It was a sad day for the Mineola School District. Last week, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office announced the arrest of assistant superintendent of finance and operations for the Mineola School District and charged him with third degree grand larceny.

Assistant superintendent for finance and operations for the district John Jackson, who has been the district's chief financial officer for the district since 1998, was arrested after an investigation by the Nassau County District's Attorney's Office.

According to the DA, from June 12, 2002 until Nov. 20, 2002, Jackson stole approximately $4,965.74 from the Mineola School District by causing it to pay for landscaping materials that were used at his direction by school district grounds-keeping employees at his home in Commack.

"Jackson directed the groundskeepers of the Mineola School District to do many landscaping projects at his home in Commack including the planting of plants, bushes, the installation of sod and installation of a pond," Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon said, adding that the transportation and installation was done with district equipment. "Groundskeepers would sometimes be working at Jackson's Commack home for days and weeks at a time. Many of the supplies bought for Jackson's home were bought in a local nursery and paid for with a Mineola School District account."

The charges of third degree larceny are only accusations. Jackson has pleaded not guilty and was released without bail.

Jackson's attorney, Marc Gann of Carle Place, believes the charges against his client are unfair. "If there is any wrongdoing, and I don't know that there was, but if there was, it's on the part of these guys that were doing the work," said Gann. "Basically John paid these guys as part of their side business to do a landscaping job at his house. He didn't know where they were getting their material from. He had no reason to ask where they were getting it from. They gave him a price to do what they were going to do. He agreed to it."

Gann believes that the district attorney's offices think that Jackson directed the employees to buy materials with the school's money because of his position with the district. "Let's say he authorized the expenditure of landscaping material for the purpose of purchasing 50 bushes. He had no knowledge that these guys were going to take five of them and bring them to his house," he said.

Gann also maintains that because Jackson hired the workers to do a "side job," he thought the workers would be working on their own time.

The Mineola School District issued a statement, saying "The district has implemented procedures to ensure that the deployment of district personnel and district equipment and supplies are properly accounted for. The district will continue to fully cooperate with the district attorney's office and it is our hope that the matter between the district attorney and Mr. Jackson is resolved quickly."

At the Jan. 6, 2005 meeting of the Mineola Board of Education at the Willis Avenue School, the board voted unanimously to grant Jackson a leave of absence without pay effective Jan. 7 to June 30.

The district informed the public at its April 22, 2004 board of education meeting through a statement read by then-board president Steve Siwinski that it was cooperating in an investigation with the district attorney's office.

In an interview with the Mineola American shortly after the announcement was made, Siwinski and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Larry Licopoli said the investigation was limited in scope to the use of district vehicles, equipment and personnel.

According to the district, on April 29, 2004, Dr. Licopoli, Siwinski and the attorney for the Mineola School District Jack Feldman met with the district attorney and asked if any actions should be taken to remove Jackson from his position while the investigation was pending. According to the district, the response was that the investigation was historical only and did not include any current actions of an ongoing basis.

However, in an interview with the Mineola American on Friday, Jan. 7, assistant district attorney Peter Mancuso said the investigation was ongoing and would look into other aspects of Jackson's job with the district. "The investigation began with the work that was done in Mr. Jackson's home by school employees using school property on school time with the purchase of landscaping materials with school money. Over the course of time, there have been other areas the investigation has branched out into. But the charges pertain to the initial area," said Mancuso.

The Mineola Board of Education opened its Jan. 6 meeting with a question and answer period concerning the arrest. A concern among residents was whether this arrest is the tip of the iceberg, meaning more possible wrongdoing would be found as was the case in the Roslyn School District.

In response, Dr. Licopoli said that the scope of the investigation was limited and to the district's knowledge, and that there are no further issues involving misappropriation of funds.

Mancuso said, "There are other aspects to the investigation and the investigation is a continuing one."

According to Mancuso, the investigation began when the DA's office received a complaint from an employee of the district. The investigation had begun in August 2003.

According to Mancuso, the landscaping materials were purchased at more than one vendor. Mancuso believes the materials were purchased with a district account and the school district was billed for it and Jackson was directing the purchasing.

While it wasn't clear at Thursday's school board meeting whether district personnel were being used for the alleged impropriety while on the clock, Mancuso said that was indeed the case.

In addition, Mancuso said the figure of $4,965.74 represents the landscaping materials the DA's office was able to quantify and does not take into account the money the employees were being paid by the district during the time they were allegedly doing the landscaping work. "We do not represent that that's the entire amount stolen from the district," he said. "We don't make any representation that there wasn't more in landscaping materials stolen from the district, but that's the amount we're able to quantify and prove. There's nothing before us that makes us say that was the entire amount. When all is said and done, what we're able to quantify is that amount."

According to Mancuso, the investigation began when one person came forward. However, as time went on, he said, "we spoke with each of the people who were either involved or knowledgeable about the fact that a truck was going out there [to Commack] on a very regular basis full of trees and shrubs. It would leave first thing in the morning and come back 15 minutes before school was going to close. There were not only people that were actually part of the grounds crew, but other people working in the vicinity could see what was going on and understood what was going on. Nobody was hiding what was going on."