At a regularly scheduled Smithtown Central School Board of Education meeting, the board rehashed the details surrounding an incident that occurred at the October 25, 2022, meeting, which received sharp criticism in a February 7 decision from the state’s commissioner of education.
The incident in question occurred when board member Karen Ricciardi’s questioned the process by which middle school students are able to play on high school varsity teams, arguing that the number of eligible students has “increased as of late” and that these students “may be taking opportunities away from older students,” reads the department of education’s decision. Michael Catalanotto’s son happened to be one of the seventh graders up for approval.
Creating the controversy was the removal of item 11-B (the APP portion) from the consent agenda on October 25, an action taken by Vice President Michael Saidens. When an item is removed from the consent agenda, it is then possible to comment on it further.
Ricciardi voiced her general criticisms of the APP process. Catalanotto and board President Matt Gribbin made comments in defense of Catalanotto’s son that caused Ricciardi to submit a motion to the New York State Department of Education to remove both Gribbin and Catalanotto from the board, which was denied for procedural reasons. In the decision, the commissioner wrote that the respondents’ (Gribbin and Catalanotto) comments “demonstrate a lack of maturity and self-control” even if Ricciardi acted with personal animus, which the commissioner found no evidence of in the record.
This October incident only serves to highlight the dysfunction of a board that has been criticized as acting as two ideological blocs as opposed to one school board.
Savoretti resurfaced the discussion on April 11, referencing the previous March 28 meeting, where Ricciardi expressed that she felt bullied, stating that what he saw upon rewatching the meeting was “horrendous.”
After expressing his dissatisfaction with how the district had another similar incident between board members, he stated that it was already known that Ricciardi had qualms with the academic placement process before that October meeting.
President of the board, Gribbin, likened Savoretti’s statement to campaign rhetoric before likening what happened in October to using a child as a “political pawn.”
“No one was going after a child,” interrupted Savoretti, “that’s how you want to twist it because I would be the first one to stand up for a child.”
“We can hash this out on the campaign trail,” asserted Gribbin, somewhat concluding the argument.
Savoretti and Saidens then discussed why the APP item was pulled from the consent agenda in October, with Saidens stating it was done for transparency so that the board could discuss the issue in front of the public.
“Maybe in the way that I reacted, I reacted wrong,” said Catalanotto, while stating that he would have acted in the same way to defend his child. He also walked the audience through his morning that October meeting when only the two seventh graders’ scores were asked to be produced and the head of athletics was asked to sit in in executive session and ‘discuss the APP process.’”
“I don’t think you acted wrong,” Savoretti said, in reference to Catalanotto acting in defense of his child.
Several then expressed their desire to move past the incident.
Maddox Elbert, the president of High School East’s Class of 2026 Class Council, made his opposition known to the Smithtown Central School’s decision to hire armed guards, citing two studies showing armed guards as ineffective.
“The presence of security hasn’t definitely deterred attacks in the first place,” Elbert said.
You can watch the April 11 Board Meeting by visiting the following link: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhAWmt40i0A&t=4591s on Smithtown Central School District’s YouTube page.
