At its most recent meeting, the Roslyn Board of Education passed four resolutions all resulting from the continuing fallout from the embezzlement scandal.

Most significant was a resolution approving the removal of Pat Schissel as a school board member.

Ms. Schissel promised the board that she would resign no later than June 30, 2005, pending some health insurance family issues that are currently being resolved. The official resignation may come before that date. For now, Ms. Schissel remains on the board.

More specifically, the resolution allows the board to hire the law firm of Guercio & Guercio as special counsel to proceed with the removal process. The counsel, the resolution further stated, would proceed "at the direction of the President of the Board of Education."

Concerning the insurance matter, Ms. Schissel said that during her time on the school board she had always paid for the full cost of her health insurance, all at no cost to the school district.

Ms. Schissel's pending resignation leaves Maryanne Combs and Bill Costigan as the only remaining pre-scandal board members. Costigan, a former board president, announced last summer that he would not run for re-election in 2005. So far, three former school district employees---Dr. Frank A. Tassone, Pamela Gluckin, and Debra Rigano---have been charged on grand larceny counts.

Other resolutions had to do with financial matters and school personnel.

The board extended its retainer with Guercio & Guercio in order to authorize the firm to initiate legal action against "certain and current board members." The purpose is to seek the recovery of certain district funds that were allegedly improperly paid to them.

Last fall, the board retained the services of the law firm of Farrell Fritz, P.C. to represent the school district in future legal matters. At the Jan. 13 meeting, the board approved a resolution that enables Farrell Fritz to initiate its own lawsuit against Miller, Lilly & Pearce, the district's former auditors.

"[The] board has concluded that it is in the best interests of the district to authorize the institution of litigation against its former auditors and their affiliates," the resolution states.

This action comes after the New York State Comptroller's office made public its own audit of Miller, Lilly & Pearce. That audit was highly critical of the CPA firm. Among many other charges, the state audit claimed that Miller, Lilly & Pearce failed to find all the "questionable payments" in school budgets once such disbursements were revealed to the firm by a district whistle-blower.

In addition, the board determined that there should be a recovery of allegedly improper funds from certain "professional staff" members who have retired.

This resolution came on the heels of published reports in which investigations at both the state and local level revealed that certain former district employees saw increases in unused vacation days, plus "irregularities" in bonus and salary payments. Published reports identified the employees in question as Madalyn McGovern and Marilyn Silverman, both former assistant superintendents in the Roslyn School District.

Stanley Stern, the current board president has confirmed that now-retired professional staff employees have allegedly received bonus and "final year" salaries that were significantly higher than what board members were led to believe. According to Stern, the discrepancies may run in the "many thousands of dollars."

If "voluntary compliance" with the repayment of certain salary funds and other forms of compensation are not paid, then the board authorized its counsel to "institute any and all legal proceedings....to obtain the....repayment."

Another resolution had nothing to do with the embezzlement scandal. It concerned the board's relationship with the Port Washington landfill, which falls under the Town of North Hempstead's jurisdiction.

Board members are concerned that legal action arising from state and federal environmental laws against the Town of North Hempstead might affect the school district.

And so, the board approved a resolution asking the town to "indemnify the Roslyn School District, as a sister municipal entity, for any liability" that might occur from its connection to the landfill.