School Chief and Clerk on Leave as Inquiry Widens in Roslyn (brazen NEA-types stole $8M)

ROSYLN, N.Y. A financial scandal at the school district in the wealthy Long Island community of Roslyn widened Friday with the suspension of the superintendent and the niece of a former assistant superintendent who has been accused of stealing more than $1 million. School officials said they were investigating possible links between the employees and companies that did business or may have done business with the district.

The suspended employees, Superintendent Frank A. Tassone, and a clerk in accounts receivable, Debra Rigano, were placed on paid leave. Ms. Rigano is a niece of Pamela C. Gluckin, the district's former assistant superintendent for business who on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to grand larceny charges.

A school official, Anthony Annunziato, said that the district would try to determine if a company set up by Ms. Rigano, Wordplus, had ever billed the district for expenses. Another company, WordPower, which was set up by Mr. Tassone, is also under investigation.

The scandal was touched off when the school board acknowledged publicly in March that Ms. Gluckin, 58, had been allowed to resign quietly in 2002 when school funds - at the time it was thought to be $250,000 - turned out to be missing. Officials are investigating $7.8 million in questionable transactions.

Ms. Rigano worked for Ms. Gluckin for 10 years as a clerk in accounts receivable, school officials said. They said she did not have the power to sign checks or purchase orders.

Informed late Friday that Wordplus lists Debra Rigano and her home address as its contact, Mr. Annunziato, the district's new assistant superintendent of business, confirmed that the company had been established as a vendor in September 2001.

Mr. Annunziato said that it appeared a deposit had been made into Wordplus's account, but that it was later liquidated. He said he would investigate whether the vendor had ever been paid.

In Dr. Tassone's case, school officials said that a business called WordPower billed the district for several hundred thousand dollars over a decade and shares the address of Dr. Tassone's apartment in Manhattan. They did not say why Ms. Rigano, who reported directly to her aunt, was also placed on paid leave, but that they had forwarded documents related to her to county prosecutors.

A school official also admitted yesterday that the district destroyed 27 boxes of documents in April. The board president, William Costigan, said he was told by the former assistant superintendent of human resources that Dr. Tassone has authorized a routine shredding of outdated documents.

Until Ms. Gluckin was allowed to resign in October 2002, Ms. Rigano worked for her, officials said. Barry Edelson, a spokesman for the district, said Ms. Rigano was transferred to the guidance counseling office at Roslyn High School shortly after Ms. Gluckin left. He said he did not know if her transfer was related to any impropriety. Mr. Annunziato, who replaced Ms. Gluckin, said that documents relating to Ms. Rigano had been turned over to the Nassau County district attorney's office.

Ken Stubbolo, a school administrator who came out of retirement to replace Ms. Gluckin in late October 2002, said he transferred Ms. Rigano to the high school because she was Ms. Gluckin's niece. He also discovered that Ms. Rigano was being paid several hundred dollars a month extra, for which she refused to give him an explanation. He referred the matter to Dr. Tassone, but never heard a resolution.

Mr. Annunziato, who started working for the district on June 1, said that documents relating to Ms. Rigano had been turned over to the Nassau County district attorney's office.

Rick Hinshaw, a spokesman for the district attorney, Denis Dillon, did not confirm whether Ms. Rigano was under criminal investigation.

The board's suspension of Dr. Tassone, who was Ms. Gluckin's direct supervisor, and Ms. Rigano, her subordinate, shows the board's new willingness to broaden its inquiry into the district's finances, in part due to community outrage.

Before a crowded room of reporters, students and residents at the district's office yesterday, Mr. Costigan, the school board president, said that WordPower, shares the same address as Dr. Tassone's apartment, 160 East 88th Street. The company's Web site, www.word-power.net, lists two contacts, Steve Signorelli and Joan Hurford. Mr. Signorelli, 59, and Dr. Tassone, 57, share the same East 88th Street apartment, according to voting records. And Ms. Hurford, 56, also lives in the building, but in a different apartment, records show.

WordPower has billed the district for amounts varying from $400 to $14,000 since it began doing business with the district in 1993. Under state law, contracts less than $20,000 are not required to go out for public bid.

In the decade since 1993, the district has paid the company several hundreds of thousands of dollars for processing school pamphlets and directories, Mr. Annunziato said.

