OSWEGO, NY – Oswego School Board member Fran Hoefer is once again in trouble for releasing allegedly confidential material.
Late last week, the Association of Administrative Personnel (on behalf of the district) filed a notice of claim against the board in response to Hoefer’s public disclosure of negotiations of AAP (principals and educational department leaders).
(Click here to read the notice of claim from the Association of Administrative Personnel (pdf).)
The notice claims that Hoefer published information on the Web site Inside Oswego regarding information discussed in executive session and should not have been made public, according to the notice of claim.
A notice of claim is not a lawsuit, but it preserves a party’s right to sue later.
At the last meeting of the school board, Hoefer maintained, despite what the NYS Commissioner of Education has said, that he believes most of what school boards discuss isn’t confidential and he feels compelled to tell the public everything.
In 2004, Hoefer was removed from his position as board member after posting information from an executive session on Inside Oswego and for allegedly harassing, demeaning and bullying fellow board members, according to the decision of Hoefer’s appeal of his dismissal .
Click here to read the notice of claim from the Association of Administrative Personnel (pdf).
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Bravo to Mr. Hoefer for his release of this information. Mr. Crist’s demand for a raise is outrageous and I believe his behavior is completely out of line. Dave White and his 3 lackeys would undoubtedly have rammed this raise down the taxpayers’ throats before we even knew what hit us. Fran Hoefer’s noble quest against outrageous greed prevents this from happening. As a taxpayer and parent, I feel very privileged to have Fran Hoefer representing me on the board.
Mr. Hoefer hasn’t learned from his past. He should be removed again. Rules are rules except for some people.
muin, please understand that the public has the right to elect whomever they want. We have elected Mr. Hoefer on three occasions, not in spite of his declaration to release “confidential” information, but partially BECAUSE of this declaration. We knew why he got removed last time and obviously, the public chose to override that insane decision. Fran made a promise to us and we elected him on that basis. He is simply living up to his promise and for him to do anything other than what he is doing right now would be equally as unethical as Bill Crist and his demand for a raise. I am sure that Mr. Crist and the members of OCTA and the AAP did not vote for Mr. Hoefer. However, they were outvoted by the rest of the public, so all I have to say to them is “too bad, so sad.” They feel as though they are entitled to raises with no obstacles or roadblocks in their way, regardless of their extremely poor job performance. There is currently a $13 million budget shortfall and we already know the kids are going to have programs cut from them, and the taxpayers are going to have to pay more. Yet Bill Crist finds himself entitled to a raise? The man must be insane. Unlike Bill, Fran has a level head and is the best I have ever seen on that board. I thank him for his efforts to combat this outright selfishness.
Maybe everyone in the OCSD should follow Mr. Hoefer’s example. Teachers should start posting student’s grades on-line for anyone to see. They’re taugh by taxpayer dollars, so why not post them. Oh yeah, any kid that gets any discipline referral, post that too. Along with the parent’s names and where they live, so people know where the troubled kids live. Again, this is all tax-payer funded, so it should be made public. Plus, our tax dollars pay for part of their health care, so lets post their medical history. Let’s do it or anyone that the tax-payers pay for…city personnel, schools, police, fire, sanitation. As you can see, that would be ridiculous to do. However, if Fran can embarrass anyone in the district, he will. He has no respect for rules, but he wants everyone else to follow them. He will be the one costing tax-payers literally thousands because lawyers will need to be paid –with taxpayer money-to defend OCSD because he doesn’t feel anything should be confidential. Whether it is a raise, personnel issues, health care-on the board of education, there is a responsibility to keep certain things confidential. In executive session, he can discuss this. But to blatently put this out there, he deserves to be removed, AGAIN, at the cost of a few thousand dollars to the taxpayers he says he represents.
Children in our country have a right to education, and thus the right to privacy. Teachers and school administrators don’t have the same right. While we don’t have the right to see individual childrens’ report card grades or test scores, we do at least have access to aggregate information regarding test results.
By the way Jonathan, there are several noteable OCTA members who choose not to protect the privacy of the children, regardless of the rules. Until this school year, it was an extremely common practice for OCTA members at the high school to have their favored students grade the work of their peers under the “volunteer service” program. It happened with a very large number of teachers at OHS. They gave students the power to assign grades and the visibility to see the grades of their peers. This is against the rules, but took place anyway, all because the “overworked” teachers did not want to spend time grading papers. How come OCTA doesn’t file a notice of claim against themselves?
