NEW SCOTLAND — A group of parents came to a recent meeting of the Voorheesville Board of Education to crack the school district’s shiny veneer. 

More than half-a-dozen parents and the Albany County Comptroller were at the Dec. 9 meeting, where public comment largely centered on two issues: calls for accountability regarding board member Matthew Bergeron’s post-election social media comments and renewed demands, driven in part by bullying allegations, for a school resource officer

The district sought to quell the concerns in an email sent to parents the day after the meeting. 

The email said in part, “Whenever the district is made aware of allegations of bullying or harassment, the allegations are promptly and thoroughly investigated with a focus on resolving issues and providing a safe and respectful learning environment for our students. District administrators have already reached out to some of the people who spoke during the public comment period to further the conversation and learn how we can best work together.”

It went on to say, “With an eye toward creating a more safe and secure school environment for all, the district recently added retired Albany City police officer and Deputy Chief Vince Foley who monitors security at the MS/HS campus. In this role, Foley works to build trusting relationships with the students to help them feel comfortable and secure at school, supports our educators and is part of our VCSD safety committee. He advises our administrators about concerns, areas of friction and issues that may require support from law enforcement.”

On Bergeron, the district pointed residents to a previous statement about the comments made on “that individual’s personal social media channel.”

Bergeron 

In what appeared to be an orchestrated showing, parents took the board to task over Bergeron’s social-media commentary following Donald Trump’s election, with some parents calling for concrete action regarding what they characterized as the board's inadequate response to the post. 

The controversy stems from Bergeron’s post on his personal social-media account, where he expressed criticism of Trump voters, stating they had “voted for chaos, r*pe, habitual lying, indecency, and unbridled selfishness,” making the job harder for educators to teach children to “tell the truth, treat others with dignity, be empathetic, and always treat others with decency.”

The post gained broader attention after being reposted by the controversial social-media account Libs of TikTok, which boasts 3.7 million followers and is known for targeting left-leaning posts and posters. 

On Dec. 9, parent Amanda Ciano voiced her criticism of the board and its handling of the situation. 

“I come before you today, not out of choice, but out of a profound sense of frustration, disappointment, and, frankly, disbelief in the board’s handling of the present misconduct by one of its members,” she said.

Ciano said the situation wasn’t just a lapse in judgment by one individual; rather, it was a “failure of the board to act decisively” and uphold “the standards … of our education system.”

She continued, “Let me be clear, your inaction or lack of adequate response has deeply eroded the trust of this community. It is not just inappropriate actions of the board member that has caused harm. It is your mishandling [of the situation] that amplifies damage. 

Ciano said, “The silence, the deflection and the lack of pure accountability are unacceptable,” and sends the message that the board values protecting itself more than protecting the integrity of the educational system. 

She then demanded that the board “take immediate steps” and publicly acknowledge the “misconduct,” admit Bergeron’s actions were inappropriate, and that the board mishandled the situation.

Her second demand was that the board enact “clear consequences to ensure the individual responsible faces appropriate repercussions.”

Bergeron did not respond to an Enterprise request for an interview. 

 SRO

Parents’ calls for a school resource officer were general but each speaker appeared to be referring to the same student or incident, with one parent calling it “the elephant in the room.”

But it was City of Albany resident and county Comptroller Susan Rizzo, who told The Enterprise she was at the meeting at the request of a family member, who sought to put too fine a point on the issue. 

“The Board of Education has a responsibility to all students for their safety. Parents are warning the board. Students are warning the board … I encourage the board, the superintendent, as well as the principal of the high school, to not only reach out to the county to help, especially to the Sheriff's Department, to the Department of Mental Health, take us up on helping resolve this issue,” Rizzo said. “Let’s not have a Sandy Hook incident here in Voorheesville. I think Sandy Hook wishes they had a warning. Please don’t choose to do nothing. Please increase security.”

One parent said she had been told by someone at the Albany County Sheriff’s Office that Voorheesville had been offered a county-funded school resource officer, which isn’t the case. 

“We partner closely with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office on many important matters,” the school district wrote in its Dec. 10 message to parents. “It is not true, however, that the Sheriff’s Office could provide an SRO to the district at no cost.”

The county, however, has provided Berne-Knox-Westerlo with a school resource officer, using money from its BusPatrol program.

No topic in recent memory has been more scrutinized by school board members than adding a school resource officer

At the start of the calendar year,  there was discussion about soliciting community feedback on the SRO program, like there had been two years ago, when a forum —  similar to an utterly unattended 2018 event — was suggested.  

The district eventually asked residents to fill out an online survey, yielding 450 responses, many of which were called one-sided due to what one board member said was an influence campaign designed to skew the results in favor of placing an officer in school. Finally, in mid-September 2018, the board approved an SRO for a one-year pilot program, which was not renewed. 

Allegations of bullying and antisemitism

During her time at the microphone, parent Amy Hooker offered an overview of what brought so many parents to speak out on Dec. 9.

“Over the past few weeks, stories have surfaced to highlight a serious, systemic issue and how threats and bullying are handled in this district,” she began. “Let me share a few examples. One parent said nothing has been done for years. We all know these threats are made over and over, but there’s no action.” 

Hooker asked, “How many warnings do we need?”

She said a “family was forced to pull their daughter out of middle school after repeated bullying and threats. The mother said, ‘They told me, ‘There’s only so much two guidance counselors can do.”’”

Asked if there was any veracity to Hooker’s claim, Macri said didn’t “believe so,” adding that he couldn’t “talk about individualized students, but we work with all of our students and we try to actually understand why they leave and address those situations.”

Hooker claimed the district’s inaction had become a joke among students.

“The most troubling aspect is the perception of our students in their own group chats and on social media,” she said. “It’s become a running joke [that] the school does nothing to protect them … Think about that, the very students you are entrusted to protect have so little faith in the system that they turn this crisis into a mean joke.”

Parent Lauren Mondanaro board members about antisemitism her son has endured. “The unfortunate situation is my son has started to have a target on his head in the sense that every day he is being called a Jew,” she said.

But it’s her son who’s had in-school suspension because a “student pushed him to the limit at a school event,” which was on camera and witnessed by an adult who “did not know the pretense that led up to it.”

Mondanaro said her son’s situation is one that she herself “feel[s] daily,” because he’s being “called a dirty Jew on a daily basis.”

She said she tells him, “Unless they’re being physical just try to walk away … Please play nice … I’ve said to him, ‘Keep your hands to yourself, but keep [the] recorder on your phone on so at least you have the verbal evidence to show what’s going on. Because somehow or another that’s what’s necessary.”

Macri confirmed that an incident like the one Mondanaro described had taken place earlier this year, but said the “building principal went and addressed it seriously with the parent that next morning and student.”