Quoted Text

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.

So there ya have it folks! The state/unions are the superior rule.

Fire her too! Clean house! Fire him, the HR "head" and every School Bored member that looked the other way. This is absolutely disgusting. Another new low. It could only happen in Schenectady. Let the Union attorneys crawl into court demanding that the School Bored rehire an idiot that brought dynamite to school and sexually harassed female employees. From federal prison! Next we will hear that we need to raise taxes on the City Sheeple to pay the $8 million lawsuit against this "award winning" District that looked the other way for 36 years.

     The inmates are running the worst School District in NYS. Bring in the FBI and let the NYS Department of Education run it.

Ben, it is obvious that you are hell bent on blasting the school board and rightfully so. But you need to realize that abolishing this current school board will not solve the problem. The problem starts with what the state/union allows and doesn't allow. The state/union control the pensions. The union looked the other way just like the school board. The union runs the show. Let me see ya tackle the teacher's union where the problem stems from.

So bringing disgrace to the present school board will just be a bandaid on a bleeding artery.

Quoted from bumblethru

Ben, it is obvious that you are hell bent on blasting the school board and rightfully so. But you need to realize that abolishing this current school board will not solve the problem. The problem starts with what the state/union allows and doesn't allow. The state/union control the pensions. The union looked the other way just like the school board. The union runs the show. Let me see ya tackle the teacher's union where the problem stems from.

So bringing disgrace to the present school board will just be a bandaid on a bleeding artery.

Hey bum what kind of profession are you in .....

I'm a union agent!   No, only kidding! I work in the private sector.

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Complaints about Raucci were ignored by administrators

    As a longtime (now retired) employee of the Schenectady City School District, I always marveled with pride at how the district managed to deliver a superior education to students considering the challenges and difficulties of the urban population. This was almost always accomplished through the dedication and hard work of building principals, teachers and support staff.
    Steve Raucci has truly delivered a black eye to the district. The big question is, did those in supervisory positions and even some board members know of Mr. Raucci’s actions? I contend that they did, indeed, know.
    A number of building principals and co-workers that I worked for and with often disagreed with Mr. Raucci and his “do it my way” policy. I know that building principals, when questioning Mr. Raucci’s authority, often sent copies of e-mails to assistant superintendents and even the superintendent’s offi ce.
    Much of what I am writing about began under the previous superintendent, John Falco, and he, too, should share some responsibility.
    As for the present superintendent, Eric Ely, [for him] to state that he only knew of one complaint is at best a convenient bout of short-term amnesia and at the very least a lack of good leadership.
    It was a dismal failure by the superintendent’s office to not question the complaints regarding Raucci (many from his own building principals). The almost $50,000 in overtime Mr. Raucci made (supposedly walking through school building halls at all hours of the night to be sure custodians turned off computers) should have alerted the superintendent to question Raucci’s inability to delegate responsibility.
    I wonder if it occurred to either John Falco or Eric Ely (especially during contract negotiations) to question how a man could be the president of his local union and in a supervisory position, and not have this constitute a conflict of interest; or to question the actions of Mike Stricos, the human resources director, regarding his knowledge of the many complaints and pleas for help from numerous employees.
    The superintendent’s office and board that lead the Schenectady City School District need to acknowledge their failures, and a public apology should be issued to all staff who frustratingly tried to bring attention to the degrading, belittling, fearful climate and often criminal acts allegedly perpetrated by Mr. Raucci.

    JOAN SIGNOR
    Niskayuna
The writer was a secretary for two assistant principals who later became house principals at Schenectady High School.     

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00702

I am tired of hearing about it, nothing will come of it except he will go to jail briefly. No one else will be found in the wrong at all because the status quo and the dumocracy we supposedly have in this county will hush it up.

"In jail briefly?" lol-13 felonies and counting. Bring him up on federal terrorism charges with death penalty. This story is not going away. Did you hear about his brother?

  Don't understand that letter-it must be a misprint. Nobody knew nuthin. The School Bored never heard of him. So what if he ran every school bored campaign and campaigned for every outrageous budget. He wanted to work with children. So dedicated he was working every weekend! You don't get to the bottom of the barrel by accident-decades on one person "elections"-decades of under 3% voter turnout. Nobody cares-they grumble a little about School Taxes then re-elect the School Bored.

  By the way the City Schools announced a record $14.6 MILLION deficit without the $8 million suit. Talking about a 15.5 INCREASE in City sheeple taxes. Money for nuthin and your chicks for free.

Quoted from bumblethru

I'm a union agent!   No, only kidding! I work in the private sector.

that was a good joke

Yeah, "hell bent" on cleaning out the horrid City School District. The fights, the gangs, the mad bomber, the failed test scores in English for 5 straight years, the pathetic School Bored, the absurd taxes. Then they have the gall to proclaim they are "Award Winning".

   What award worst District in the Nation? Any district that would employ and promote this #@%& for 36 years and pay him over $129,000 needs to be replaced by the State Education Department and investigated by the FBI.
  

