WELL now it seems that we have come full circle in less than a week. First I was tipped off by a reader last Wednesday that the local School Superintendent Dr. Philip Composto was let go, and that locals feeling the firing was unjustified were organizing to support him. The support worked as intended and the Superintendent has been given new consideration.
Or something along those lines, as there was actually a back-story whereby the new Mayoral administration’s head school honcho looked to bring in a new regime and parents didn’t want it happening (disrupting) in there backyard and once the local legislators got a whiff of which way the wind was blowing we had a slew of progressive pols making speeches in front of cameras to keep the long-tenured middle-aged white male in place.
Or at least that’s how a cynic might view it, or how the incendiary NY Post might spin it. My take is that a large group of sympathetic and rational people exercised their freedom of speech to rally around a legitimate grievance and after an initial spell of tone-deafness the Mayor’s administration understood their argument and changed course. What outcome there will be I do not know, but at least people are engaging and listening to each other.
//IN other political news, LIC has a new Congresswoman who received zero votes from LIC in the last election. That’s because the lines in her district were redrawn this past week to include our town. Once again there is a much bigger back story whereby a judge struck down egregious gerrymandering and appointed a neutral expert to redraw the lines.1
Unfortunately it also means that not only did we lose our elected Congresswoman, but also a front row seat to an interesting local political battle that was brewing. It looks like Maud Maron has been redistricted out of both our and Carolyn Maloney’s new district, and is one of many challengers and incumbents who suddenly woke up in a whole new district with a whole new rival. Meaning that while one story ends, a whole slew of new ones has begun…
Queens Parents ‘Furious’ Over Popular Superintendent Being Ousted
NYC Public Schools Won’t Oust Incumbent District Bosses Without Parents Say – after all
Nadler, Maloney Could Square Off In Primary With Redrawn District – meanwhile our new Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez so far has no serious challengers
- why don’t they have judges like this in NC or TX? [↩]
Carl says
May 22, 2022 at 12:38 amDr. Composto is an outrage. He was a shining example to me while he was my principal at IS 204, and he continues to be that example to the children under his care. Thank you for being you Dr. Composto. May you have your role back and may you and the community be left alone in this regard.
Carl says
May 22, 2022 at 12:39 amDr. Composto’s firing was an outrage, to correct the typo in my first sentence.