SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE OMAR MCDOWELL CONSPIRES TO DEFRAUD $100M FROM MOUNT VERNON TAXPAYERS

Educational Genocide In The City of Mount Vernon

CURRENT CORRUPT BUSINESS MANAGER
KEN SILVER

Educational Genocide has been happening in Mount Vernon for the last 19 years and the perpetrators are wearing robes and suits.  It is clear that securing jobs and contracts are more important than educating children in Mount Vernon’s School District.  Valhalla’s Prison is full of past Mount Vernon students who have been robbed of an education. The same people who are supposed to pray for us continue to prey on us.  Since 1997, when Mount Vernon’s black churches and politicians orchestrated a takeover of Mount Vernon’s school board, our district went from blue ribbon status, to one of the worse school districts in the country.

POVERTY PIMP
W. FRANKLYN RICHARDSON

Who is responsible for former Mount Vernon students being unemployed, imprisoned, having substance abuse issues, or no longer being alive? Is there no shame in this city when it comes to our clergy and politicians? It is painfully clear that some in our district are more interested in the Architect that will control a proposed $100 million bond than it does on test scores and graduation rates.

School Board Trustee, Omar McDowell is the new anointed point man for Rev Richardson and the meddling churches. Richardson led the group that is responsible for destroying the Mount Vernon school district. McDowell, the only Trustee who owns no property in the City of Mount Vernon and who pays no property taxes, has taken the baton and is pushing the church’s agenda. The District is trying to pass a $100 Million bond and McDowell wants Richardson’s personal architect, Fuller and D’Angelo to secure a no bid contract without any oversight whatsoever on how our money will be spent.  Where are the feds?

CORRUPT SCHOOL TRUSTEE
OMAR MCDOWELL

$43 million of the $100 million will be spent on Longfellow and Grimes Elementary schools which were built only 10 years ago.  These schools were so poorly constructed that they are falling apart. The $100 million dollar bond used to construct these schools was stolen. Longfellow and Grimes have massive construction issues and are falling apart. These schools were built with crooked architects and contractors and no oversight. Instead of investigating previous bonds to determine who is responsible for this crime, the district wants taxpayers to pay for repairs.  Where are the feds?

The meddling churches are now up in arms because there is a call for a bid process for the bond architect. They demand that Fuller and D’Angelo control the proposed $100 million bond and they absolutely do not want oversight. It is Trustee McDowell’s job to deliver for the churches and he is hell bent to do just that.  Where are the feds?

Joining in on the architect scandal is past Board Member Lenny Sarver, and past Business Manager, Tim Costello. Current Business Manager, Ken Silver has been a disaster because he is not his own man. He has allowed Costello and Sarver to set the financial agenda for the district. Sarver had such a close relationship with Fuller and D’Angelo that he had to recuse himself from voting on their resolutions while he was on the board. Reports say that Sarver and Costello are financially benefiting from the architect firm and are pushing Silver to favor Fuller and D’Angelo.  Where are the feds?

CORRUPT FORMER TRUSTEE
LEN SARVER

In the past 5 years, The Mount Vernon City School district has paid more money to Fuller and D’Angelo than they spent for vocational training or many other needed services. The firm has raked in tens of millions of dollars, taking away from vital children services. One issue troubling Ken Silver is that Fuller and D’Angelo came up with the figure of $100 million needed for the bond. Our guess is that another architect firm would come in with a price tag of $50 million for the bond performing the same work. If this happens, this will expose the planed rip off of taxpayer money. Look for Silver and McDowell to make sure Fuller and D’Angelo receives the contract.

McDowell has two allies on the Board, Darcy Miller and Charmaine Fearon. The trio was elected in 2014, and appears to be puppets to Delia Farqueson, Elias Gootzeit and the blood sucking churches. Mount Vernon Exposed would bet that neither Fearon, McDowell, nor Miller would sell out the children of Scarsdale or Eastchester by robbing them of an education.  It’s easy to beat up on black and brown children.  We  also doubt that Sarver, Silver or Costello, would bring the same pain to Yeshiva students and Jewish taxpayers as they do to the poor people of Mount Vernon. A federal investigated is needed.  Where are the feds?

