The Whistleblower
Demanding Accountability,
One PTA
Mother Takes On the Board of Education
By Gabriella Burman
gabriellab@resident.com
M.S. 54, the Booker T. Washington Junior High School,is situated in a
red-brick building on West 108th Street, on a quiet block between
Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Inside the main lobby, green walls
are hung with student artwork. The auditorium is off to the left, and
noise from the gym reverberates in the hallway. In the security
office, a drawing of the administration hangs on one wall; the
principal,Lawrence Lynch, is shown with a full head of hair and a strong chin,
minus the mustache he is now sporting.
The school is home to a diverse student body of more than 1,000
students enrolled in three programs. The Delta Honors program serves
500 students and is one of the most rigorous in the city, preparing
students for entrance into the city's most selective high schools.
There is a bilingual program for Spanish-speaking immigrants called
Arista. Manhattan Valley is the school's self-contained special
education program. A fourth, less successful program, Nova, designed
to integrate special education pupils with general education pupils,
was disbanded in 2002.
Parent representatives from the school's programs make up the
executive board of the Parent Teacher Association, which is charged
with promoting the welfare of all the students in and around the
school. For Betsy Combier, a Delta parent who served as PTA president
from 1999 to 2001, serving the student body was akin to answering a
call to the cloth.
"I was so excited about the chance to fundraise," said Combier, a
mother of four who resides on the East Side. Before she was elected,
she had already made contributions to the school, writing grants and
purchasing bilingual headphones so that Spanish-speaking parents
could participate in PTA meetings. Once she was elected, she initiated
the process that would transform the PTA into a nonprofit organization
so it could pursue grants and corporate dollars.
Teachers, who were spending their own money to purchase supplies,
loved her. "She was the first PTA president who went around giving
teachers $100. That was pretty cool," said Neil Lovinger, a special
education teacher who taught at Booker T. for the 2000-2001 school
year. "It was the first time I felt I was getting support."
In December 1999, the PTA held a fundraiser at the Barnes & Noble
bookstore on West 66th Street and brought in a record amount of
$13,783. Combier expected the money would be deposited in the PTA
account and, after a vote, possibly used to purchase science equipment.
Instead, the check was turned over to Patricia Romandetto, the
District Three community superintendent who had to be informed of
checks over $2,000.
"Lynch told us we'd get it back in a 'few weeks.' We never got it
back," Combier said.
Combier later learned that the district had used the check to pay for
$11,000 worth of science items for the school, and the difference was
eventually returned to the PTA.
Combier, however, wants the check returned in full. Based on her own
research as well as a payment warrant issued after the fiscal year
closed, she alleges that it is not clear that any PTA funds were used
to pay for those science items.
"Where is our money? That's all I want to know -- because it's for
the kids," she said.
Ultimately, that question may be answered in a court of law. This
past June, Combier filed a $10 million lawsuit against members of a
PTA review committee who last year sought to remove her from office.
The defamation of character suit alleges that on June 25, 2001, false
and defamatory matter concerning her was spoken at a special meeting
of the PTA convened to discuss a grievance Combier had filed with
superintendent Romandetto on June 5. The grievance charged Lynch and
an arts teacher, Marie Williams, with harassment and misappropriation
of funding.
"Larry called me a liar and a person without integrity," Combier
said. "And then two parents got up and read these charges against me."
The charges included a failure to provide leadership, delegate
responsibility and encourage participation.
"It was awful," said Combier. "They made up all this horrible stuff
about me. And there was nothing I could do to stop it."
Her own grievance had been filed, she said, because her attempts at
a dialogue regarding the Barnes & Noble check and other funds for
extended day programs had gone ignored, and as a newly elected
third-term PTA president, she wanted to "get people to sit down and
answer my questions so that we could move on." In doing so, she
thought she was protected, since according to the Chancellor's
Regulations, grievances are allowable, and no one can be harassed
or retaliated against for filing a grievance.
This was not to be the case, however. A nine-parent review
committee, made up mostly of Delta parents, convened at the end of
June to investigate the charges against Combier and, according to
PTA by-laws, had 60 days to present its findings to the general
membership at a regularly scheduled PTA meeting. That committee was
put on hold during the summer and reconvened in Oct. 2001 to present
its findings at a special PTA meeting called for Nov. 5. Based on
confidential feedback from parents, the review committee determined
that Combier's activities were "divisive," her relations with Lynch
"confrontational," and her actions "intimidating." She was voted out
of office, and new board members assumed their positions on Nov. 15.
Gary Shaffer, assistant corporation counsel for New York City, which
is representing the parents named in the lawsuit, dismissed the charge
of defamation. "It's important that PTAs be an open process in which
parents feel free to speak their minds. If people felt that by doing
that they would risk being a defendant in a lawsuit, people wouldn't
participate. What went on is what normally goes on at PTA meetings."
What members of the review committee have to say about the process,
however, raises serious questions about the nature of the committee.
They charge that the Board of Education was not interested in
impartial fact-finding but in doing whatever was necessary to remove
Combier, whose inquiry "irked some people," said one parent who
resigned from the committee and spoke on condition of anonymity.
"I think what happened was the principal wasn't happy about it
and they had to do something to get rid of Betsy."
"I didn't know at first we were going after her," said review
committee member Patricia Lee. "I thought we were checking out
inaccuracies. I didn't dislike her enough to go after her. People
twisted it. It was a disgrace -- parents picking on one person.
We're adults. Couldn't we handle this better than we did?"
she asked, noting that Combier's suit "doesn't help."
Combier said that since filing her grievance more than a year ago,
she has "begged" all parties -- in letters written to former Board
of Education president Ninfa Segarra and former schools chancellor
Harold Levy, as well as in a verified petition, or educational
lawsuit, filed with New York State education commissioner Richard
Mills -- to use conflict resolution to end the standoff between
herself, Lynch and the PTA.
"My knees are raw from begging," she said. "No one ever
responded."
Combier, whose purpose is to shine a light on the labyrinthine
manner in which the Board of Education funds public schools,
believes "there are tons of people like me out there. I'm just the
one who's visible because I spoke up. We're asked to be involved,
but they really don't want us because we could disrupt the
situation."
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212-993-9410.
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