Alleging violations of state law, longtime Riverhead school board member resigns

The Riverhead Central School District has made personnel appointments without votes by the Board of Education — and without even informing board members, according to a longtime board member and former president who is resigning from the board due to what she says are its unlawful actions.

Longtime school board member Ann Cotten-DeGrasse of Jamesport has tendered her resignation from the board, effective today.

In an undated letter to board president Susan Koukounas, Cotten-DeGrasse complained that “the BOE has acted contrary to New York State Education Law and the Open Meetings Law in appointments made outside of the regular BOE meetings.”

In an interview yesterday afternoon, Cotten-DeGrasse said the district has made personnel changes that never appeared on the personnel agenda of the board. “These are things that should have been voted on.”

Cotten-DeGrasse said she would not “give names” but at least two teachers had been moved from classroom positions to administrative positions without board votes.

“People are getting leaves of absences or are being sent back to the classrooms from administrative positions,” Cotten-DeGrasse said.

The personnel move that Cotten-DeGrasse said pushed her over the edge was the return of a teacher, who had been moved to an administrative position without a board vote, to the classroom — at the top of the salary schedule, with tenure. Cotten-DeGrasse said the teacher was not entitled to tenure as a classroom teacher because the teacher had never worked in the classroom following being granted tenure a number of years ago. Instead, the teacher was moved to a directorship position, she said, and was subsequently granted tenure in that position.

“The teacher was not granted a leave of absence from the teaching position. If you don’t show up for the position you’re tenured in, you’ve abandoned the position and your tenure,” Cotten-DeGrasse said. “The district cannot now move her back into the teaching position with tenure.”

Cotten-DeGrasse said she has thoroughly researched board minutes to find evidence of board actions on the personnel matters in question. It doesn’t exist, she said.

Cotten-DeGrasse said she recently learned that the district office has an “in-office only file” for personnel actions that are never brought to the attention of the board of education. She said she was shocked to learn about it.

She also complained that Koukounas, as board president, does not share information with the full board and does not abide disagreement among its members.

“The school district administration is not taking any action on personnel without board approval,” board president Sue Koukounas said in an interview this morning.  Cotten-DeGrasse’s allegations are “extremely false,” Koukounas said.

Koukounas said the board does not discuss “open session items” in executive session. “We’re very careful about that, ” she said.

“Since I left in 2014, the board has become, in my opinion, complacent,” Cotten-DeGrasse said yesteday.

Cotten-DeGrasse, who had a long career as a Riverhead teacher and teachers union president, served six years on the board of education before retiring in 2014. She served five of those years as board president. After a brief hiatus, Cotten-DeGrasse sought and won election to the board again in 2015. She would be entering the third year of her current three-year term next month.

“There were discussions and decisions made while she was not on the board,” Koukounas said. She said she believes Cotten-DeGrasse, “since her return to the board… has had a hard time transitioning in as a board member and not as board president.”

But Cotten-DeGrasse says Koukounas does not welcome discussion. “Even with things like board goals, the board never sits down and discusses goals any more,” Cotten-DeGrasse said. “Sue sends it out and says to let her know if you have any comments. When I sent her my comments, she informed me no one else had any comments. So there’s no discussion,” Cotten-DeGrasse said. Koukounas says that’s not her style. “In public session if we have to vote on something, I always ask for comment from the board before votes,” she noted.

“I feel there’s a lack of communication among the board. As a board member you expect to have disagreement. Once decision is made you go along, because you’re a corporate body, but you have to have the information to make the decision,” Cotten-DeGrasse said.

Former school board member Angela DeVito resigned from the board with similar complaints in 2011, when Cotten-DeGrasse was board president.

“There’s supposed to be open discourse,” DeVito told RiverheadLOCAL a few days after her resignation. “The Riverhead Board of Education has a lot of its discussions behind closed doors,” DeVito said. “There’s very little open discussion and no room for dissent. The mantra is ‘Don’t show any disagreement, present a united front.’ And the public gets cheated,” DeVito said.

“I played by the rules. I didn’t break ranks. I left the board because I couldn’t do that any more. I have to speak out,” DeVito said, “and now that I’m off the board I can do so.”

Cotten-DeGrasse said she, too, was stepping down so she could speak out.

“I feel like I’m a rubber stamp, just there to cast a vote. You put it in front of me to say yes, without questioning anything,” she said.

Editor’s note: This article has been amended after publication to include the comments of board president Susan Koukounas, who responded to a request for comment after it was published.