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For a second time this school year, an appeal has been filed with the Commissioner of Education in Albany against the East Aurora School District. Similar parties are involved with both appeals.
The new appeal, filed on June 8, lists 11 actions by the board that the petitioners claim are illegal, taking place around the recent school board election. The appeal asks the commissioner to direct the school board to eview and update its policies on elections, and to ensure that the superintendent and school board are in compliance with laws surrounding elections. Almost all the complaints are against Superintendent Brian Russ, allegations describing harassing, discriminatory and partisan scenarios.
One complaint was pointed toward Board President Jessica Armbrust, claiming that Armbrust hosted an event to support certain candidates for the school board. Those involved with the actual event have refuted this claim, saying Armbrust wasn’t involved.
The current appeal was filed by Dr. Michelle Kavanaugh, Paul Kavanaugh, David Torke and Teresa Reile. Most of the allegations listed in the appeal are issued by Torke. He and Kavanaugh are also involved with an earlier appeal seeking the removal of the superintendent and school board. This earlier appeal is still with the New York State Commissioner of Education. At this time, there is no timeframe for it to be answered.
Both Russ and Armbrust said that they are still going through the appeal with the school board and its legal team, and had no comment on the matter.
The appeal is 35 pages long and includes affidavits from all four petitioners, as well as some community members. It also contains 40 exhibits that the petitioners say support their claims.
In a news release, the petitioners state that while their chosen candidates lost, the appeal does not find any problems with the results. Reile attempted to run for school board in the recent election but stepped down days before the election after questions were raised as to whether she met the one-year residency requirement to run when her voting records showed she had voted in a Florida election as recently as March 2022. And Michelle and Paul Kavanaugh are the parents of former school board candidate Dawn Vona, who lost in the election.
www.eastaurorany.com/articles/voters-approve-budgets-and-new-board-members-at-local-schools/
In one claim, Torke alleged that Armbrust hosted a virtual meet and greet on May 14 for candidates running against Reile, Vona and Dawn Raczka. The virtual event was organized for Paul Blowers, Maria Improta and Terri Ohlweiler, whose joint platform was running against the platform of Reile, Raczka and Vona. Torke says that he called into the event as a participant and thought he was greeted by Armbrust. He discontinued the call when the other person answered.
“The meet and greet event was a partisan activity directly supported by the board president. The commissioner has repeatedly determined that it is improper for a board of education, as a corporate body, to be involved in a partisan activity in the conduct of a school district election,” the appeal says.
Improta, who was elected to the board in May, said that she was the organizer of the event and Armbrust was not involved in the planning, nor did she participate. Improta said that in the hour that the event was held, only one person participated – the mother of a student at Parkdale – and that no males had called into the meet and greet.
In another claim, the appeal states that on the day of the election Michelle and Paul Kavanaugh were near the East Aurora Middle School on North Grove Street campaigning for their candidates at different times. Michelle states was she there earlier in the morning carrying a sign with a write-in candidate’s name on it when she was asked by the SRO to move off of the sidewalk because “the district” did “not want” her there, even though she was outside of 100-feet from the school entrance, which is a minimum distance required for those campaigning for candidates. The law states that they must not be within 100 feet of an entryway at a polling place. Kavanaugh maintains that she was outside of the 100-foot marker when asked to move.
The appeal contends that the SRO should not be taking directives from Russ, because he doesn’t report to the superintendent, but rather to a lieutenant with East Aurora Police.
The SRO contract between the school district and the village notes that if the superintendent makes a request, the officer may act if it falls within law enforcement duties. The officer is to work with the district and determine if there is a problem when one is brought to his attention, stating, “the SRO shall not act as a school disciplinarian. However, if the Superintendent or his/her designee believes an incident involves a violation of the law, then the Superintendent or his/her designee may contact the SRO and SRO shall then determine whether law enforcement action is appropriate and consistent with the SRO’s law enforcement duties.”
Paul Kavanaugh states that when walking on the same stretch of sidewalk near the school on North Grove Street later that morning of the election, he was also asked to move by the SRO. He moved onto the street until an unidentified East Aurora police officer reportedly told him the sidewalk was safer and that he could be on it because it was public property. An image of Paul speaking with the officer was submitted with the report.
