The Ossining schools superintendent and school board president have posted another letter on the district’s Web site today in regard to the plagiarism matter.

Meanwhile, a group of residents is planning to distribute the following flier tomorrow:

Vote YES on the school budget

NO on the school board

Are you embarrassed by the plagiarism of Ossining’s deputy school superintendent and by the district’s initial response (see other side)?

If so, you can send a message to the board. Abstain from voting for the school board. Since there are only three candidates for three seats, it’s symbolic, but symbols matter. So does plagiarism.

Vote to support our students and teachers. But please consider not pulling the levers for the unopposed school board candidates.
—Mary Murphy, Bob Minzesheimer, Jill Lally, Preston Keat and other concerned parents.

I’ve been writing about how Ossining’s deputy superintendent of schools, Raymond Sanchez, plagiarized a letter sent May 5 for National Teacher Appreciation Week. (Click here for past stories and here to compare the letters.)

Yesterday, the district required me to file a Freedom of Information request to get his current and proposed 2008-09 salary. Turns out the district already had this information at the ready, because it’s listed in the 2008-09 proposed budget document available right on the Web site! (To the district’s credit, I have never seen this information posted so plainly in a budget presentation before. Kudos for being so forthcoming with the public.)

According to page 25 of this document, Sanchez stands to take home a whopping $180,840 in salary and benefits during the 2008-09 school year.

The breakdown of his pay includes $177,840 in salary and a $3,000 “performance merit award.”

I do not know if his current salary has a similar “performance merit award” built in, but if so, I wonder if this will be something the district withholds in light of the recent events? The community has been calling for some sort of consequences, but doesn’t feel Sanchez should be fired.

Meanwhile, I just received a letter Ossining resident Matthew Lenaghan sent to the school board and superintendent. He is looking to add additional signatures and can be reached at madL99@hotmail.com.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Ms. Joselow and Dr. Glassman:

As concerned citizens of Ossining and proud champions of the virtues of both our community and its schools, we are gravely concerned with the recent actions of the Deputy Superintendent. Too often, we are subjected to negative press and misinformed put-downs about our schools. This time, your actions, or rather inaction, gives naysayers a reason to criticize our school system. Given the approaching vote on the school budget, it is an inopportune time for such publicity and such an inadequate response on your part. Indeed, we are dismayed by the tepid response that appeared on the internet today. In your letter, you describe this as a “teachable moment,” but you have neither capitalized on this opportunity to instruct our children nor seized this chance to prove your commitment to excellence.

As parents, we appreciate the difficulty of teaching ethics and morals in a rapidly changing world. We strive to instill values and virtues in our children in our homes, in their school work, and in their extracurricular endeavors. We recognize the prohibition of plagiarism as a bedrock principle of education that can be extrapolated to all of life; one should not take another’s work and present it as one’s own. When one takes credit for the work of another, even signing his name as author, as Deputy Superintendent Sanchez has done, it is not a momentary lapse, but rather an indication of a lack of ethics and sound professional judgment. It is galling that the second highest ranking educator in our school district has committed this act. The fact that Mr. Sanchez was able to make such a decision is not an inconsequential error; it brings into question his qualification for the job of educating our children.

Your words attempt to reassure us that you understand that plagiarism is wrong. Your actions do not. We expect your help in the challenging endeavor of teaching our children to be good citizens. Your complicit treatment of this egregious violation indicates a lack of understanding of the gravity of this offense.

At this time, we ask you to reconsider your reaction and send a strong message to parents, children, and teachers that the district refuses to accept such misconduct from its employees. We also ask that you announce a path of action that will ensure that the Deputy Superintendent receive the professional development necessary to address his lack of understanding in this matter. Finally, we suggest that the Deputy Superintendent, if he is to continue in his position, address this publicly to reassure the parents, teachers, and students of our community that he acknowledges the importance of honesty in one’s work and the field of education.

Thank you,

Matthew Lenaghan

Check out Diana Costello’s story today about an Ossining school administrator who went with some choice words in a letter for teacher appreciation week. Unfortunately, the prose was not his own.

In her story, Diana writes: “Board of Education President Alice Joselow would not comment on whether the school board would take any disciplinary action or even review the matter further. She did say that Sanchez reached out to the original author yesterday and ‘had a very positive conversation about the issue.’”

This story is sparking a hot debate over in the news section of LoHud.com. What do you think about it?