Responding to unfounded publicity and erroneous statements published last week in a daily newspaper regarding school district attorney Jerome Ehrlich, Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Ronald Friedman told the Great Neck Record that it was "important for our community to know exactly what we know, and what we are doing with the information we have." Dr. Friedman supplied the Record with corrected data by press time, and, if necessary, promised more details next week when school resumes after a weeklong vacation.

Dr. Friedman said that as soon as he read the Newsday story he knew "the story had to be wrong, since Jerome Ehrlich's status as a Great Neck employee ended in August 2004 ... it was simply not possible that their story stating that he was paid salary by us in 2005 could be correct."

Immediately, Dr. Friedman looked through all school district records and determined that the newspaper article was "... indeed wrong with regard to both the amount of money they reported that the Great Neck Schools paid Mr. Ehrlich and when we paid it." Dr. Friedman called the newspaper reporters who had written the story and questioned their source, as "our records did not reflect their story's allegations." Dr. Friedman told the Record that the reporters had not received their data from the school district.

As a result, a correction was printed in Newsday the day following the incorrect story. Dr. Friedman went on to explain that the correct year was 2004, not 2005, and that Mr. Ehrlich's employment with the Great Neck School District had been confused with his employment with another school district. Dr. Friedman stated that the Great Neck School District had paid Mr. Ehrlich $15,000 in 2004, from January to August, when his employment ended.

Researching and then reporting further information, Dr. Friedman stated that Mr. Ehrlich was appointed as an employee of the Great Neck Public Schools in 1977, upon the recommendation of then-superintendent Mortimer J. Abramowitz.

After finding this information, Dr. Friedman went further: "I looked to see if three critical elements of such an appointment were in place. Those are: A) public disclosure of the relationship in board minutes ... B) approval of his retirement system membership, also at a public board meeting ... C) (and most important) approval of the Nassau County Civil Service Commission of the person as an employee."

As a result, Dr. Friedman found: "... records showing A and B were complied with, and C was also complied with, since the district did report Mr. Ehrlich to the Nassau County Civil Service Commission as an employee."

Dr. Friedman also reported that "Mr. Ehrlich did fill out a Civil Service Commission application for employment, which is a standard document required by the Civil Service Commission, signed by him and dated May 1977." According to Dr. Friedman, in this application, "Mr. Ehrlich disclosed his then-current employment, in addition to the Great Neck employment he was seeking, as consisting of being a partner in a law firm from 1965 to 'current.'" Thus, Dr. Friedman went on to explain that , "the county Civil Service Commission, which is the entity that must approve all employees of school districts who are not educationally-certified, approved Mr. Ehrlich's appointment as a salaried Great Neck attorney." Also, Dr. Friedman's research confirmed that the Board of Education serving at that time "thus did full and due diligence and disclosure regarding the Ehrlich appointment."

The school district was closed last week and was scheduled to reopen this past Monday, Feb. 25. Dr. Friedman told the Record that, when school reopened, "we will continue our review of all documents relating to Mr. Ehrlich's employment from its beginning in 1977 to its end in 2004." Additionally, he promised that the school district would " ... on our own, bring anything of concern to the attention of appropriate agencies, and of course, we will comply with any requests we get for information or data."