Right on Will. Everyone that got that sexually harassing letter and laughed about it, everyone that he forced union members to campaign for on the disgusting City School Bored, should resign in disgrace TODAY. We don't need no second investigation. Stop dragging this out beyond the School Bored election. On St. Patty's Day the gig is up.
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer Last updated: 12:41 p.m., Tuesday, March 17, 2009
SCHENECTADY - Accused arsonist Steven Raucci is retiring from the Schenectady school district, district officials announced on their Web site.
The announcement comes as the Schenectady County District Attorney's office probes Raucci's alleged links to a series of bombings and vandalism that go back years.
School District spokeswoman Karen Corona confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Raucci, who remains jailed on arson and terrorist charges, notified the district of his plans to retire from his post as buildings manager within the past few days.
She said the Board of Education is scheduled to take action on a resolution about Raucci's retirement when it meets Wednesday.
If approved, Raucci's retirement would take effective April 15, according to the Web site announcement.
Just last week, the board voted during a special meeting to hire an independent investigator to probe any work-related misconduct following revelations that Raucci asked a female employee to dress and keep her appearance in a way that was pleasing to him. School officials have denied prior knowledge of the letter which was written on school letter head.
A Schenectady County grand jury is investigating the case. Raucci is accused of targeting enemies for bombings and vandalism that frightened victims and, for years, mystified police.
He has also served as president of the district's CSEA local.
Retired at full pension? lol-Fire him you spineless jelly fish. Then keep going up.
He wanted to work with our children-he worked weekends turning on the automatic sprinklers-nobody knew nuthin-so what if he ran all the School Bored campaigns-so what if he sexually harassed a new employee-so what if he harassed fellow union members-we were all looking the other way for 36 years-we did not read the letter-we are all shocked by these allegations-another new low from the worst School Bored in the State.
Bring in the State Education Department to clean out this dysfunctional City District.
SAL AND PDQ PROBABLY WOULDN'T MIND CONSTANTINO OR RAUCCI TEACHING THEIR KIDS - DAUGHTERS - EITHER! WHY IS THIS AREA SO CORRUPTED AND SO MANY PEOPLE WILLING TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY? BENNY, FORGET THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. BRING IN THE FBI!
SCHENECTADY Raucci submits letter of resignation Suspect held on terror charges has 34 years of school district service BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Steven Raucci, the jailed director of facilities for the Schenectady City School District who faces arson and terrorism counts, wants to retire next month. Raucci, who continues to be held without bail in Schenectady County Jail, was suspended without pay this month and will leave his position effective April 15, provided members of the Board of Education vote to approve his retirement when they meet tonight. School officials confirmed Raucci wrote the letter to the district from the jail. “We received his letter [Monday],” said Karen Corona, a spokeswoman for the district. Corona said the district has no other choice but to accept Raucci’s retirement as long as he meets the criteria, which include being over 55 years old and employed by the district for more than 10 years. She said even if the district fired Raucci he would still draw benefits from his pension. “It wouldn’t be any different,” she said of his retirement compensation. Raucci is credited with more than 34 years of service with the district, according to the state Comptroller’s Office. Raucci’s base salary was about $79,000 as the director of facilities, but in 2008 he was actually paid more than $129,000 with overtime pay. Both state and district officials were uncertain of how much Raucci will receive in pension benefi ts. A copy of Raucci’s letter was not available for review Tuesday. News of the retirement comes as the district plans to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of workplace misconduct by Raucci and any supervisor who might have known about the allegations and failed to act on them. The 60-year-old Raucci, whose home is in Niskayuna, is facing charges in three separate bombing or attempted bombing incidents in three counties dating as far back as 2001. In a November 2006 incident, Raucci is accused of placing an incendiary device on a vehicle in Clifton Park. Court records have indicated the charge is based on a supporting deposition by former district athletic director Gary DiNola. Carney continues to seek a grand jury ...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00103
Sch’dy school officials must come clean fast to fix damaged credibility
Do Schenectady school officials have something to hide? They’re certainly making it seem that way, offering a lame excuse for rejecting this newspaper’s Freedom of Information request to see copies of e-mail correspondence between former Facilities Director Steven Raucci and any underlings, supervisors or school board members he came in contact with. Richard Yager, the district’s Freedom of Information Officer, denied The Gazette’s request Monday, claiming it might hamper the criminal investigation into Raucci’s dealings with personal enemies. Since Raucci was charged Feb. 20 with planting a bomb at the residence of one of them, several people who worked with or for him in the Schenectady City School District have accused him of similar behavior — for which he has been additionally charged — as well as threats and intimidation tactics. As far as the government’s already substantial criminal case goes — and why is the school district suddenly so concerned about that? — it’s hard to see how the release of this information could do anything but bolster it. As for Raucci’s right to a fair trial, that should be his attorney’s worry, not the school district’s. The public interest in these emails isn’t whether they’d prove Raucci’s culpability, but whether school administrators and school board members knew what Raucci was up to. They claim they knew little, which was hard enough to believe when Raucci was first arrested, given the bizarre harassment claim made against him several years ago by an underling, and affirmed by the state Workers’ Compensation Board in 2006. But their claims of ignorance have become increasing incredible ever since — as more district employees have told reporters and editors of similar incidents, and as Raucci’s prominent role in School Board President Jeff Janiszewski’s annual budget/election campaign came to light (see yesterday’s Carl Strock column). While Raucci had the....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00503
Accused arsonist will collect state pension no matter what
SCHENECTADY - Steven Raucci was first arrested last month, accused of setting off an explosive at a Rotterdam home in 2001.
