VOORHEESVILLE — Community reaction this week to the state comptroller’s statements that two top administrators had taken money from the school ranged from defense of the retired superintendent to condemnation.
"I’m saddened, but I still feel a person is innocent until proven guilty," said Chris Allard of the United Employees of Voorheesville. She said she still believes McCartney is a trustworthy person. "He’s a good person," she said. He served the district well for 16 years and did a great job, Allard said.
"I’m certainly not going to turn on him now because of allegations," she said.

High school Principal Mark Diefendorf, who is an old friend of McCartney’s, said that the whole situation has been disheartening.

He hasn’t talked to McCartney yet and he imagines it will be awhile before he will contact him, he said.

At the high school on Tuesday, staff and students were upset, Diefendorf said. But there hasn’t been much of an impact on the students; not all the high school students are in the building this week because of mid-term exams, he said.

In general, people are upset about both allegations that made headlines this week, Diefendorf said of the audit and an arrest of a high school coach for rape. People are just numb from it, he said.
Kathy Fiero, president of the Voorheesville Teachers’ Union, said that, after all the district staff was called into the high school auditorium Tuesday afternoon to be informed of the press conference that morning, everyone was "profoundly disappointed." The feeling that came over the auditorium was one of sadness, she said.

There’s an assumption of trust and there has been a betrayal of that trust, Fiero said.
"We support our new superintendent and board of education," Fiero said.
"It doesn’t erase that he [McCartney] did some good in his tenure...but it goes cast a cloud over it," Fiero said. Trust and ethics are of primary importance, she said.
"I thought he [McCartney] didn’t tell the truth for a long time," said Lisa Myers, a Voorheesville parent. She said she hopes justice is brought against him. Myers had publicly disagreed with McCartney’s administration on the placement of her daughter, who has Down’s syndrome, into a program outside of the district.
"I’m so disturbed by all this," community member Fran Gorka said. "What really bothers me is this apparent sense of entitlement — you often see with people in position of power," she said.

People have sensed it before, she said of McCartney.
"But that’s not the way I want our school to operate," she said.
"This makes me even more certain of the importance to take issue with things that haven’t been right," Gorka said, who has in the past raised issues to the school board.
"I wonder if people either knew what was going on and were pressured into not saying anything or they turned a blind eye," Gorka said. "I think that’s what we need to get to the bottom of." She said she trusts the current board to look into it.

Larry Bonham, a founder of the Voorheesville Taxpayers’ Association, who has taken issue with McCartney’s high salary, compensation and benefits over the years, said he wasn’t surprised that the allegations against McCartney now are related to his salary and benefits.

The board in the past gave McCartney benefits he requested without questioning them and the board would spend only minimal time reviewing a contract before agreeing to it, Bonham said this week.

Former school board president John Cole said this week that, so far, he hasn’t heard anything from the current board president that he doesn’t agree with.
When Cole first heard about the allegations against McCartney, he said, "I was just saddened by it...My first reaction was a fish out of water gasping for air."

He did not see it coming at all and didn’t think it was something that McCartney would do, Cole said.