By:Andrew Coen
During the April 27 school board meeting, incumbent Trustee Dr. David Sussman and his family were accused of accepting a $40,000 athletic scholarship for Sussman-s son, Adam, a 2003 Lawrence High School graduate who is now finishing his freshman year at Yale. The last speaker of the night, Annette Robbins of North Woodmere, said Sussman did not deserve to be awarded the Francis Levett Varsity Athletic Scholarship last year, even though he was on the track team.
The scholarship is named for the late Francis Levett, a one-time Lawrence High School football player who owned the Independent Coach Bus Company, which services the Lawrence school district. Coincidentally, Robbins said, the school board awarded a new contract to Independent Coach to service the school district before the scholarship was awarded to Sussman-s son. She also said she heard the district was illegally busing private-school children out of the district.
This is the worst kind of low character assassination I have seen, said Sussman. It-s shameful.
Lawrence Athletic Director Patrick Pizzarelli, who was in charge of handing out and sending in the applications for the scholarship, was not allowed to respond to Robbins- accusations at the meeting. But he said in a phone interview the next day that he was very upset about what was said at the meeting. It was lies, said Pizzarelli. To bring his kid up like that is unconscionable.
Pizzarelli said he tried to approach Robbins after the meeting to explain why the scholarship was awarded to Sussman, and she allegedly responded, Get out of my face.
After the accusations were made by Robbins, loud cheers went up from much of the large crowd, but they went unnoticed by Sussman. I was seeing red and was so enraged by what she had said that I didn-t even hear the crowd, he said.
Robbins said Sussman-s son never really played a sport and thus did not deserve the scholarship. A lot of students participate in sports solely to get scholarships, and when that scholarship is taken and given to someone that doesn-t deserve it, I think that people should know why that was done, she said.
Sussman responded angrily to Robbins- remarks, saying that all contracts given to Independent Coach were voted on unanimously and that no money was spent on illegal busing. He also said that his son did participate in athletics and has varsity letters to prove it. Sussman also explained that the scholarship was awarded to students who participated in sports and excelled academically, and was not only based on athletic ability. Saying that my son didn-t deserve that scholarship is imputing my son, he hollered.
The controversy surrounding the scholarship dates back to May 28, 2003, when Adam Sussman received the award at an athletics banquet. The estate of Francis Levett formerly owned the bus company. After Levett passed away, the scholarship was established, with the United Trust Company in Florida awarding it. According to Pizzarelli, the scholarship was originally given out solely to Lawrence football players, but due to a low pool of applicants, it was opened up to all athletes in the 2002-03 school year.
Ward Curtis, who serves on the United Trust Company committee that chose Sussman as the winner, sent a June 17, 2003 letter in response to a letter he had received from school board member Anthony Licatesi regarding Sussman-s scholarship. A portion of the Curtis letter reads: Please note that the scholarship is not based to any degree of athletic ability or accomplishment. The minimum qualifications simply require that the applicant has participated in a varsity sport. We believe the scholarship is in fact more academic based, given the minimum GPA and test score requirements, than athletic based. In addition, please note that demonstrated financial need is not even a minimum requirement. Given the above, we believe it is more accurate to describe this as a merit based scholarship rather than an athletic and/or need based scholarship.
Response from Florida
In a phone interview from United Trust-s offices in Florida, Curtis expressed outrage over the accusations made by Robbins. The kinds of accusations and suggestions that are being made is insulting to this foundation and the trustees involved in the foundation, said Curtis. These people who are doing this are hurting kids and have no idea what they are talking about. To smear a guy with that kind of academic record is shameful.
Curtis also said that since the trust committee is located in Florida, it had no connection at all with Dr. Sussman or Independent Coach. The committee was not even aware of any connection with Adam Sussman and that his father was on the board, said Curtis. Mrs. Levett [Francis Levett-s widow] has absolutely no financial interest [in Independent Coach].