Quoted from benny salami

Yeah, "hell bent" on cleaning out the horrid City School District. The fights, the gangs, the mad bomber, the failed test scores in English for 5 straight years, the pathetic School Bored, the absurd taxes. Then they have the gall to proclaim they are "Award Winning".

   What award worst District in the Nation? Any district that would employ and promote this #@%& for 36 years and pay him over $129,000 needs to be replaced by the State Education Department and investigated by the FBI.
  

Again I am agreeing with you, however, do you honestly think this doesn't go on in other school districts? Would it be more acceptable if the janitor at Scotia Glenville was making the same amount of money doing the same amount of work as Raucci? How about Shen or Mohonasen or Guilderland. You are mixing apples and oranges here. I must sadly inform you that this is done all the time in many school districts. The only thing is that these janitors aren't carring around M80's. I don't think...

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Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE
Raucci and the Sch’dy school system
Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.

    Further to my remarks the other day about teamwork in the Schenectady City School District, teamwork in which the head of buildings and grounds, Steve Raucci, served as muscle and top administrators looked the other way or even covered for him, here is something to think about.
    Yes, Raucci pressured the janitorial staff to do campaign work at election time, stuffing envelopes and staffing the CSEA phone bank, in an effort to pass the annual school budget and get candidates elected to the Board of Education, candidates who had been recruited by Jeff Janiszewski, the board president.
    Yes, Janiszewski and his friend Warren Snyder supervised the campaign labors of these not-sovoluntary volunteers, some of whom say they were stuffi ng envelopes on school time, at local taverns.
    And yes also, school employees swear that Superintendent Eric Ely had to be aware of the many complaints against Raucci for his bullying ways, which extended as far as the planting of explosives, according to criminal charges against him.
    Yes also, Ely told complainants to go the police, or else he passed the buck to Michael Stricos, head of human resources, reportedly a friend of Raucci’s, and he did nothing to restrain Raucci, who now, of course, is behind bars without bail.
    Very well. But remember what happened two years ago, shortly after the Board of Education, under Janiszewski’s leadership, promoted Ely from assistant to full superintendent even though he wasn’t legally qualified for the job?
    Ely, having in the meantime gotten the proper certification, was up for a new contract after being on the job for a year and a half, and in the normal course of events the contract would have been for three years. But the board generously made it for four years, and they gave him a nice raise besides.
    They had started him at $142,000 in January 2006. Six months later they raised that to $151,069. And now, after another year, under the new four-year contract, they put him up to $161,069, with the proviso that future raises would depend on evaluation of his performance.
    His performance must have pleased them, because a year later, they put him up to $175,000, which is what he’s getting now. In other words an increase of $33,000 in three years.
    Why was the board so generous in bestowing a four-year contract? Because, in Janiszewski’s words at the time, “We want the world to know that that’s our leader.”
    Also, “He [Ely] has redoubled his commitment to Schenectady,” which was apparently a reference to Ely’s having been turned down for a job he had applied for in his native Ohio and thus being stuck in Schenectady.
    Nor was that the end of Janiszewski and his board taking care of their new boy. Besides all the usual health insurance and vacation days and so forth, they also promised the superintendent an annual contribution of $14,899 to a “tax-sheltered annuity,” like a 401(k).
    They committed themselves to giving him a “retirement incentive” of one-third of his salary when he becomes eligible to retire — in other words, something in excess of $50,000, just as a parting gift, when the time comes.
    And they wrote into his contract that they could also give him, at their discretion, “a one-year salary Supplement,” or bonus, any time they wanted and in any amount they wanted.
    Can you think of a more enticing carrot than that? (Karen Corona, the district spokeswoman, tells me Ely has not yet received such a bonus.)
    It’s a nice example of how school boards feel free to throw around our money, and in this case, it’s also a good example of how to keep a superintendent pliant.
    Anyway, that’s the ace superintendent who claims to have had no idea that his director of buildings and grounds, Steve Raucci, was terrorizing employees, and that’s how he has been taken care of by Janiszewski’s board, the same board that used Raucci’s cleaning crews to get themselves elected and get their budgets passed.
    It’s also the ace superintendent who was praised by Raucci himself, in a letter to this newspaper that didn’t get published, as a “true leader.”
    I will note as well that Warren Snyder, Janiszewski’s friend and fellow board member, who served 15 years until stepping aside in 2007, has a son, Theo, who worked under Raucci as a cleaner, beginning in 2004.
    Now maybe you wonder just as a sidelight what kind of pension Steve Raucci will collect in his retirement years, and as a public service I have researched that matter for you also.
    There are a few variables that I can’t pin down, but the approximate answer is $87,000 a year, subject to the usual cost-of-living increases.
    That’s based on his final year’s earnings ($124,825, including overtime), his years of employment (34.7, and his age (60).
    According to the calculator available on the state comptroller’s Web page, he will collect 73.5 percent of his “final average salary,” which is computed as $118,880.
    And no, it doesn’t matter if he is convicted of felonies and goes to prison for the rest of his life. The pension is protected by our state constitution.
    Just as a footnote, isn’t it swell that there exists an area of life where one can retire at age 60 and collect, guaranteed, almost threequarters of one’s salary for the rest of one’s life?
    Never mind the allegations of crime. Even if someone is entirely upstanding, isn’t it swell?
    I wonder where that money ...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01100