Police Chief Shane Krieger said on May 17 the station had a complaint of “two males in an argument over politics and two complaints of people wearing t-shirts with the candidates’ names on them within 100 feet of the school.”
The appeal also states that several youths were gathered with campaign signs for Blowers, Improta and Ohlweiler on the North Grove sidewalk on the evening of May 17, while polls were still open to the public. Two images were submitted with this claim, from 8:14 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. The number of youth fluctuated in the images from four to six people and shows that they were within the 100 foot marker. The appeal states that this group was not approached by the SRO or any district official to stop campaigning and the petitioners felt this was discriminatory towards other campaign volunteers.
The appeal alleges that during this time, one of these youths said to Torke, “There are well-trained snipers on the school roof.” Torke states that he called the police, but the youth had left the scene by the time they arrived and that individuals who remained did not know the name of the person who made the comment.
Krieger confirmed that there is a report on file about the incident, but it was unclear if the statement was a threat toward Torke or if it was being suggested that the school was well protected for the day.
“The youth was never located and there were no snipers on the roof,” Krieger said.
Torke also claims that Superintendent Russ was hovering over Torke as he was filling out his ballot and that Torke asked an election worker to remove Russ from the room until his ballot was submitted. Torke also says that he received conflicting information from election workers about how to fill in his ballot to support a write-in candidate.
Support for the district was provided by the Erie County Board of Elections, which was asked to assist because of last-minute efforts to replace Teresa Reile with a write-in candidate. After the polls closed and before results were announced, the Republican Deputy Commissioner of the Erie County Board of Elections, Robin Sion, explained to assembled voters that there is some leniency with a write-in entry. The main factor is that people have to fill in the name within the given box. According to Sion, if a voter forgets to fill in the bubble for the write-in box, that may not be an issue. And if the spelling of the name is wrong but the “intent” is clear, the vote could still count. Each ballot was reviewed by a person to inspect the write-in names.
www.eastaurorany.com/articles/district-looking-into-candidates-ballot-qualifications/
Affidavits from district residents Harvey Shymanski and Jason Edwards were submitted with the appeal saying that election officials did not make it clear how to properly fill in a write-in ballot. West Falls resident Vernon Hopkins provided an affidavit that the absentee ballot he filled out did not match the ballot that was supplied to district voters on May 17.
The discrepancy in ballots is related to Reile’s withdrawal from the race less than a week before the election. Russ said that the district decided to reprint ballots showing that Reile had withdrawn and that the district talked to the board of elections before doing this. Russ maintained that the reason for doing so was to communicate with voters that she was no longer in the race and that a reprint seemed like the best option. Russ said that reprinting in this manner kept the other candidates in the spots they had originally drawn for the ballot and this would not move them around on the ballot. Candidates and volunteers on both sides were telling people to vote for specific numbered lines, such as 1-2-3, as a quick way to communicate with voters. The reprint did not impact the overall listings.
District Reprinted Ballots for Election After Candidate Stepped Back
The appeal states that nobody on the Reile campaign team was notified by the district that the ballots were going to be reprinted.
The appeal also says that the district improperly allowed candidates Blowers and Ohlweiler to use the district publication of the Challenger, a quarterly publication sent out to district residents, as a way to communicate to a large number of voters during an election year. The appeal says that this was an inappropriate use of district funds.
This print publication can also be found online. In addition to district announcements and student features, it includes a spot often used by the school board president to note what the board has been doing. In the Winter 2022 feature, Vice-President Ohlweiler wrote about the district’s safety-wide plan that had come under criticism in recent months. She is also on the safety committee that is supposed to review the safety plan. In the Spring 2022 edition, board member Blowers wrote about the budget proposal that had been created.
Looking at prior Challenger issues, in the Fall 2021 edition, Blowers and board members Joseph Cassidy had a spot to introduce themselves after their election to the board. And the Spring 2021 edition had a section written by Mary Beth-Covert, who was then board president.
The district has until June 28 to respond to the petitioners and the state education department.
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