That June, the Lawrence Central Council PTA conducted an inquiry into the selection process for the scholarship and the history behind it, interviewing Pizzarelli, Dr. Mark Rosenbaum, who was superintendent at the time, and track and field coach Bud McQuillan.
Penny Schuster, who was co-PTA president during the inquiry and is now running against Sussman for the school board seat he has held since 1995, said that the group brought up the issue in an attempt to remove any doubts about awarding the scholarship to a school board member-s son. Schuster pointed out how regulation 1313 of the Lawrence School Board Policy book reads, Board members ... are urged to avoid any confusion or conflict between their private and public interests, avoiding even the appearance of inappropriate behavior. They are expected to discharge their respective functions without acceptance of any favors which may influence their official actions.
Sussman responded to the regulation by saying that it applies only to the trustees themselves, and not their children. If you interpret it the way [the PTA] does, then no child of any school board member would be eligible for scholarships, since the teachers vote on most of them and we, the school board, approves the teachers- contracts, said Sussman.
I think the regulation speaks for itself and would certainly apply in this case, said Schuster.
According to Schuster, the PTA voted unanimously to send a letter to the district voicing its concerns, but she did not have a vote, since she was president. As president of central council, letters signed by me ... do not necessarily reflect my personal opinion, she said. It was the council-s intention not to bring this up in public in order to protect a child in our district.
Schuster said that she asked McQuillan informally at a teachers- luncheon last June about the scholarship, and that he told her he did not and would not write a recommendation for Adam Sussman, which sparked many of the questions addressed by the PTA. There were people that wanted us to make this public at a school board meeting, and we refused, said Schuster. [The PTA is] not in the business of embarrassing children or embarrassing a family.
According to Pizzarelli, since a recommendation from a varsity coach is required for the scholarship, and since McQuillan did not make one, the recommendation likely came from one of the assistant coaches. Pizzarelli also said the PTA should not have inquired about the scholarship the way it did. The PTA should be ashamed of themselves for inquiring about another student like that, said Pizzarelli. That-s unethical.
Pizzarelli said that he told coach McQuillan that responding to the PTA-s question on the scholarship was wrong. I told him ... that you cannot [ethically] talk about another kid like that, he said.
The PTA also explored how the scholarship was advertised, since, according to Pizzarelli, only 13 students picked up applications and only nine turned them in. Pizzarelli said that the scholarship was advertised on the public address system, on signs and in phys. ed. classes. However, Gregory Nunn, whose son Sheldon was a star football player at Lawrence, is upset that it was not more widely publicized, saying he was not aware of the scholarship until now. It-s something that the parents should have been made aware of and not left up to the students, said Nunn. It gives the appearance of impropriety on [the part of] Mr. Pizzarelli and Dr. Sussman.
Scholarship requirements
The scholarship-s minimum requirements, according to last year-s form, are that a student must have participated in a varsity sport in the Lawrence school district during his or her junior and senior years, have a minimum 2.5 unweighted grade-point average, have scored at least 1,000 on the SAT or 21 on the ACT, and participated in extracurricular and/or community activities during the past two years. According to Pizzarelli, Adam Sussman was on the winter track team for three years and the spring track team in his senior year and earned varsity letters in both. Was he a star? Absolutely not. But he was on the final roster, and that is all that is required for the scholarship, said Pizzarelli.
Adam Sussman ranked in the 97th to 99th percentile on all of his SAT and SAT IIs, his parents said.
In response to Robbins- accusation that Independent Coach illegally bused students, Lawrence Director of Transportation Bob Pape and the president of Independent Coach, Michael Fabrizio, both vehemently denied it.
We don-t get involved in any aspect of [the scholarship], said Fabrizio, who is also a Cedarhurst Village trustee. I really don-t understand what that woman [Robbins] is talking about.
Fabrizio purchased the bus company from the Levett estate in 1999.
We provide transportation to children who are entitled to it and who are required by the state to receive it, said Pape. The bus company has nothing to do with the scholarship. We are not affiliated with the trust.