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VIEWPOINT
Outside team should probe what school officials ignored
BY SANDRA McANANY For The Sunday Gazette

    My children had the chance to attend school in Schenectady until recently moving back to Wisconsin. Overall, it was the experience of a lifetime with the most amazing teachers ever.
    Still, I leave with concerns for the buildings and grounds department employees and the tough working conditions they endured for years, for how fast Superintendent Eric Ely’s attitude changed toward people when they start asking questions, for how the educational outcomes can vary so widely for different demographic groups of students and finally for how unfair the process is in New York for determining whether a school should be labeled as “persistently dangerous.”
    One of the most frustrating things I have faced as a parent in the Schenectady school district this year is having the high school labeled as “persistently dangerous” when the staff and teachers are there every day, caring about each of the students. The end of the school year is getting closer, but the New York State Department of Education has still not removed the label, even though discipline incidents are down from previous years.
    The commissioner of education has still not visited the only “persistently dangerous” upstate public high school or even taken five minutes to call the high school administration and see how things are going. Schenectady High School is the only “persistently dangerous” school in Regent Dawson’s territory, but he also has not toured the school to evaluate student safety.
WRONGLY LABELED?
    After reading the recent articles regarding Steven Raucci, the Schenectady school district’s buildings and grounds chief who has been jailed and charged with arson and terrorism, I realized maybe it is not Schenectady High School that should have been labeled dangerous but instead the buildings and grounds department.
    The state Education Department should do the right thing for Schenectady and re-evaluate the “persistently dangerous” label at the high school while working with the independent investigator to be hired by the Schenectady district and conduct an outside review of how dangerous the working environment was for some staff members, year after year, with no one stepping in to help.
    While the Schenectady High kids go into a nurturing environment every day, where people genuinely care about them, the buildings and grounds staff members went to work for years and were allegedly terrorized repeatedly by their supervisor.
    The Schenectady High School students and parents have a safe complaint process that can be followed, while the buildings and grounds staff seemed to have had no one to turn to within the district chain of command to safely file a complaint.
    Gary Comley, the associate superintendent at the high school, takes the time to listen to students and parents and work with them (even parents like me, who asked questions all the time), while the superintendent and human resources director allegedly ignored the needs of the buildings and grounds employees and their desire for a safer work environment.
    Sexual harassment of any sort is not tolerated at the high school, while in the buildings and grounds department, sexual harassment was alleged to be a regular occurrence, with at least one staff member receiving an inappropriate memo from Mr. Raucci, employees reporting being groped and allegations of sexual harassment being a key part of a former employee’s federal multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the district.
PASSING THE BUCK
    At the high school, Mr. Comley, the house principals and teachers proactively interact with students to identify any potential problems and to be a visible part of the school community. Unfortunately, upper-level administration in the district do not seem to want to know what is going on within the buildings and grounds department and instead pass the buck or claim ignorance of what has happened.
    If a kid is having problems at the high school, a high school staff member will know and be there to help out. But a department head can allegedly bring a bomb onto school grounds and intimidate other employees and no one in upper-level administration has any idea.
    There should also be an accounting from the Civil Service Employees Association and an outside investigation to explain how a department manager could ever be the union’s local president. How can such a huge conflict of interest be allowed to occur? Will the buildings and grounds department employees receive a refund for the years of dues they paid while not having a neutral union president and a complaint process available? Will the union or school district ever be able to make these employees feel safe at work or home again?
    The Schenectady school district teachers and other staff members have invested their careers in the school district and deserve the support of upper-level administrators, their unions, the school board and the community. No employee of any organization should ....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar02901

This could not happen anywhere other than Schenectady City Schools. This didn't happen in a vacuum. Decades of one person School Bored elections with less than 3% of the vote. In no other district in the Nation does an overpaid janitor run all the School Bored elections.

  And they keep lying that they knew nothing, they heard nothing. they are all shocked, HE RAN YOUR CAMPAIGNS- ON THE TAXPAYERS DIME. In any other district School Bored members would resign citing "family issues". Not here. They must be chased out. Got on my Nikes-Others can pretend this isn't "unusual". It's pathetic-it's disgusting-and the day of reckoning is fast approaching. We gonna have another fish fry-just in time for Lent!

  The Gazetto is trying to put all the blame on the Super. He was less than forthcoming but also did not work in a vacuum. A culture of corruption-decades of looking the other way-handpicked Krat School Bored hacks-nobody cares.

What did you know and when did you know it?

  Yes, we need "outside investigators" not appointed by the rubber stamp School Bored. They are called the FBI. This issue is not going away and is compounded by the School Bored inaction in the growing City School deficit. "If we ignore it maybe it will go away," is the mantra for everything. Stop stalling and start resigning.