School Field Vandalized By Tax Critic
Five-page letter was signed ‘Love, Anonymous’
(07/09/2009) A 20-by-60-foot-long dollar sign was burned into
 Morgan McGivern
|
the synthetic turf football field at East Hampton High School over the weekend, and a five-page typewritten manifesto calling for the removal of the East Hampton School Board was left at the scene.
As of yesterday, school officials had not seen the document, which cited the “irresponsible spending of taxpayers’ money” by the board during times of economic crisis as the reason for the vandalism.
David Fioriello, the head of the grounds department at the school, called police when he found the dollar sign on Sunday. East Hampton Town police took the letter left at the scene as evidence, and a second copy, with an address scrawled in capital letters, arrived by regular mail at The East Hampton Star without a return address on Tuesday. That letter and envelope were taken as evidence yesterday, and so far police have no solid leads as to who the culprit might be.
“It’s frightening,” said Laura Anker Grossman, a board member, after a regular school board meeting on Tuesday. “It’s frightening that there is that level of anger, to cause that level of damage to the community and to the kids,” she said.
Raymond Gualtieri, the district superintendent, expressed frustration about the situation yesterday. “I would like to have all the information in front of me, I just don’t,” he said over the phone. “They are keeping it confidential as they continue their investigation,” he said of the police.
A copy of the letter left on the football field arrived at The Star on Tuesday. Board members and administrators had not seen the letter as of yesterday.
|
Dr. Gualtieri said he has not yet received an estimate of how much it will cost to replace the turf “at a cost to taxpayers.” The last time the new athletic facility had been vandalized, when graffiti including “a giant penis” were spray-painted on the track in October of last year, the $40,000 cleanup cost was covered by insurance. Even if the new claim is covered, “we have a deductible and our insurance [rate] is based on our claims,” Dr. Gualtieri said.
The letter sent to The Star offers an explanation as to why “the million-dollar football field at the East Hampton High School has been branded with a dollar symbol.”
It demonstrated what seemed to be a clear understanding of the history of the school board’s financial doings, also citing tuition disputes with the Springs School District, an ongoing legal dispute with a former contractor, and cuts in East Hampton Town’s budget that have “endangered” programs for children.
An ongoing dispute with Sandpebble Builders, a company whose principal, Victor Canseco, claims that the school district’s $79 million expansion project should have been awarded to him, has cost the district well over a million dollars in legal fees.
 Kate Maier
|
The writer said that “when injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” He or she called upon “the cashier living on nine dollars an hour,” “the manual laborer working his hands to the bone in hopes of retiring,” and “the bus driver, the waitress, and the gas station attendant” to become involved in school board politics and the management of taxpayers’ money.
“Even though the damaged property will most likely be replaced, the cost of the property would seem small in comparison to the amount of money saved if taxpayers were to take an active role in the decisions made by the school district,” the letter stated.
Stephen Talmage was the only board member directly quoted in the letter, which was signed “Love, Anonymous.” After the board meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Talmage speculated that someone might have attempted to take the spotlight off the town’s financial problems by calling attention to the school district’s finances instead.
He also expressed regret that the million-dollar synthetic playing field had been built in the first place, referring back to a proposal to buy a tract of land across Long Lane that was voted down by taxpayers nearly a decade ago.
“We could have bought 35 acres of land with grass planted on it,” Mr. Talmage said. “Not buying that land was our biggest mistake.”
According to Dr. Gualtieri, the synthetic turf is beneficial because “there’s less injury to the players, and it can be played on continually, even in rain or foul weather.”
During the expansion project, he said, “we lost several fields to construction,” and the single field is used by the boys and girls football, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey teams.
As to the writer’s assertions that “the board has failed to recognize that this is no time to play make-over” with the ongoing school expansion, Dr. Gualtieri said that it would be impossible to halt or downsize the construction project after contracts had been awarded.
“The voters approved it, and we went ahead and did what the voters approved,” he said.
Dr. Gualtieri added that this is the first time he could recall an instance of “adult graffiti” at the high school. Although the police report cites second-degree criminal mischief, “this is vandalism and arson,” he said. “The whole field could have caught on fire.”