Everyone knows what they are getting with Mr. Hoefer, so if these people want to demand outrageous raises, they will have to deal with Fran’s negotiation methods. If they do not like this, they can feel free to pull the lever for Fran’s opponents in 2012. Until then, Hoefer will and should continue to act in the manner that the community desires and expects of him. Because it works. Remember when the elementary teachers wanted $20 per day per child over the class size of 15? Fran exposed that and they did not get it. Fran lowered the amount of the raise that they got. Fran eliminated the $250 “thank you for returning to work” gift. Fran refused to allow them to have an entire year of severance with health benefits upon being laid off. These are all positive factors, and show that Fran’s methods actually do work for the betterment of this school district. That is why the public continues to overwhelmingly elect him. That is why the thugs who want to make the school system their own private feeding ground need to resort to high-priced lawyers and kangaroo courts to remove him — because they know that as long as we, the voters, have a say, he will be on that school board.
These things should be public.
I am totally DISGUSTED with this school district. When someone tries to expose them for what they are they want to do away with that person. That says something in itself.
Jerry-almost everything you have said in your post are untrue. Please remember what you read on local gossip websites are not true. You have no facts to back up what you are saying….if you do, please post where you found them so I may check them. Specifically these comments—-“$20 per day per child over the class size of 15? Fran exposed that and they did not get it. Fran lowered the amount of the raise that they got. Fran eliminated the $250 “thank you for returning to work†gift. Fran refused to allow them to have an entire year of severance with health benefits upon being laid off”—–while your at it, let me know the teachers at the high-school that were using students to grade other student work….put your money where your mouth is and let me see where you got your “facts” so I can back them up.
I feel that the bottom line is, the unions are frightened that Fran threatens their dictatorship of the school district. Unlike the 4-3 board majority that acts as a puppet regime for the unions, Fran is not at all interested in making friends with Bill Crist, the principals, or the OCTA leadership. The rest of the board plays into their hands, but not Fran, and they are scared for their wallets and scared for their workload. They think they should get raises for doing nothing. Fran doesn’t tolerate it as most other board members in the past decade have done. The other board members play the game because they feel it will give them the power, importance and friendships that their egos crave. Fran no doubt has his own ego, but he chooses to fuel it in different ways, and that is why these school employees go absolutely insane about him.
Is it really ethical for Bill Crist to buy drinks for the board members at local bars like Cheap Seats and then demand those very same people to give him raises? I’ve seen it with my own eyes, buying drinks for White, Tripp and DeCastro. The man quite honestly has no shame and I have never seen anyone like him before. I feel that the person at the top leadership post of the district should at least be a good role model for children but he has proven to be quite the opposite with his recent actions. When he took the helm as Superintendent, he said he was local, understood the local issues, and wouldn’t be like out-of-towner Fischer. Obviously Bill Crist lied. He knew very well one of the people’s biggest gripes with Fischer was how power-hungry and money-hungry he was. Now, Bill wants to railroad a nemesis off the board, and wants a $4260 raise. Instead of railroading Fran, maybe Bill should take some time to learn from Fran, how to be a class act.
Whats the need for an executive session anyhow — darnit — I’m paying in and I want to know where its going. What could be so secretitive that you need to have a meeting about our children, money and where it goes. In my opinion — the raises, budgets, winfalls, and downfalls should all be freely and easily available to the public, as well as any information.– crips sake we pay your salaries and this is how the people get treated. Crist has to go — unbelievable he would ask.
Furious city dweller
Amanda, wasn’t it also unethical to not only release confidential information not just once, but twice? I could see it being a necessary evil to do so if the board tried to pass legislature to physically torture the “D” students into passing, not for a mere application for a raise. Even if he got the raise, the tax increase would be negligible. Do you think he was undeserving of it? I say he’s done a far sight better of a job than Eastwood, if you ask me. Together with Mrs. Oughterson, I’d say he’s done a hell of a job of eradicating the conflicts we had last year at the High School.
If he wanted to release some good info, why didn’t he leak any data for this proposed change to the high school schedule? I think that’s something to really get passionate about, not a trivial- whatever you may say, it’s not “outrageous”- salaray increase. You say he wants to “better” the district? Then he should come out against this lunatic transition to a seven teaching period day at the High School.
the school board needs to focus on their job of teaching the kids and less on their pay we need more Fran Hofers there should be no secret meetings the tax payer should have the right to know what is being said no wonder people ae leaving the area we are sick and tired of thying to pay their raises on fixed incomes with no raises they need to walk in our shoes we put our kids through school then they leave the area so states help with kids schooling in stste colleges but they must stay and wok in that stateN.Y. needs to do some thing like this the kids are smarter than we give credit for they get thier dregree then no tax dollars or return for thier schooling.we are senior citizens we will be leaving the state before long can’t afford the high taxes and increased states hidden costs.
Folks, it’s obvious that most of you have never attended a BOE meeting, nor do you know anything whatsoever about the school district. Before spouting off you should get the facts straight.
As for you savior, Mr. Hoefer, he is not what you think. He is an egomaniac, who lives to hear himself rant and to get his picture and his nonsense in the paper. He is in it for Fran and for Fran only. He desperately craves that negative attention.
100% of your above comments about teachers are incorrect, and Fran never stopped anything you mention. You really should educate yourselves and find out if he is really telling the truth.