10 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • NOVEMBER 2018
IN THE NEWS
MORE ARRESTS:
DISTRICT RAPSHEET ELONGATES
BY ALAN KRAWITZ
Besides the Hempstead school
district’s 37 percent graduation rate,
crumbling schools, gang violence,
and embattled superintendent, another
vexing problem is that school
officials just can’t stay out of trouble.
The district, mired in corruption
for decades, is no stranger to school
officials and employees alike being
accused of wrongdoing. Last month,
Andrew Hardwick, the district’s security
director and former mayor of
Freeport, was placed on leave by the
school board for 60 days pending an
unspecified investigation, although
no charges were filed. And Annette
Greer, the former president of the
Hempstead Schools Civil Service Association,
was charged with grand
larceny for allegedly stealing more
than $90,000 from the union during
her four-year stint as president.
“The members of the Hempstead
Schools Civil Service Association
entrusted this defendant with
their union dues to represent and
support them, but instead she allegedly
pocketed their money for
her personal use,” Nassau County
District Attorney Madeline Singas
said. Hardwick’s attorney Douglas
Thomas told Newsday the matter
concerned “something that was done
at the business office,” although
he said there were no criminal
allegations.
Hardwick was hired in April 2015
to supervise the school district’s
security operations at an annual
salary of $90,000. Greer faces up to
seven years in prison, if convicted.
The latest round of trouble comes
after the Hempstead school board
voted in August to bring charges
against its suspended Superintendent
Shimon Waronker, who had
alleged numerous instances of
corruption in the embattled district.
Waronker had been hired for his
track record for turning around
failing schools in the South Bronx
and Brooklyn. Litigation is ongoing
and Waronker’s fate has yet to be
decided pending a likely public
hearing.
Randy Stith, currently a trustee
on the school board, was arrested
in April and pleaded not guilty to
charges that he had falsified a document
to become a Hempstead police
officer as well as stealing thousands
of dollars from the Hempstead Fire
Department when he was a volunteer
firefighter.
In September of last year, Theresa
Cucina, a 55-year-old Hempstead
High School theatre teacher, was
accused of allegedly purchasing
dozens of computers using school
district money and then selling
them for personal profit. Cucina
was charged with grand larceny in
the case.
In 2012, Hempstead Schools
groundskeeper Johnie Tyson was
arrested for stealing scrap metal
from several Hempstead school
playgrounds, selling the metal to local
scrap dealers and then pocketing
the cash. Tyson was charged with
criminal mischief and petit larceny.
Some in the community have
wondered why the Hempstead
School District has been so riddled
with corruption as compared to
surrounding districts such as
Uniondale and Garden City.
“In poorer communities like
Hempstead, the school system is
a major employer and source of
contracts which ties it into the local
political machine,” says Alan Singer,
a professor of Learning Technology
at Hofstra University. “The result
seems to be a greater propensity
toward small-scale corruption.”
He adds that in more affluent communities
corruption happens on a
much grander scale, recalling that
Long Island is also home to infamous
schemers Bernie Madoff, Dean Skelos,
and Joseph Margiotta.
While former Hempstead school
board member Gwen Jackson agrees
that corruption in the district has
gone unchecked, she also lays much
of the blame for the district’s woes
on lack of oversight.
“Corruption, nepotism, and cronyism
have been allowed to grow and
fester in Hempstead for decades,”
says Jackson. “Instead of dealing
with these issues the State continues
to pour millions of dollars into
a failing school district, appoints a
distinguished educator to oversee
the operations of the district and to
report back to the commissioner.
That isn’t the answer.”
Jackson, who was part of the
board that hired Shimon Waronker
to try and turn things around, still
believes things can change.
She is adamant that the state
should be held accountable for its
failures and would like to see changes
that include an independent
oversight committee to monitor the
actions of the board, state monitor
Jack Bierwirth, and all departments
as well as reinstating Waronker and
giving him the necessary resources
to root out corruption, nepotism and
cronyism that have plagued Hempstead
for decades.
Jackson warned that “The Hempstead
School District has a losing
team,” and unless it changes its
roster, “generations of students will
continue to fail.”
“Corruption, nepotism, and cronyism have
been allowed to grow and fester in Hempstead
for decades,” says former Hempstead school
board member Gwen Jackson.
HEMPSTEAD
SCHOOL
CRISIS
Annette Greer, the former president of the Hempstead Civil Service Association,
is the latest person in the district to come under fire. (NCDA photo)