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Pine Valley board member resigns

OBSERVER Photo by Amanda Dedie Angelo Graziano, two-year board member at Pine Valley resigned at the January board meeting.

SOUTH DAYTON — There is one fewer board member on the Pine Valley Board of Education.

Angelo Graziano, board member since 2014, stood up during the public comment portion at the beginning of the January meeting to announce his concerns.

“I have some issues about the 2016-2017 school year to date,” he said, making it reasonable to believe he was reporting on issues the school board would have to resolve.

The issues he did mention, however, would have to be figured out without him as he ended his comments by tendering his resignation, passing an enveloped letter to school board president Patricia Krenzer.

Graziano’s letter, in full, reads as follows:

“I have some issues about the 2016-2017 school year to date.

“1. Let’s begin with the alt ed students. It seems that Silver Creek is still picking up Forestville, then coming to Pine Valley, which is 11 miles out of route to Cassadaga. This is a huge safety risk putting the students of three schools and a bus driver of Silver Creek on unfamiliar roads, especially during the winter. This is unfair to Silver Creek taxpayers and students on this bus run. I was told by (Superintendent Scott) Payne that neither parents nor the taxpayers of all involved needed to be informed. I disagreed. The boards of all these schools should be at agreement of this procedure. I believe we should be busing Pine Valley students on Pine Valley buses, as the taxpayers paid for.

“2. I also learned of Mr. Payne and our dean of students taking it upon themselves to follow a female student home, more than once. This I know after a conversation with the parent. In my opinion this is stalking and harassment, and this stunt should be noted and placed in both the superintendent’s and dean of students’ files. It resulted in two students being banished from our school. Very sad that this board wasn’t notified and given the final say, but this board was not informed. Kicking them out of school at mid-year is heartless and strictly vengeful. I’m embarrassed as a board member. This is a superintendent hired with no experience for this position, and getting paid by our community to learn his title.

“3. Now, I will move to a bill from a legal firm that … we needed over the lawyers available to us through BOCES.

“Our taxpayers will be burdened with a bill, as of this past October, of $21,000, and still growing tremendously, just on CSEA contract issues and grievances. The grievances are in arbitration by the choice of this board’s select three-person committee over an issue worth less that $2,500. The rest of the board had no input.

“The CSEA contract has gone into impasse by choice of the same committee and again, the rest of the board had no input.

“This means CSEA employees, made up of almost entirely Pine Valley taxpayers, will not only be paying the lawyer fees against them, but they voted for these board members consisting of Pat Krenzer, Rex Butcher and Dave Kohler to prosecute them. Remember, the board always has the ultimate decision.

“4. Finally, and this does not include me:

“The last meeting, after executive session, the seven board members that were here voted on a new contract for Scott Payne, only after a year and a half into the original contract. This man has never previously been a superintendent. He uses the high-dollar lawyer the board picked for him for many issues.

“Where is this new contract? Has it been made public for the taxpayers to see?

“We have had many good people leave our school, whether retired, resigned or removed, they will be missed.

“We have lost a handful of board members too. There is a reason for this. Open your eyes. Scott Payne is not the boss. The board is the ultimate decision maker. That’s why you were elected. Come down from your 30,000 feet and do your job.

“This board has goals only benefiting the superintendent.

“My goals are always the students and the taxpayers. My first selection was never Scott Payne for superintendent, nor was it the stakeholder’s choice. I feel we bought the wrong car.

“Therefore, I will no longer be associated with a board (which is) heading down a path I will not take. I am not a puppet. I have too much respect for my community to continue with this assault,” Graziano concluded, before handing off his letter to Krenzer.

After a moment of silence, Krenzer said, “Thank you for your opinion, Angelo,” to which he replied, “Oh, this is not my opinion. These are facts.”

Post-meeting, both Payne and Krenzer declined to comment.

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