Chronicle Mclain, a high school student in Buffalo, testifies passionately before the Board of Education, in protest against closing his “low-performing” school and handing it over to a charter. He notices that at least one Board member is texting as he is speaking, and he says if he did that in class he would be called “low-performing.” The board member, a real estate developer who was recruited to the Board by charter champion Carl Paladino, ignores the student and continues texting as the young man is speaking.
Talk about respect! Why would someone serve on a city’s Board of Education who has such obvious disdain for students?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What a complete lack of respect for the very people he supposed to be serving. Bravo to that student.
disgusting….can anyone say “show me the money??”!!!
Pretty rude and disgusting. These reformers think everyone is there to serve them, not the other way around. Great that the student pointed it out.
OMG. This outright disrespect for student and this board member doing his job (first step…listen) is disgusting. Guess Paladino had a course in bullying. He may have been texting to get orders from ????? About how to act.
This happened to our students in Arkansas, too. The students of the Little Rock School District have started a student association in order to facilitate a forum for their voices to be heard. There will be a march Thursday, February 5, 2015 at 4 Capitol Mall (location of the AR Department of Education) to the Little Rock School District Central Office located at 810 West Markham. It is a peaceful march that symbolizes the loss of student voices through the AR State Board of Education’s decision to disband the LRSD Board of Directors. Vicki Saviers had comments printed out at the AR Board meeting from which she gave her statement before the vote. She did not listen to the kids, nor did four other members of the board. Most of these board members have ties to the Walton Foundation, and the Arkansas Times (ark times.com) has been really, really diligent reporting all of the nepotism on the board. They were taking a stand, and their pleas to work together fell on deaf ears of those that voted for the takeover. These students need your support. Everyone is invited to march Thursday, and students will speak once they get to the LRSD Central Office. Please, please share their website lrsdsa.org and like their Facebook page Little Rock School District Student Association. Thank you, Diane Ravitch. You are my hero! Thank you for fighting the good fight for our kids. If anyone needs any information, please e-mail me at erica.ivy@icloud.com and I can get you into contact with the core leaders of the movement.
NYSUT should use this in their ads!!! The best 30 seconds money could buy…
I thought it was an SNL skit at first. Who could be so rude in real life?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Iw-OWnXCU (30 second version)
Jaded, you are so right – would love to see NYSUT use this in an ad!
Of course Carl Paladino kept texting…he owns the buildings the charters are in. He put them in a trust for his children so he can remain on the school board with no conflict of interest.
It was not Paladino, but a guy that Paladino put on the board.
Unlike New York City, Buffalo has an elected school board. Quinn won an election; he wasn’t appointed.
http://schoolzone.buffalonews.com/2014/05/07/vote-totals-in-buffalo-school-board-election-quinn-pierce-nevergold-win/
Larry Quinn aka Leisure Class Larry. Developer former part owner of Buffalo Sabres. Patrician jerk.
Larry Quinn is a big name in Buffalo and easily won a board seat.
Not only is he a lackey of Carl Paladino, he is also a disgusting human being who loves to crudely put down those he considers beneath him. When visiting Lafayette High School ( the school with a large number of refugees from all over the world that Cuomo wants to close because of low test scores), he disparaged the hard working teachers as not worth his attention, treating them like they were dirt under his shoe.
I can’t believe he was Team President of the Buffalo Sabres for so long.
Now he is showing his true colors to the public.
Diane, I suggest you watch what is happening in Buffalo. It’s an US vs THEM atmosphere where anything can happen. I would be mesmerized if I wasn’t so terrified about the potential outcome.
Ellen T Klock
Former teacher in the BPS
Now retired but still vested in the students
Larry Quinn.
Here’s the great thing, though: Buffalo still has a good old-fashioned democratically elected school board. If the voters find it offensive that Larry Quinn thumbs through his texts during meetings, they can choose to have someone else represent them.
NYSUT and the people of Buffalo should be far more concerned with New York City schools chancellor Carmen Fariña’s testimony today on the proposed state budget. She offered an impassioned plea to retain and renew mayoral control of New York City’s schools. When “progressive” Democrats are begging to dispense with school boards, it’s probably only a matter of time before the legislature moves to install mayoral control in Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Yonkers, etc.
Quinn was elected with a lot of money backing him. Every day glossy, extra-large postcards arrived in mailboxes. Carl Paladino bought the whole election. Hopefully with the next election masses of people will get out to vote and vote these clowns out of power. In the meantime, they are doing a great deal of damage.
With that 30 second clip, any opposition candidate has all the fodder they need to demonstrate how uninvolved he is.
The backers of this past school board election in Buffalo consisted of a Who’s Who of Ed Disformers – Names we have heard often on this site.
There was a whole field of slingshot-less Davids against a few well armored Goliaths. It definitely wasn’t a fair fight.
Thanks for your comments, but let me clarify true progressive democrats in Buffalo, and our support for public education. This position might be under represented. Progressives like myself, are working within our respected communities; to increase awareness and an equitable public school system.
The greatest issue in Buffalo related to the school board is, only 6% of the people voted in the school board election. With that being said, the greater majority of the people support a public school system, but did not and historically do not vote to represent their own best interests.
I’m trying my best to change this, and if we organize throughout the state, we can better protect public control of school boards. I will help you in NY too.