CORRUPT FORMER BUSINESS MANAGER
TIM COSTELLO

Where are the good Clergy Members? Why has the only mobilization of our religious and political officials been over the control of this proposed bond. When was the last time our churches and leaders galvanized to bring an end to the educational genocide that has occurred in this city? Where is the outrage about our imprisoned and uneducated former students? Why don’t churches open their doors to help school children and other youth stay out of trouble? What are our churches doing besides lining up to get their hands on bond money? Trustee McDowell should take time out of his day to visit Valhalla’s jail so he can learn that almost all inmates from Mount Vernon are former dropouts. He also needs a history lesson to learn why so many former students are in jail.  

CORRUPT FORMER TRUSTEE
ELIAS GOTZEIT

Prior to the Black Church takeover in 1997, Mount Vernon had one of the best vocational programs in the country. Academically challenged students learned carpentry, plumbing, auto repair, cosmetology, etc., which kept them in school. As a revenge pay back to Italian Civic Association member Ralph Tedesco, the church controlled board eliminated the entire vocational program, which Tedesco ran. Once the program was gone, academically challenged students dropped out in record numbers and ended up in jail.  Where are the feds?

Mount Vernon Exposed looked up The Scarsdale School District’s Mission Statement. It is as follows:

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student’s full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an Interdependent world. To this end, we endeavor to help them to think and express themselves clearly, critically and creatively; to understand themselves and others within the broad fabric of human experience and the natural universe; to appreciate their rights and responsibilities as citizens; and to become people of integrity, maturity and generous spirit. A measure of our success is the degree to which they fulfill their potential for the common good. Valuing our individuality, we unite to keep the flame of learning.

Unfortunately, The Mount Vernon School District’s mission statement can easily read as follows;

The Mount Vernon School District seeks to make Political and Religious leaders happy by giving them full control of contracts and jobs.

Sad but true, educating children is not a priority of our district. The Mount Vernon School District should be embarrassed at what they have done to the children of this city.  Parents who are fortunate enough, send their children to private schools. They can look forward to double taxes, by paying property taxes as well as tuition. Unfortunately, all others are forced to send their children to a district that sends more children to prison than to college. What we need is the district to call in the feds to investigate the district finances. We also need the Clergy, Political leaders, former board members, and former employees, to stop beating up on minority children.

Almost every school board candidate in the past 3 years promised an audit. Where is it? History will not be kind to people who are responsible for Mount Vernon’s Educational Genocide. Everyone who has sat quiet while it took place is just as responsible. Where are the so-called good board members? Open an investigation. No Audit, No Bond.  Bring in the Feds.

TROUBLED PRINCIPAL AT A.B. DAVIS MIDDLE SCHOOL HANDPICKED OVER MORE QUALIFIED CANDIDATES; SCHOOL OFFICIALS TRIED TO COVER UP NO HEAT ISSUE AT MIDDLE SCHOOL

CORRUPT SCHOOL BOARD VICE PRESIDENT LEN SARVER

Last Wednesday at 4 P.M. Mount Vernon Exposed had a pre-arranged appointment to tour A.B. Davis Middle School.  On Wednesday morning Mount Vernon Exposed received a complaint that sections of A.B. Davis Middle School were without no heat for over one week.  Mount Vernon Exposed was met at the Middle School by Robert Silkes, the buildings and grounds representative for Aramark, the company hired by the Mount Vernon School District to oversee the Mount Vernon City School District buildings and grounds employees and facilities. 

At the urging of Mount Vernon School Superintendent Judith Johnson and School Board Vice President Len Sarver, school board members just recently voted to extend Aramark’s contract to the end of April 2014.

Taxpayers have long criticized the Mount Vernon School District outsourcing the management of the buildings and grounds to Aramark.  Aramark has received millions of dollars in contracts from the Mount Vernon City School District. Just recently an employee of Aramark was recently indicted for stealing $35K from the district lunch program, a program designed to help poor and underprivileged students in Mount Vernon.   

Aramark also recently came under fire for not remediating asbestos at Cecil H. Parker Middle School. Judith Johnson did not implement a corrective plan of action at Cecil H. Parker until Mount Vernon Exposed broke news of the conditions at the school.  Aramark has failed to adequately maintain Mount Vernon Public School facilities.  School Board Trustee Len Sarver doesn’t help things either. Sarver is too busy doling out multi-million contracts to his buddies and blocking any and all attempts to reform educational policy in the City of Mount Vernon.  Why does Sarver continue to vote for Architectural firm D’Angelo and Fuller to receive 10% off of every construction job in the district? Why does Sarver continue to vote for D’Angelo and Fuller when he publicly disclosed that he has a personal relationship with one of the principles at D’Angelo and Fuller? Why is Sarver blocking his fellow Board members from selecting a Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds?

