Decisions without transparency are costing our schools

Dear Editor,

School board members are trustees, entrusted by this community, for our children. Right now, that trust is being violated.

Weeks after being elected, and just before the start of the school year, newly elected board members made a swift decision that would cost this community dearly. No performance-based cause for former Superintendent Christine Tona's removal was ever stated publicly. The community was given no explanation, only a result. The district then paid out the remainder of her contract while simultaneously hiring Frank Miele as superintendent. Miele was the former boss of school board President Mike Mongon's wife. We are now paying over $1 million for that decision. The interim superintendent alone is budgeted at about $300,000, before adding contract payouts, legal and search firm fees, and advertising costs. That is not a rounding error. That is money stripped from our classrooms, money that belongs in the hands of the extraordinary teachers who show up every single day for our kids. The search for a permanent superintendent was not mentioned once at the March 12 board meeting. A hire that will define this district for years is being made without transparency or accountability.

Mongon's Linkedin lists him as "Owner, Sports Turf Management Systems." I am not asserting any wrongdoing. I am asking a question any responsible board would welcome: has the board conducted a formal conflict-of-interest review of the $10.5 million ball field upgrades and other projects such as the tennis court upgrades, and will it make those findings public before a single dollar is approved?

Now the same play on Tona is being run on Jen Pontillo, a beloved 30-year veteran who has served Mahopac as a teacher, principal and HR director. No public explanation. No stated cause. Just quiet pressure while two board members work through what appear to be internal disputes at the public's expense. At a recent meeting, dozens of teachers, parents, and community members showed up to defend her. That does not happen by accident. It happens when a community rallies against an injustice. Rather than welcome that support, Vice President Lucy Massafra tried to block public comment, purportedly to seek legal counsel. When did listening to public support for teachers require a lawyer in the room?

There is growing concern in the community that personal conflicts may be influencing decisions, and that what appears to be a private dispute is playing out on public time, at public expense, and at the cost of good people's careers. This is the same man who mocked special education students with a "short bus" quip, revealing exactly what he thinks of the children he was elected to serve. The events of the past year speak for themselves: a respected superintendent forced out, a beloved veteran administrator now in the crosshairs, a search process hidden from the public, and taxpayer money spent cleaning up messes the board itself created. The common thread runs directly through Mongon and Massafra.

The teachers of Mahopac are the heart and soul of our schools. They are in classrooms before the bell rings and long after the buses leave. They are the coaches, the mentors, the adults our children will remember for the rest of their lives. Instead, this board appears to punish dissent out of self-interest and actively works to block public support for our educators. Every board member took an oath to serve as a trustee, not to retaliate against critics or reward allies. A board that supports our teachers and students is not a formality. It is the entire point.

Our teachers deserve better. Our children deserve better. Please show up to an upcoming school board meeting. The sidelines are no longer an option.

-Erin O'Brien, Mahopac