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To
read a new letter of criticism from Buono,
It all started last March when Superintendent Rhau and then Board President Buono attempted to move a principal (Tim Price) into a temporarily created position and then fill the vacated principal position with someone new. This move, shifting a sitting principal in order to make room for another new principal, would serve only to place an additional annual burden of $100,000 plus benefits on the shoulders of the taxpayers. Coincidentally, Buono's son had conveniently applied for the principal position. The apparent wrongdoing of the situation prompted me to reveal it to the public in an article entitled, The Buono Central School District (after all, Buono had at least six relatives working in the District (two sisters, a niece, a brother-in-law, a daughter-in-law and a mother-in-law)). When it was published, a flood of calls and e-mails in support of the article resulted, and I became swamped with "that 'aint' nothin'" calls. It also quickly resulted in the removal of Buono's son from the list of prospective candidates for the principal position. The calls and other information received prompted me to investigate further, and I followed up my initial article with revelations about lawsuits against the District that had cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees and court costs, as well as the number of grievances that the teachers' union had filed as a result of the principal's egregious conduct.
Curious to find out what else they were hiding from the public and just how much of our money was being wasted, I decided to roll up my sleeves and, for the first time in history, open the books of the Saugerties Central School District to the public through the use of the FOIL process. I knew it would be a very controversial but felt it needed to be done. What I uncovered was absolutely mind-boggling--it was the beginning of the end.
One of the major problems, in my estimation, was the power of the superintendent, particularly over a group of the board members, which I referred to as the "elites." I pointed out that the superintendent, Richard Rhau is a "Johnny-come-lately" to the Saugerties area, having moved here less than two years ago (at that time) from New Jersey (where he had retired as school superintendent with a full pension and fully paid health insurance benefits), and what he is entitled to under the five-year Contract he has with the District (another pension, hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary plus benefits and perks, carte blanche credit card expenses, unlimited cell phone use, thousands of dollars in cash each year in lieu of his medial health insurance, thousands of dollars in cash each year for the use of his personal vehicle, thousands of dollars in cash each year to purchase his own personal life insurance, paid vacations, paid holidays, paid sick days, etc., etc.) at our expense. I also revealed some of the outrageous and continuing entitlements of past superintendents Hong and Singleton.
But for me, the final blow came when I met up with one of our most well-known and respected seniors, Geraldine Spada, and our conversation naturally turned to school taxes. She related the most disturbing piece of information that I had heard in a very long time. She told me that when she complained to Rhau about paying her taxes, he suggested that she re-mortgage her home. I was shocked and decided to confirm the story with Rhau personally: I wanted to hear it "straight from the horse's mouth." When I asked Rhau point blank if he had suggested that, he responded that he had "told" his mother to do the same. When I mentioned that his remark upset the lady, his verbatim response was, "I can't help that."
The callousness of attitude toward taxpayers, the outrageous and questionable spending, and the crying need for checks and balances were evident in everything I uncovered, from the coast-to-coast travel, complete with cashews and rented movies in sunny Florida, to the cell-phone abuse. So, after months and months of reviewing and copying official documents, and then reporting back on my findings, in July 2006 I decided to write an official letter to the Board of Education to request a meeting with them as a taxpaying citizen and address my concerns. At the time of this writing, it has been 245-days and that meeting has yet to occur. Not only has it not taken place, I have never even received an official response.
The Decision
I had hoped that making their sins public would shame them into doing the right thing by the students, teachers and taxpayers, but the abuse continued and their arrogance prevailed. When election time rolled around, responsible board members were retained, but they still do not constitute a majority needed to implement changes, and I'm sure that is as frustrating to them as it is to those of us who are footing the bill. So, finally, I have made another decision. I have decided to run for election to the school board myself. I think everyone knows where I stand. The truth is I can no longer just sit back and watch the abuse and wasteful spending of our money. It's time to take the bull by the horns and effectuate change. This will undoubtedly generate a series of negative attacks on me by the anti-Heidcamp folks, but that will not deter me from moving forward to achieve my goals of making sure our children get a quality education while improving financial accountability.
Accordingly, I have informed Ryan Hallam, publisher of the Saugerties Post Star, that in fairness to all candidates, I will suspend writing The Heidcamp Report for publication in the Saugerties Post Star, at least while I contend for a seat on the board. Instead I will concentrate more on a very active campaign to implement the changes we all know are necessary. I will continue reporting on school issues (as well as campaign issues) on the web site, so please visit www.saugertieswatchdog.com frequently. You can also write me your comments or if you want to post a letter, just drop me a line. Visit my site regularly to see the updates. Of course if something comes up that is of particular interest to the Post Star readers, I will send articles or letters to the editor. An example of that would be, for instance, a response to the self-serving Buono/Kovac letter in this week's Post Star. In that letter, they addressed the leaky roof situation and then conveniently pointed out that replacement had been included in a proposed bond that was turned down by the voters. So, I guess that means it is really the voters' fault. What they failed to mention is that that very same bond included an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Now, I've been told (and by more than one source), that they've instructed maintenance workers not to do any roof repairs. Makes me wonder if they welcome the problem and are turning it into an opportunity-especially since they are running for re-election.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to publicly and personally thank all those who have supported The Heidcamp Report, with a very special thanks to Heather, Ryan and their staff for all the abuse they've taken from "Heidcamp opponents" (you know, the "fat cats" who've tried so hard to silence the messenger). You and your staff should be very proud that you have given the citizens in this community the right to express their opinions in spite of those opponents. Hopefully some good will come out of this and the good people of Saugerties will make a change on May 15th.
George Heidcamp
March 21, 2007