When Mount Vernon Exposed first arrived at A.B. Davis Middle School, Mr. Silkes was informed of the complaint received by Mount Vernon Exposed regarding lack of heat in Davis Middle School.  Mr. Silkes appeared with a dumbfounded look on his face and denied that any such condition existed at the Middle School.  Mr. Silkes then accompanied Mr. Rivers, Investigative Reporter for Mount Vernon Exposed, throughout the building and took him around to areas of the building that did in fact have heat.  The head custodian of A.B. Davis Middle School also was present during the tour of the building.   Mr. Silkes told Mr. Rivers that he takes heat complaints very seriously and would never allow such a condition to exist. 

Mount Vernon Exposed was also armed with information that the balcony in the auditorium of A.B. Davis Middle School has not been in use due to leaks from the roof.  According to sources that work at David Middle School the auditorium has not been able to be used since 2009.  Mr. Silkes informed Mount Vernon Exposed that the reason the auditorium was closed was due to damaged sustained during Hurricane Sandy.  Hurricane Sandy occurred in 2012.

After the tour Mount Vernon Exposed still felt that school district officials were not forthcoming with information and was not being truthful regarding the auditorium.  An investigation conducted by Mount Vernon Exposed found that school officials began repairing the auditorium just last week because they did not want Mount Vernon Exposed to see the deplorable condition the auditorium was in. 

Mount Vernon Exposed then reached out and reported its findings to media outlets and subsequently, the story was picked up by CBS 2 (Channel 2) news.  The same day CBS 2 news aired the story regarding lack of heat at A.B. Davis Middle School; the principal utilized the school district’s K-12 alert system to notify parents about the heat issue at Davis Middle School.  Why didn’t school officials notify parents prior to the CBS Channel 2 picking up the story? What were school officials hiding that they didn’t want the public to know?

The troubles for A.B. Davis Middle School don’t end there.  Mount Vernon Exposed has learned that the principal for A.B. Davis Middle School was handpicked by Judith Johnson and was purposely picked to do her bidding.  Again, school board trustees have failed the taxpayers of Mount Vernon by failing to do a proper background check of an employee of the school district entrusted by parents with the care of their children.

The principle of A.B. Davis Middle School is Joshua Witham and he hails from M.S. 203 in the Bronx.  Witham was Assistant Principal for instruction while he was at M.S. 203.  Due to failing test scores and poor academic performance, M.S. 203 is scheduled to be phased out or closed by the NYC Department of Education.  Sources told Mount Vernon Exposed that Judith Johnson skipped over dozens of applicants that were more qualified than Witham and withheld pertinent information from Board members. 

According to reports, A.B. Davis is listed as a “priority” school.   A priority school is a school that is on its last limb and is on the verge on closure due to poor academic performance.  Why would Judith Johnson bring in a principal from a “priority” school in the Bronx that is on the verge on closing to a “priority” school in Mount Vernon that is on the verge of closing?  Witham should have been sent packing to the unemployment line because of his inability to do his job properly while he was employed at M.S. 203.

According to the report card published by the New York City Department of Education, “Based on an extensive review of qualitative and quantitative data and community feedback, the DOE has determined that M.S. 203 does not have the capacity to quickly improve and is proposing that the school be phased out. Proposing to phase out a school is the most difficult decision we make. We are proposing to phase out M.S. 203 because it is the right action for current and future students in this community. If the proposal to phase out M.S. 203 is approved, the school would phase out gradually over the next several years. The school would close in June 2015 after its phase-out is complete. “

The overwhelming majority of M.S. 203 students remain below grade level in English Language Arts and Math. Only 7% of students were performing on grade level in English—putting the school in the bottom percentile of middle schools Citywide. Only 10% of students were performing on grade level in math—putting the school in the bottom 1% of middle schools Citywide. In both ELA and Math proficiency, M.S. 203 ranks at the bottom of District 7 middle schools. 

M.S. 203 was identified by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) as a Priority school, defined by NYSED as one of the bottom 5% of schools in the state. M.S. 203 was rated “Developing” on its most recent Quality Review in 2010-2011, indicating deficiencies in the way that the school is organized to support student learning.