Tim makes a valid point. It’s pathetic that only 6% voted. If people can get to the polls to vote for President, then these same people need to take an interest in their local government
Katrinnab, I hope you are able to make progress and more people vote.
@katrinnab, all best wishes!
Getting folks registered to vote is the first step, focusing especially on parents of pre-K children and children in the lower grades, and then reminding everyone to vote on the school budget and in the BOE elections. I know that’s harder to do in the Big 5 cities where you do not vote on your school budgets in mid-May, typically when BOE elections are held concurrently.
Another source of untapped voter potential are HS seniors who turn 18 by the day of the vote and absentee voters (i. e. the Snowbirds). Fun and useful fact: NYS law allows anyone to register for school votes ON THE DAY of the vote, including a person who turns 18 THAT DAY! Consult your county’s Board of Elections for clarification.
Parents across NYS are waking up to the fact that they have the power, not the few dozen lawmakers in Albany.
As an elected school board member, when the public speaks, I close my computer (with the files & agenda) and give my full attention to the speakers, whether I agree what they have to say or not.
If I were a parent, I would walk right up and slap the phone right out of his hand.
Maybe Quinn hasn’t taken NYS’s mandatory new board member training yet.
Or, he’s just jerk. Or, he has taken the training, which makes him a complete and total jerk.
Send Quinn an email!
lquinn@buffaloschools.org
Also, note the surprising lack of a bio blurb on the BCSD’s Board of Education members’ page:
http://www.buffaloschools.org/board_members.cfm?master=1
Sharon – jerk is a useful term (I personally think of him as an a** hole)
If only there was a way to publicly shame Quinn.
Unfortunately, he probably isn’t capable of feely remorse or shame.
Tweet it, Facebook it and on the video link. Let’s hope he gets buried in well-deserved abuse.
Someone as arrogant as Quinn is incapable of feeling shame.
This happened in the past in Chicago, as well. And, I’m fairly certain, in many, many other places. “Sir, have you no decency?”
No.
“The board member, a real estate developer who was recruited to the Board by charter champion Carl Paladino”
The behavior of this real estate developer shouldn’t surprise anyone. By now, it should be obvious that the reformers aren’t interested in anything children, parents, voters or teachers have to say. They are only interest in money and the power that comes with it.
Amen! Preach it, brother!
Lloyd – what is even more disturbing is that some of these board members are also developers who stand to profit by the charter school movement. Paladino already owns property rented out to Charter Schools located in Buffalo.
Can anyone spell – Conflict of Interest?
I’ve been keeping up with this and there’s a lot of conflict of interest going on and being ignored by the justice system, the White House and Congress.
Lloyd – lesson learned.
Just when I thought – we elect our school board – the public has a say – this nonsense going on in other places won’t happen in Buffalo – etc. . . .
Goes to show the dangers of thinking – “not in my back yard”.
Stuff even happened today when there was an un-publicized meeting (at 3:00) of the board and superintendent to discuss action plans for the four “low performing” schools which need to be “turned around”. Some constituents got wind of the event and showed up to make sure nothing untoward occurred. One teacher was escorted out by the police for the audacity of going to the podium to make a comment.
I guess freedom of speech is a conditional right.
Ellen T Klock
We owe to the public—that is those who are interested and vote—to report these secret meetings and the attempts to circumvent democracy by oligarchs having people appointed to posts that should be held be elected representatives.
Sounds like the Buffalo BOE is breaking the law by holding unscheduled meetings!
Report, report, report!
Who do we report it to? It seems that the oligarchs own 90% of the media, the White House, the majority in both houses of Congress and five of the nine Supreme Court justices.
This is Larry Quinn, former Buffalo Sabres owner and now expert on education. As a teacher I am thinking I might start moonlighting as a heart surgeon. Carl is next; he gets up and walks off the stage if its uncomfortable and sits in the audience. The other guy is a bartender turned want to be politician and then the former Gateway CEO Samson who has 2.5 million in shadiness with tax payers money. Its a majority of money and power and Buffalo is waking up.
The way the headline and body are written, it makes it sound as if the Board had already closed the school and handed it over. They haven’t even made the decision to do that yet. Chronicle was protesting what we all know is the direction and likely decision they will make in the future if we don’t stop them.
There’s a big push back by the parents in Buffalo making it harder for the BBE to railroad their plan onto the city schools. Whether the Board is biding their time and toying with the public, or whether this grass roots appeal will be successful, remains to be seen.
Politics makes strange bed fellows – Cuomo and Paladino – one time opponents, now on the same page.
Quinn, who is less than one year into his BOE term, makes a habit of acting like a complete ass around teachers and school staff.
http://buffalopundit.com/2014/12/02/whats-up-larry-quinn/
Now I can see the reason why Sabers fired him.
Not sure “fired” is the right word, but Quinn “left” when Pegula bought the team.
@Ellen T Klock: Attempts to hold special meetings should be carefully monitored and reported! Here is an excellent guide to laws pertaining to school board meetings from the New York State School Boards Association:
Click to access LegalOMLPresentations09.pdf
“Special” or “emergency” meetings are allowed under certain, limited conditions, as long as they do not take up business that can wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting.
And now they are closing his school. Is there ANYTHING we can do?
They voted for the charter. Of course that was the intention all along. Is there ANYTHING that can be done to resist? This is criminal.