Sag Harbor Board of Education explores solutions for staffing issues

Long Island Morning Edition

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A Southold highway department employee alleges he endured racist taunts and was denied overtime and other opportunities, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed this month. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that in the suit filed July 19 in Suffolk Supreme Court in Riverhead, Robert DeJesus, 44, of Cutchogue, alleges he was subjected to racial slurs and routinely denied overtime and passed over for promotions as the only Black employee in the department.

The suit names the Southold Town highway department, former deputy highway superintendent Roger Tabor and foreman Donald Sayre as defendants.

The suit alleges Tabor and Sayre violated state Human Rights Law and “denied [DeJesus] opportunities and advantageous privileges of employment that were afforded to white employees within his crew.”

DeJesus reported to Sayre. Tabor now is a heavy equipment operator for the department.

Town records show DeJesus was hired in 2014 as an automotive equipment operator in the highway department.

DeJesus is seeking unspecified monetary damages for emotional suffering, loss of career fulfillment, humiliation and court costs, according to the lawsuit.

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At its annual organizational meeting earlier this month, the Sag Harbor Board of Education discussed staffing issues. Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that Superintendent of Schools Jeff Nichols admitted that it has been a challenge for the district recently, saying that there has been a noticeable drop in both the number of applicants for open teaching positions and the quality of those applicants. “We’re being resourceful and trying different paths to make sure we hire the best people,” he said. When board member Alex Kriegsman asked why hiring had become an issue, Nichols said it was clear. “It’s the commute, and the cost of housing,” he said. It’s a problem that’s plaguing the entire East End and seems to get worse every year, without any clear solution for local school districts. “It’s not unusual for our employees who live one town west of Hampton Bays to take an hour and 45 minutes to get here in the morning, and at the end of the day,” he said. “So you have people spending three to three and a half hours a day in the car — and I think that’s a deterrent,” said the Sag Harbor Schools superintendent. The principals of Pierson Middle-High School and Sag Harbor Elementary School said they have lost employees because of the commute and the cost of housing. The problem of the commute and cost of housing isn’t just affecting the teaching positions. School Business Administrator Jennifer Buscemi said she’s had the experience of sending out hundreds of canvass letters in an attempt to hire civil service workers, and not receiving a single application. When she worked in other districts, she said they would receive “tons” of applicants. “It really just is the location,” she said.

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Five years ago, New York adopted an ambitious climate plan to dramatically shift the state’s reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and gas toward renewable energy like wind and solar. But the transition has proven more challenging and slower than anticipated. Keshia Clukey reports in Newsday that Gov. Kathy Hochul and the agencies charged with implementing the climate plan this month said the state won’t meet its first goal: getting 70% of energy from renewable sources by 2030. It may take another three-to-five years, and Hochul said the state may need to rethink its plan. Currently nearly 29% of the state’s power comes from renewables. This comes at a time when New York’s power grid is demanding more and more energy as the state tries to become a national player in the semiconductor and artificial intelligence industries — both of which require massive amounts of energy. While there are no immediate repercussions if the state doesn't meet its climate goals, New Yorkers will continue to face the negative and expensive consequences of hurricanes, floods and extreme weather if climate change is left unaddressed, experts said. Environmental advocates say the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) report is a "call to action." "We’re certainly not ready to waive the white flag," said Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters. "We have to keep moving forward and making progress on those," she told Newsday. Tighe said the state is ahead of schedule on its goal of 6,000 megawatts of distributed solar by 2025 and 10,000 megawatts by 2030. The state earlier this month announced the start of construction on the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project — the state’s largest offshore wind project located off the coast of Long Island. And earlier this year the first large-scale offshore wind farm, South Fork Wind, became operational, delivering power to Long Island and the Rockaways. The transition was never going to be a "smooth line, it was always going to be sort of big jumps," Tighe said.