Dr. Tassone, who earned $225,000 last school year, was told Thursday night of the district's decision to suspend him, Mr. Annunziato said.

Ms. Rigano, whose salary last year was $50,064, was informed of her status on Friday, he said.

Ms. Rigano did not return a call to her home in Mamaroneck, N.Y., which is in Westchester County. Dr. Tassone also did not return a call.

Mr. Annunziato said that the district had turned over documents relating to Ms. Rigano and Dr. Tassone to the district attorney's office, but refused to say whether all of these materials related to WordPower. He said the documents relating to WordPower, which had provided word processing services for school handbooks, involved purchase orders.

Dr. Tassone has worked for the Roslyn district since 1992. He received a master's and a doctorate in education from Columbia University. From 1989 to 1992, he worked as a superintendent in Rye Neck district in Westchester. From 1986 to 1988, he was an assistant superintendent of instruction in the Levittown school district on Long Island, after leaving the Mahopac school district, where he worked as a principal. The Levittown superintendent, Herman A. Sirois, said that he could not disclose the circumstances surrounding for Dr. Tassone's departure because of the confidentiality issues. However, there was no indication that the district had done business with WordPower, he said.

After the revelations, Ronna Neiderman, a board member, resigned. And on May 25, the vice president of the school board, Michael Barkin, resigned without explanation. He could not be reached for comment.

As Anger Grows in Roslyn, the Schools Chief Lies Low
By MICHELLE O'DONNELL
June 4, 2004
NY TIMES

Frank A. Tassone has been absent from school for three days. But Mr. Tassone, the embattled superintendent of schools in Roslyn, N.Y., has not been far from the minds of residents, who say he should be held accountable for the theft of more than $1 million in school district funds.

While Dr. Tassone has not been accused of any wrongdoing by the Nassau County district attorney's office, Peter J. Mancuso, the prosecutor who is pursuing a case against Pamela C. Gluckin, the former Roslyn assistant superintendent for business, said on Tuesday that the scope of the investigation had widened to include all parties involved in the district's finances.

To Judith Winters, a Roslyn resident, and the dozen members of her informal association, that would seem to include Dr. Tassone, who was Ms. Gluckin's direct supervisor. The members of Ms. Winters's group, more than half of whom are lawyers, want to pursue legal ways to remove Dr. Tassone and the school board members.

"The majority of people I've talked to feels, how could he not have known?" said Ms. Winters, adding that she had received e-mail messages from hundreds of her neighbors. "You can't be the head of a system and not know what's going on."

For the last few days, the whereabouts of the top official of the Roslyn schools have been unclear. On Tuesday, secretaries said he was undergoing medical tests outside his office. They said he would return Wednesday. On Wednesday, he was said to be again undergoing medical tests, an account corroborated by Judy White, the public relations consultant hired by the district to weather the storm of media attention the theft has generated.

Yesterday, Ms. White said she believed that Dr. Tassone was in Florida, using accrued time off. "At this point, I don't know," she said.

Ms. White said the school board would make an announcement about Dr. Tassone early today, but she refused to elaborate. "It's a legal issue," she said.

News of the announcement fueled speculation that Dr. Tassone, who has been publicly criticized for advising the board not to reveal early details of the theft, would resign.

The scandal has generated a groundswell of anger in Roslyn, a well-heeled community on Long Island's North Shore. After learning in February that the school board had allowed Ms. Gluckin to quietly resign in October 2002 after accusing her of stealing $250,000, angry voters rejected next year's school budget last month.

Ms. Winters' group, one of several that have sprung up in response to the scandal, is trying to channel that anger by drawing up a new budget to prevent the state from taking control of Roslyn schools on July 1, which it will do if a budget is not approved.

"We're deeply concerned that the state is going take over like in Roosevelt, and we don't want that to happen," said Ms. Winters, referring to the troubled Roosevelt school district, which was taken over by the state two years ago.

Local and state authorities are pursuing their own investigations. State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi is investigating whether the district had the proper controls in place to prevent theft, and Mr. Mancuso, the prosecutor, is investigating whether the board's failure to report the crime to law enforcement authorities constituted a crime.

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Liberals obey laws? Laws don't apply to liberals. Looks like these thieves will probably get away with their crimes. And they'll probably sue the district for pain, suffering, humiliation, false charges, loss of compensation.........the usual liberal rot.

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