{"id":2621,"date":"2013-10-09T18:33:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T22:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=2621"},"modified":"2013-10-09T18:34:30","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T22:34:30","slug":"residents-continue-to-voice-anger-with-school-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=2621","title":{"rendered":"Residents continue to voice anger with school board"},"content":{"rendered":"

Groups marched in protest, spoke pointedly at committee meetings<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Acting<\/a>

Acting Assistant Superintendent Teresa Powell reads from a timeline that she says shows that some school board members wanted to cover up the text-message scandal.<\/p><\/div>\n

CALN \u2013 Between a protest march to the school board committee meetings and lengthy public comment sessions at the meetings, Coatesville residents continued to voice their displeasure at the school district\u2019s recent actions for nearly six hours on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cCoatesville Pride is alive!\u201d and \u201cThe school board must go!\u201d residents chanted as they marched at 4 p.m. from Ash Park to the 6 p.m. committee meetings at the 9\/10 Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our voices to be heard. We want everything we have to say to be taken into consideration and not be dealt with and settled behind closed doors prior to us speaking,\u201d said Linda Lavender Norris.<\/p>\n

During nearly four hours of public comment, a \u00a0crowd of about 200 expressed dissatisfaction with the board\u2019s handling of the sexist, racist text-messaging scandal involving former Superintendent Richard Como and former Athletic Director James Donato.\u00a0\u00a0One even called for the FBI to investigate the district<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they bring the FBI in, you won\u2019t be happy with that. You\u2019ll say they\u2019re racist,\u201d Board Member Joe Dunn responded.<\/p>\n

Coatesville Area Teachers Association President Audra Ritter called for \u201cnecessary and immediate action\u201d to the district\u2019s budget, which has cut supplies and extracurricular activities, furloughed teachers, and frozen teacher contracts in recent years while continuing to hire \u00a0administrators at high salaries.\u00a0\u201cHire some teachers. Replace textbooks. Get new technology,\u201d Ritter urged.<\/p>\n

Resident Stephen\u00a0Bov\u00e9\u00a0 said that at a recent workshop he attended on power and privilege, the Coatesville Area School Board was used as an example of the negative effects of power.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019ve been very outspoken, and I appreciate that,\u201d he said to Dunn. \u201cBut you\u2019re turning it back on everybody who comes here this evening and making them think it\u2019s their problem and not yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunn said that the people who have only recently showed up to school board meetings are cheating the kids. He also lamented that on many decisions, such as whether to raise taxes, there is no winning for the school board.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m leaving in six weeks, and I cannot wait,\u201d he said, referring to the end of his term in November.<\/p>\n

In light of the recent events, Jonette Marcus, a district supervisor of \u00a0English language arts, said she was motivated to let the board know that for the past few years, she has not felt comfortable in her work environment at the Benner building.\u00a0\u201cNo one understands what we\u2019re going through as employees of the school district,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is such a lack of respect where I work.\u201d She\u00a0\u00a0asked the board to ensure that an environment where no one is afraid to speak be fostered in the district.<\/p>\n

Resident Stu Deets questioned the district\u2019s decision to pay Como for his accumulated leave time before last month\u2019s vote to accept his resignation.\u00a0\u201cOver 1,000 of us sat here and talked for three hours trying to convince you not to let him resign. That fate was already determined because you\u2019d already paid him out the week before,\u201d said Deets.<\/p>\n

Dunn responded \u00a0that the decision \u201cwas monetary\u201d and that allowing Como to resign was cheaper than potentially having to pay the remainder of his contract. Dunn said he found the messages \u201cdisgusting and immoral\u201d but opted not to gamble with district funds. \u201cYes, it made sense to accept the resignation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not my money. I can\u2019t get emotional with your money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some residents raised concern over alleged sexual text messages sent by administrators that referred to female students in the district.\u00a0After resident Victoria Jeter asked Acting Superintendent Angelo Romaniello if he had ever received sexual text messages referring to students, Romaniello told her that he could not recall, she said.\u00a0\u201cI expected to hear a straight \u2018no.\u2019 He could not say that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Also at Tuesday\u2019s meetings, Acting Assistant Superintendent Dr. Teresa Powell accused Romaniello of being involved in inappropriate texting with Como and Donato. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cAlthough his text is not racial, it is demeaning,\u201d Powell said, referring to a message in which Romaniello makes a disparaging remark about Powell\u2019s weight.\u00a0She said that Como sent a text to Donato referring to her as \u201csilver back n****r Powell,\u201d which Donato then forwarded to Romaniello. In the copy of the texts obtained by\u00a0The Times,<\/em>the n-word does not appear in that particular exchange.<\/p>\n

Powell also accused the board of trying to cover up the messages, saying that she notified Board Member Tonya Thames Taylor of the messages on Aug. 16 and met with Taylor and solicitor James Ellison the following day.\u00a0According to Powell, Ellison and Taylor met with Board President Neil Campbell, Vice President Rick Ritter, Board Member Dunn, and Como the following Monday, where, despite Como\u2019s admission to sending the texts, they planned on allowing him to continue as superintendent.<\/p>\n

Powell said that the other school board members would never have found out if she had not sent anonymous letters to all the board members that week. The decision to allow Como to continue as superintendent also provoked District Director of Technology Abdallah Hawa to send 104 pages of text transcripts to the district attorney, she said.<\/p>\n

Taylor has disputed Powell\u2019s claims, claiming that she and other board members worked as quickly as possible to respond to the disturbing texts and that permitting Como to remain in his position was never an option. Taylor said Powell made it clear from the beginning that she was interested in becoming superintendent but insisted on anonymity as the source of the offending texts. Powell\u2019s actions since identifying herself at the Sept. 24 board meeting suggest that \u201cshe is motivated by that ambition,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night\u2019s allegations come after the district signed a proclamation against discrimination in schools.<\/p>\n

At 4 p.m. in the library, Board Members Taylor and Brownfield and Student School Board Representative Paul Draper met with representatives from the Pennsylvania NAACP, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and the Coatesville Ministers Alliance to sign a proclamation against discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWHEREAS, the Coatesville Area School District subscribes to the fundamental conviction that all persons are entitled to equal protection, equal opportunity, and the enjoyment of civil rights,\u201d the proclamation read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Groups marched in protest, spoke pointedly at committee meetings By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times CALN \u2013 Between a protest march to the school board committee meetings and lengthy public comment sessions at the meetings, Coatesville residents continued to voice their displeasure at the school district\u2019s recent actions for nearly six hours on Tuesday. \u201cCoatesville […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[1915,1826,1711,1916,1917,1918,1712,1853],"class_list":["post-2621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-acting-superintendent-angelo-romaniello","tag-athletic-director-james-donato","tag-casd","tag-coatesville-area-teachers-association-president-audra-ritter","tag-jonette-marcus","tag-stephen-bove","tag-superintendent-richard-como","tag-teresa-powell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}