The following article,
written by Klaus Gaebel, is reprinted from The
Saugerties Post Star, 03-20-08 Saugerties Post Star , March 20,
2008 At the end of their March 11th board meeting, Saugerties
school trustees took the not so unusual action of going into
an executive session, which is closed to the public. Such
sessions are normally reserved to discuss routine matters
concerning contracts or the qualifications of perspective
employees. This executive session must have involved more
serious and somber discussions, because when the board came
out of the meeting, they took the unusual step of offering a
motion to hire attorney Joseph E. Wooley to "conduct an
internal investigation in the school at the Board of
Education's request." Wooley was recommended by the district's law firm.
The board indicated they reviewed Wooley's resume before the
vote. The vote to conduct the investigation was 6-1, with
two board members absent. Terry Parisian had asked to be
excused earlier in the meeting, and Mike Brennan left before
the executive session began. Voting for the investigation were Sam Fisco,
Richard Petramale, George Heidcamp, Don Tucker, Mark
Thompson, and Jim Steinhilber. The lone vote against the
motion to investigate was by Robert McCaig. Contacted after the meeting, Board of Education
President Don Tucker said he was not at liberty to discuss
the case, but did indicate that the investigation involves
several employees of the district. Asked how long the investigation is expected to
take, Tucker responded that he believed it probably would
not be a long time, since there are a limited number of
people that will have to be interviewed internally. Joseph Wooley, a private attorney from White
Plains, served on the Greenburgh Central Board of Education,
including a stint as its president. He serves on the
National School Boards Federal Relations Network and the
York State School Boards State Legislative Network. Both are
education lobbying groups.