<!--Rick Pfeiffer--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Rick Pfeiffer</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com">rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
WHO WAS LET GO:
The following Falls Board of Education employees were fired on Thursday for violating the school district’s residency requirement:
• Roxanne Adrian, high school English teacher
• Milena Crvelin, primary school teacher
• Keli-Koran Luchey, high school guidance counselor
• Rose Rajczak, high school guidance counselor
Board of Education staff members
• Karri Beck-Nichols
• Vincent Gigliotti
• Randy Krajkowski
• Kristine McKay-Pike
• Barbara Pasquantino
• Judith Smith
Retiring
• Principal Harriet Fogan
The Niagara Falls Board of Education moved Thursday night to fire 10 district employees, including two guidance counselors, a high school English teacher and a primary school teacher described as “one of the best in the district.”
The action took place at a special meeting Thursday. The board, with only member Robert Kazeangin absent, voted unanimously and without discussion to take the action.
The Gazette has also learned that veteran school principal Harriet Fogan filed retirement papers this week because she expected the board to fire her as well.
All of the firings are based on charges that the employees violated the school district’s residency requirements. Unions representing the affected employees vowed to fight the dismissals.
“This is going to court,” said Joseph Catalano, president of the Falls school teacher’s union. “This is going to cost a hellava lot of time and a hellava lot of money. This is going to be a long, bitter process.”
Catalano said the board began investigating possible residency requirement violations in February. He said 17 members of his union appeared to have been targeted.
“We’ve been going to what I call these inquisition meetings (since February),” Catalano said. “They called the (fired teachers) in on Tuesday to show them the information gathered by the private investigators.”
In March, the board approved a contract with Probe Services, a a private detective agency that claims to have offices in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Albany, New York City and Florida. The firm’s Web site lists a Buffalo post office box as its address.
Catalano did not seem impressed by the agency’s work.
“They showed us a video of a teacher walking into the Summit Park Mall,” he said. “What does that have to do with residency?”
Representatives of CSEA, the union that represents the other employees who were terminated Thursday, declined comment on the board’s actions. However, before the board acted, during a public speakers portion of the meeting, Diane Spacone, the union president said her members have been harassed by the private investigators.
“They have been followed by private investigators who videotaped their actions,” Spacone said. “This has been a violation of their privacy.”
Vickie Johnstone-Graf, the union’s secretary-treasurer, told the board the residency requirements are unconstitutional.
“It is my opinion that the residency requirement is an infringement of our civil liberties,” Johnstone-Graf said. “Freedom to choose where we live is as important as Rosa Park’s decision to choose where she sat on the bus.”
Schools Superintendent Cynthia Bianco defended the firings calling them, “the result of extensive work by staff and the private investigators.”
Bianco declined to comment any further, saying it was a “personnel matter.” Neither Bianco nor School Board Attorney Angelo Massaro could say how much money has been spent on the private investigators.
At the time the board approved Probe’s contract, Massaro said it had no set value and the district would be billed in a case-by-case basis. The board attorney said he believed Probe charged between $900 and $950 a case.
Catalano also expressed opposition to the residency requirement.
“(The board’s) job should be to find the best and brightest teachers regardless of residency,” he said. “This is round one. I think there will be more (dismissals) coming.”