Since then, he has been charged with crimes in Rensselaer and Saratoga counties.. and is facing terrorism charges.
The Facilities Director for the Schenectady City School District is on unpaid leave, and on Monday, he filed his retirement application.
According to the State Comptroller's office, which oversees the State retirement system:
Raucci would retire effective April 15th.
His last reported earnings for the last school year were almost $125,000, and he has almost thirty five years of service credit.
Is there anything that makes you ineligible?
"No. The pensions are guaranteed under the State Constitution. Nothing can be done to diminish those pensions," said Dennis Tompkins of the New York State Comptroller's office.
The Comptroller's office has not yet calculated exactly how much Raucci will get, but he could be looking at roughly seventy-percent of his final average salary, whether or not he's been accused or even convicted of a crime.
All that matters are his age, and his years of service.
"These pensions benefits are guaranteed under the constitution. So we cannot reduce them. We cannot take them away. Absent a change in the Constitution and some changes in state law, these are guaranteed," Tompkins said.
The Schenectady School Board is set to consider the retirement request, but whatever they do, it will have no impact on his pension.
"Absolutely no relevance at all. Once he files with us, he files retirement papers with us, we then process them. If he's eligible for retirement, he will receive his pension benefits," said Tompkins.
Why file now? The sooner Raucci retires, the sooner he gets money coming in.
I hope the judge comes up with some REALLY creative ways to pay his victims, the school and the community back - like "you're fined $88,000 per year for the next 25 years, PLUS incarceration"
Right Will Bring in the FBI. While in town take a peak at Metrograft. A FBI office should be established here. Plenty of empty space in Downtown. This could finally create some Downtown jobs!!!
"Fix damaged credibility"-lol. Everyone involved, everyone who looked the other way for 34 years, everyone that gave him gifts, everyone who let him campaign for them for City School Bored-RESIGN IN DISGRACE NOW!!
This fair trial nonsense is hilarious-stop confusing school violations of his employment contract with separate criminal allegations. You don't get to be the worst district in the State by accident. Decades of patonage hiring, decades of one candidate "elections", decades of looking the other way. The chickens have come home to roost.
This Janusewski is one smooth operator. I bet he ends up in Gillen's job when Gillen becomes the next treasury secretary.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
He didn't look so smooth shaking on TV. How's the media spotlight? And all the other School Bored members had nothing to say? Say Schenectady Schools. Worst in the State. 5th straight year on the Federal watch list.
TONIGHT: ONE NIGHT ONLY! At famous Mt Pleasant Middle School-7:30 PM. The continuing saga continues. Opera Boffo! Limited Seating! Will he receive his gold watch and reference letter? Nothing "unusual" here. Nobody knew from nuthin-they hardly knew he was there-he could have made more in the private sector but chose to work with our kids-so what if he ran every campaign-everyone has looking the other way for 36 years.
Oh cool - not only does this sonofabitch get his pension, he also gets healthcare ... paying only 12% of the costs, the district absorbs the other 88%.
By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer Last updated: 1:57 a.m., Thursday, March 19, 2009
SCHENECTADY — The city Board of Education unanimously granted arson suspect Steven C. Raucci his retirement Wednesday night — even while the board plans to hire an investigator to look at Raucci and his dealings with staff in his role as facilities supervisor and a CSEA unit president.
"The bottom line is, the board cannot fire Mr. Raucci," board President Jeff Janiszewski said. "And if the board chose to fire Mr. Raucci, the point would be moot."
Shari Greenleaf, the school district's attorney, said Raucci is employed by the state independent of the school district and that the district wouldn't have authority over the state's decision regarding his retirement. If the district attempted to fire Raucci as a symbolic gesture, she said, it would face an additional problem. According to his contract, the district would need to have a hearing in order to fire him. Raucci's presence would be required, which is not possible since he's in jail. Greenleaf said that if the district fired him without a hearing, it would be violating the contract and could face legal action.
Raucci sent a letter from his cell at the Schenectady County Jail to the board last week seeking permission to retire, his attorney, Ronald De Angelus, said. Despite criminal charges that allege Raucci intimidated his enemies by crafting explosive devices and vandalizing homes and cars, De Angelus said his client is entitled to retire, as opposed to being terminated, because he's presumed innocent before trial. De Angelus said Raucci had planned to retire sometime this year.
His retirement would be effective April 15.
Under the state constitution, Raucci, 60, of Niskayuna, would be guaranteed his pension even if convicted. The state has yet to calculate Raucci's pension amount. He earned $124,824 in 2008 and employers have reported he worked for 34 years, said Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the state comptroller's office.
The school board voted March 12 to hire an independent investigator after the district attorney released documents showing other school employees might have been aware of Raucci's allegedly inappropriate behavior, which included accusations of verbal threats at morning meetings, making underlings work on his home and threatening to demote or fire those who complained about him.
Most damning in the district attorney's documents, which were part of Raucci's bail hearing, was a note on school district letterhead allegedly written by Raucci that asked a newly hired woman to be ''attractive, sensitive and classy with a touch of sexiness.'' The note appeared to be carbon-copied to others, but the names are blacked out in the court documents.
De Angelus said Wednesday the note, which he said was an e-mail, was a joke ''given to (the employee) together with a pie and a cake and everyone was joking and laughing.''
''She didn't bring it forward,'' the lawyer said.
Superintendent Eric Ely has said he had not seen the letter before.
Right on Will. Everyone that got that sexually harassing letter and laughed about it, everyone that he forced union members to campaign for on the disgusting City School Bored, should resign in disgrace TODAY. We don't need no second investigation. Stop dragging this out beyond the School Bored election. On St. Patty's Day the gig is up.
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