092906 District seeks `closure' after abuse report

The matter involving Bedford Hills Elementary School principal Victoria Graboski and five other educators who are on paid leave may be coming to an end as far as the Bedford Central School District is concerned.

The board of education has instructed the school district's attorney "to con-tact individual counsel [for each educator] and to come to some closure on this issue," board president Brad Sacks said. "We hope to bring it to closure shortly."

Mr. Sacks did not define what he meant by "closure," and he declined to provide elaboration during a brief inter-view on Wednesday.

Schools superintendent Dr. Debra Jackson did not address the issue during the meeting.

Following a roughly 20-minute executive session Wednesday night, Mr. Sacks said he hoped the matter could come to "closure" in the near future, but he did not provide specifics about which steps the board would take to resolve the educators' status.

Bedford police arrested Ms. Graboski on Sept. 1 on a misdemeanor charge of failure to report a suspected case of child abuse/maltreatment, a violation of Social Services Law According to the complaint against Ms. Graboski, on or about Dec. 21, 2005, the principal is alleged to have received information from a parent of a student at the elementary school about suspected child abuse.

On Aug. 29, Ms. Graboski was placed on administrative leave. Two teachers, Jennifer Conte and Regina Smith, had their tenure rescinded and their probationary periods extended. Two days later, three other school employees, who have not been named, were placed on administrative leave.

Mr. Sacks acknowledged that several supporters of the principal were in attendance during the meeting. About 14 parents and educators came, armed with posters with such phrases describing the principal as an "Exemplary Educator," "Dedicated Professional," and "Valuable Incredible Caring Kind Integrity."

"There's a lot of folks here about the ongoing Bedford Hills situation," Mr. Sacks said.

Some of Ms. Graboski's supporters addressed the board and administrators during the public forum portion of the meeting. They said the board should not consider firing the principal until her case was determined in the courts.

Daniele Levin, who has been an educator in the district for 16 years, expressed the support of the parents and teachers in the audience.

Ms. Graboski is an outstanding educator whose contributions to the district have been enormous," Ms. Levin said. "During her two years as principal Vicki was responsible for many accomplishments. One of the most important has been leading by example."

The board should not consider firing Ms. Graboski at their next regular meeting, on Oct. 11, Ms. Levin said. Instead, the trustees should not take action "until her legal case is completed."

During an interview after she left the meeting, Ms. Levin said she did not know if the school board was going to fire Ms. Graboski. ESL teacher Marina Moran gave the board several "character letters" from those supporting the principal. "There are many more to come," Ms. Moran said.

Following the comments made by Ms. Graboski's supporters, Mr. Sacks said, "We do appreciate as a board" the statements made and said he and his colleagues would "take appropriate action," but did not spell out what the action would be.