The school’s attendance rate remains below most other middle schools. The 2011-2012-attendance rate was 88% compared to the citywide middle school average of 93%, putting M.S. 203 in the bottom 5% of New York City middle schools.

  M.S. 203_REPORT CARD

MOUNT VERNON SCHOOL CHIEF ILLEGALLY CIRCUMVENTS HIRING PROCESS TO BRING IN MAYOR'S DAUGHTER

Mount Vernon Hall Of Shame

If anyone had any doubt that Judith Johnson, Francis Wynn and Lenny Sarver are trying to destroy the lives of the children of Mount Vernon, they can now be rest assured knowing  that they are.

While President Gerald Whiteside was absent, acting board President Lenny Sarver, and Superintendent Judith Johnson, tried to hire Rene Davis as a teacher assistant. Rene Davis is the daughter of Mayor Ernie Davis. It is no secret in Mount Vernon that Rene has had a substance abuse problem for a very long time.  

School board members are supposed to receive information on items they will vote on prior to their meeting. There are even work sessions to discuss the issues to be voted on. Employee hiring’s should be backed up with proper documentation of the applicant, such as resumes.  At the request of Ernie Davis, Judith Johnson and Lenny Sarver bypassed proper protocol, and added Rene Davis’s voting tab to the agenda Wednesday night. It was submitted without any supporting documentation. Lenny Sarver has long been described as being in Ernie Davis’s back pocket.

RENE DAVIS

Mount Vernon Exposed has learned that there were several highly qualified people who applied for this position, but the children’s interest was ignored. Francis Wynn who is the Aunt of Rene Davis, and who should have recused herself from the vote, voted yes, and then walked out of the board meeting when Rene’s employment was voted down by diligent Trustees. Francis Wynn is an embarrassment to Mount Vernon, and will go into the Hall of Shame, which is full of people who have a long history of destroying Mount Vernon. The other Trustees beside Francis Wynn who voted yes to Rene Davis’s employment, were Lenny Sarver, Elias Goodzeit, and Brenda Crump.

Judith Johnson is a horrendous Superintendent. Any Superintendent who makes a decision to insert Rene Davis in the classroom, while putting children’s lives in jeopardy, will go down as being one of the worst Superintendents in American history.

Speaking of The Hall of Shame in the Mount Vernon school district, you can add the following as destroyers of the lives of Mount Vernon children.  Rev Franklin Richardson, Rev Daren Moore, Francis Wynn, Ernie Davis, Carol BenReuben, Lynn McBride, Dr. Wilton Sawyer, The Mount Vernon Democratic Committee, Jeff Yonkers, Timothy Costello, Lenny Sarver and Judith Johnson. All of these Hall of Shame members have blood on their hands for destroying an entire generation of children. A job well done.

Judith Johnson is throwing away taxpayer monies again. Some individuals continue to get rich, by ordering hundreds of thousands of dollars of books that our children cannot use. These boxes of books line the halls and basements of schools throughout the district.  Did Judith Johnson receive a kickback from the vendor that sold the Mount Vernon School District these books?

Books just sitting in the hallway

Where is the promised audit? Judith Johnson, Lenny Sarver, Francis Wynn, Elias Gootzeit, and Timothy Costello, have pushed the promised audit into the background, hoping that it never gets done. They are trying to stay out of jail.

The Superintendent search is a scam. The search committee is full of the same Church officials who have destroyed our school district. One of the search committee members, is Grace Baptist member Henry May. Sources have informed Mount Vernon exposed that Henry May no longer lives in Mount Vernon. I guess the saying is true; Dogs don’t crap where they sleep. Any Superintendent selected from this search committee will be someone the churches and our City Hall Politicians want in office to continue to make them rich.

As we speak, the UBC, and The Mount Vernon Democratic party are preparing to hijack the next school board election. We will be reaching out to residents in Mount Vernon to explain what is really going on in their city.  We will be collecting signatures to send to the IRS, demanding that they revoke the 501 c 3 tax-exempt status of churches that participate in illegal political campaigning. We will also ask concerned members and visitors of these churches to record any discussions, and endorsements of candidates.  We will also expose the Mount Vernon Democratic Committee. Make no mistake, crimes have been committed and people will go to jail. 

To be continued………