including consideration of resolutions behind closed doors.
Campo said that the board meeting wasn¹t canceled, only the public segment of it. ³The teachers¹ association for the last couple of meetings have started to turn the board meeting into a union hall meeting,² he said. ³The purpose of the board meeting is to conduct its official business and maintain an ongoing dialogue with parents and taxpayers. It is not designed for collective bargaining. We heard that they were going to be disruptive at the board meeting. For teachers looking to renew their contract, this is not the forum.²
In addition, Campo said that the teachers¹ union had picketed and marched on Salisbury Park Drive, near the home of Coates. ³Earlier that day, at 4 p.m.² ‹ four hours before the board meeting ‹ ³they marched by Debbie¹s house and confronted one of her children,² he said. ³In 1990 and 1991, the same union had confronted past board members and were taken to court. In order to settle the lawsuit, they agreed with the judge to never do it again. Their behavior was ruled to be bullying, coercive, intimidating and ultimately unlawful.²
Coates, who was at her home recovering from surgery, said that the teachers picketed her neighborhood and parked their cars all over her street, Hardy Lane. ³They had signs reading ŒSomething Stinks in East Meadow¹ on their car windows, and walked up and down Salisbury Park Drive,² she said.
Helen Murphy, a resident of the East Meadow Knolls senior living center on Salisbury Park Drive, said that many of the teachers parked in her complex, and she did not approve of the gathering. ³I thought it was terrible,² she said. ³I¹m pro-union, but I believe that there are things you do and don¹t do. Unions don¹t protest in front of board members¹ homes, but at the administration building.²
Coates added that she felt a little embarrassed for her neighborhood, and when she arrived at the board meeting, it was decided that it was best to cancel the public session. ³We agonized over this decision,² Coates said. ³But with the advice of our counsel, administration and board members, the decision was made.²
Coates explained that one of the major factors in the decision was the lack of police presence. ³The police told us that they could not promise to have an officer in the building with us, only a drive-by. With this kind of atmosphere, we felt that for the safety of everyone, including the teachers, it was best to cancel the public forum.²
John Gallagher, president of the teachers¹ union, said that the rally was not staged in front of Coates¹ home, but only in the general area. ³On Thursday, I called the 3rd Precinct to let them know that we were picketing. The police at no point told us that we were doing anything illegal. We have been picketing for about a year and a half, since November and December of 2005.
³They are informational pickets, letting people know that we have been without a contract,² Gallagher added. ³To my knowledge, Thursday¹s picketing went on without any problems.²
Gallagher believes that there was no reason for the board members to be concerned about the teachers who attended the meetings. ³I don¹t know why they stopped the meeting,² he said. ³We have been attending the meetings since 2004 without any incident.²
The rally and meeting cancellation were the latest turn of events in the ongoing feud between the Board of Education and the East Meadow Teachers¹ Association over stalled contract negotiations. For almost two years, teachers have been working without a new contract, and talks stalled after the union rejected the board¹s October 2005 offer.
Both sides are currently involved in fact-finding with the state Public Employment Relations Board to iron out the stumbling blocks preventing them from coming to an agreement. PERB has not said when it will offer its recommendations ‹ which are not legally binding ‹ but the Board of Education and the teachers¹ union handed their final reports to the fact finder on March 15.
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