The latest chapter in the ongoing saga between the town of West New York and their board of education hit a crescendo when town counsel Donald Scarinci called out Superintendent of Schools John Fauta over a potential new bus route at a special meeting this morning. Fauta has since responded to Hudson County View on the matter.
The two sides have been at odds over whether or not a new bus route will be used to transport students to the St. Joseph’s of the Palisades school (5401 Broadway). Parents have been protesting over the situation for the better part of the past two weeks.
A letter, dated September 3, from Mayor Felix Roque was sent to Fauta in hopes of entering a shared services agreement with the BOE to add the additional bus route, since the students would normally be attending Harry L. Bain School – Â a swing of about a dozen blocks.
Scarinci stressed that the town was doing everything they could to remedy the situation and implied that Fauta was the cause of the problem at this stage of the game.
Fauta explained that he did not receive Roque’s letter until yesterday, responding within an hour.
“I told them ‘just give me a time and a date and we can meet and talk about this,’ but as of now, nothing has been discussed.â€
Fauta added that he needed the particulars before he could judge if the shared services agreement was a legitimate option or not.
Additionally, he indicated he agreed with Roque’s stance in the letter that this is a public safety matter – however, “the safety of the children in the community is the responsibility of the town,†Fauta said.
It strongly appears that Mayor Roque snail-mailed this very important-albeit flawed- communication to Supt. Fauta. If Fauta wanted to make himself look good to Concerned parents led by sincere HLB student parent Ms. Lizarazo, he could simply ask board to appropriate the many thousands of dollars that would be required under this statute, akin to using a tourniquet instead of the needed band aid that MAYOR ROQUE COULD SUPPLY IF HE APPLIED HIS HIPPOCRATIC OATH TO HIS DUTIES AS MAYOR. Roque’s real motive is to let Supt. Hold the Bag on this and get his appointed “yes” votes on school board to remove Fauta. It is Roque that cares more about politics than WNY school childre.
Roque took the Hippocritic Oath when he became mayor.