andidates said they could not answer questions about the issue that dominated Monday’s “Meet the Candidates” event — the suspension of Wheatley School teacher Matthew Haig.
Eleven of the 17 questions asked of incumbent Trustee David Keefe and unopposed newcomer Alan Littman were directly or indirectly related to Haig’s suspension, which has caused an outcry among current Wheatley students and graduates in the past two weeks.
“I know it’s difficult to accept when you feel very strongly about something, but I urge you understand that the questions that come in on that I will not ask, because they can’t answer them,” said Harris Deleinkoff, the moderator of the event sponsored by the East Williston PTO Coordinating Council and the League of Women Voters.
The candidates mostly agreed on issues such as budget priorities and the state Common Core standards, with Keefe speaking from his six years’ experience on the school board and Littman saying he will have much to learn.
But their inability to discuss Haig’s case frustrated the 15 people there to support him and led to tense exchanges between Deleinkoff and 2011 Wheatley graduate Jesse Manor, who charged the candidates were “afraid to answer those questions.”
Haig, a beloved teacher at Wheatley for more than 30 years, was suspended with pay April 20 without any public explanation.
Discussing the suspension publicly would violate Haig’s privacy rights, Keefe said Monday.
Haig’s supporters tried to get around Deleinkoff’s caveat by submitting general questions about transparency, teaching “controversial” subjects, administrators’ influence over teaching and other subjects.
For example, Wheatley alumnus Nelson Martins asked if Keefe and Littman read their emails after a question about emails relating to Haig’s suspension was rejected.
Littman and Keefe agreed on those, too — they said they think teachers should have “academic freedom” and spoke to the school board’s openness.
Keefe called the school board “very, very transparent,” and Littman said it was the board’s accessibility that attracted him to it.
“It seemed to me like a transparent group of people who are working very hard and had no axe to grind, and the only thing that they want to do is provide great education for the children (and) a great working environment for the teachers,” said Littman, an Albertson insurance salesman and 1981 Wheatley graduate.
Other questions related to the school board’s May 23 business meeting, where the board may publicly vote whether to bring disciplinary charges against Haig. Keefe said that vote would be public as a matter of law, and he and Littman said they would allow extended public comments and questions at that meeting.
Littman encouraged people dissatisfied with the district’s disciplinary process to stay engaged with the district.
“If you don’t like the system, come to more meetings, get involved and help effect change,” he said.
On other issues, Litman said he thinks the Common Core standards are valuable but that tests aligned with them are not necessarily the best means of accountability.
While he said the district is obligated to enforce the standards as law, Keefe, a former teacher, said their link to teacher evaluations is their most controversial aspect.
District residents will vote for the school board seats and the district’s 2016-2017 budget on May 17.
