Yonkers turmoil: Police probe, school chief quits

YONKERS - Two days before he stepped down, PTA members at a school board meeting at the Saunders Trades and Technical High School asked that Superintendent Michael Yazurlo be given a contract extension.

"Then, come Friday, there's the resignation," said Brenda Cardoza, president of Yonkers Special Education PTA. "We kind of lost hope right now."

Yazurlo, 66, resigned last week, citing heath reasons, less than two years after he was hired to help right a district that has been plagued with fiscal shortages, questionable leadership and a deteriorating infrastructure.

And then another blow: City police said Monday the department was investigating the possible unauthorized use of computers and cable services at the Board of Education building in Yonkers. Police Commissioner Charles Gardner said the probe was being conducted by the Intelligence Unit, but declined to provide additional details.

Special report: Who's failing Yonkers

School district spokeswoman Jerilynne Fierstein said the investigation was not initiated by the schools, and she knew of no link to Yazurlo's resignation.

“I can tell you why Dr. Yazurlo resigned, and he resigned for health issues," Fierstein said. "As far as we know, it’s his health issues.”

Still, questions are being raised about whether the two events are linked.

“In today’s world, you just don’t know," said Jose Montas, first vice president of the Yonkers PTA. "But I think it’s a great segue for what Yonkers is known for: controversy. If you assume it’s true, then it doesn’t eliminate the lack of transparency and it doesn’t eliminate the controversy that surrounds Yonkers."

Yazurlo was appointed in February 2014 to replace Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio, who stepped down after a $55 million district accounting error. Two of Pierorazio's predecessors were cited for ethical and criminal violations, part of a history of mismanagement that Yazurlo was brought in to rectify.

Neither Yazurlo nor school board President Nader Sayegh returned calls for comment. But in a statement released through Fierstein on Monday, Sayegh said the district and its next superintendent would continue to work with the city to address the school system's longstanding issues.

"We built a strong working relationship between the mayor and the trustees," Sayegh said. "The interim superintendent selected by the trustees will embody the same team approach; the mayor, trustees and superintendent working together to improve the school district for all of our students.”

The board has named Deputy Superintendent Edwin Quezada as acting superintendent. When it meets on Monday, it's expected to name an interim superintendent for the remainder of the school year.

For years, the Yonkers school district has been under-served and underfunded. With most of its schools crumbling and many of its students struggling, the district every year begs the state for millions of dollars to plug the gap in its budget. All but two of its 39 school buildings were declared to be in unsatisfactory condition during a 2010 state inspection.

The Yonkers school system is part of the Big Five — the state's five largest school districts that are a branch of city government rather than an independent entity with its own taxing authority.

A special report by the Journal News this fall, "Who's Failing Yonkers," found the district's chronic funding shortages were largely due to a state education funding formula that penalizes the city for being in an affluent county. But the newspaper also found the city has not done enough in past years to properly fund its schools, often leaving it up to Albany to provide last-minute infusions of cash to plug budget deficits.

Eight years before Pierorazio was forced to resign, an independent audit commissioned by then-Mayor Phil Amicone found district operations lacked internal controls, relied on shoddy record-keeping and was reliant on antiquated technology.

Other irregularities were highlighted a year earlier, when a 2005 report by then-Yonkers Inspector General Philip Zisman found that, among other things, civil service employees in the schools were often paid higher salaries than those with the same civil service titles in other city departments. Zisman found more serious issues within the school district during a 12-year tenure as City Hall watchdog — one former superintendent pleaded guilty to felony perjury charges and another wound up in federal prison after leaving his Yonkers post under a cloud of controversy.

Yazurlo, a former Yonkers school teacher who served as school superintendent in Tuckahoe for 13 years, was supposed to provide stability. Both he and Mayor Mike Spano said they had forged a partnership that saw unprecedented collaboration between city government and the school district.

Part of it was forced: Gov. Andrew Cuomo required the city to sign an inter-municipal agreement as a condition of the state's latest school bailout. The agreement required that certain operations, including human resources and accounting, be merged to service both city government and the school district.

Some parents worry the momentum has been lost with Yazurlo's resignation, and fear it's another setback for the beleaguered district.

Spano disagrees.

“He was pretty much on the same page in terms of the construction and some of the changes we’re going to make," the mayor said. "But it’s a team thing. I think we have a pretty good team together, both sides. If I’m not there, if he’s not there, it’s still a solid team.”

Twitter: @jfitzgibbon