Return to Archive
Return to Massapequa Online
Date: Sept. 19, 1997
A record number of teachers, students, parents and union members from outside the district came to the last board of education meeting on Sept. 11. The meeting lasted until nearly midnight Thursday with discussions ranging from the teacher’s contract issue to the construction project at the Fairfield Elementary School.
The district is installing a new parking field behind the school but the construction has gone beyond the scheduled date of completion. According to Superintendent of Schools James Brucia, the project has been delayed because of the buildings age.
The wide variety of topics discussed at the meeting not only lengthened the course of the evening but mixed emotion with policy debate.
The most discussed issue of the evening fell to the contract dispute within the Massapequa School District, which is entering its third year without a contract settlement.
Close to 20 teamsters lined the back of the audience to lend support to the union in the dispute. Gene McDonough, a teamster who attended the Sept. 11 meeting, said that the teamsters came out because the Massapequa Federation of Teachers aided them in their recent labor dispute over the King Kullen distribution center closing.
Also, for the first time, a number of students came out and raised concerns over the stalled negotiations process and claims were made that the process has begun to affect the students directly.
In the past, some parents have said that the contract negotiations have had an indirect influence over the quality of education in the Massapequa School District. This became apparent last January when a group of parents began picketing a few of the Massapequa Federation of Teachers public discussion meetings over the results of the New York State Report Cards for the Massapequa School District.
At the last board meeting however, the issue was raised alleging that some teachers in the high school were failing to grant early requests for letters of recommendation to students seeking to apply to college.
Julie Vultaggio, a senior at Massapequa High School, delivered a speech to the board of education in which the audience granted her a standing ovation. In her speech she said that “the students need to be assured that they will be assisted” in their quest to go to college.
“For the past three years, the students at Massapequa High School have been generally unaffected by the dispute. However, until this point, we have not been directly affected by any responsive actions the teachers have chosen to take. However, it has come to the attention of the senior class that the discord existing among both parties has begun to taint the core of Massapequa High School,” said Vultaggio in the speech she delivered before at the Sept. 11 meeting.
The senior continued by saying, “We feel that the present actions taken by the Massapequa Federation of Teachers have involved the students in which we do not - and can not - play an impactual role.”
“I’m certain that the union would not advise their members not to deny letters of recommendation,” said Superintendent James I. Brucia. “We will investigate any instance where there is a refusal to write letters of recommendation.”
“The individual should be writing recommendations but it is our choice,” said Richard Goldman, a high school science teacher who ran unsuccessfully for president of the Massapequa Federation of Teachers in the last election.
Mike DiDonatto, a board of education trustee, questioned Goldman's use of the word “choice.”
Goldman contended that the decision to write letters of recommendation was at the discretion of the teacher. Goldman argued that teachers have the right to tell students, who the individual teacher believes does not deserve a letter of recommendation, that they do not have the time to write letters of recommendation.
Brucia quickly asserted that such an instance would be “far and few between,” because “students normally go to teachers whom they have a good rapport with.” Brucia also reiterated that any instance where a student is denied a letter of recommendation would be subject to a full investigation.
One Massapequa PTA parent who asked not to be identified said that “there was a definite sense of tension in the schools.”
“(The teachers) are acting like crybabies,” added Susan Valcone, an 11th grade high school student. “We are supposed to respect our peers but all we see from you is disrespect for your peers. Why are students being blamed for your childish acts?”
Jackie Antonelli, a Massapequa Park resident who doesn't normally attend board meetings, said she came to “see what the two sides are arguing about.” “I’m curious to see what the teachers are concerned about,” said Antonelli. “If their concern is money, then they are obviously not here for the kids.”
Erin Billings, a high school senior added, “They should go to more meetings than the ones that just concern them. After all it is a board of education.”
