Public venting session at Smithtown postelection school board meeting
The Smithtown Central School District meeting Tuesday, the first since Long Islandwide district votes earlier this month, devolved into an angry public venting session with residents confronting trustees over critical race theory and pandemic safety measures.
Those issues dominated the May 18 race in which three board seat challengers — Stacy Murphy, Karen Wontrobski-Ricciardi and John Savoretti — defeated incumbents by large margins after aligning themselves with the Suffolk PBA and a pro-Trump group, Long Island Loud Majority. They also won the endorsement of Robert Cornicelli, a radio host and veterans' advocate who leads a splinter group of town Republicans.
Some residents believe the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are politically motivated and single out white students, and that officials are unnecessarily prolonging safety measures including mask wearing and plastic dividers in some school spaces.
District officials have said those convictions are unfounded and that pandemic safety measures are science-based and taken in response to guidelines issued by local and federal health officials.
District leaders said little at the meeting to rebut the speakers during the 45-minute public presentation. However, earlier this spring, they issued statements intended to debunk what they said were "false narratives" about the district's equity, diversity and inclusion work. The April 29 statement said, in part, that the district had not adopted a policy or goal related to critical race theory and white students were not being singled out.
In a second statement on May 6, Superintendent Mark Secaur said the district was responsible by law for "the achievement of students regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, or socioeconomic status. … Providing support to students in any of these groups does not come at the expense of other students."
Those statements appeared to have done little to restore the trust of most parents and residents who spoke at the meeting.
One man said he was the father of young twins who'd undergone two quarantines. He questioned whether the district’s safety measures were backed by science and said others did too: "This is what an angry mob looks like," he said. "It’s going to continue month after month."
In a statement, the district said it has "consistently sought to balance health and safety needs with the academic, social and emotional needs of our students and staff. We have used a methodical, data driven approach when making our decisions. While we empathize with the members of our community who have been frustrated by the pandemic, it is important to note that we have had to follow evolving directives and executive orders from the Governor and Department of Health when making these decisions."
Another man said he had chosen to send his children to a local Christian school rather than public schools: "I don’t like the masks, I don’t like the jab mandates, I don’t like CRT, CSE, Common Core. … Your alphabet soup is poison. Keep it away from this town’s children."
John Savoretti, the sole challenger to have taken office — the others will be installed later this summer — did not directly address residents’ comments, but spoke at the meeting about his early school years. English was his third language and a caring teacher pressed him to do extra work to catch up to his classmates, he said.
"I don’t want nobody left behind," he said. "I want everybody to succeed no matter what their limitations are."
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