Suspicion Surrounds Fire At School Housing Hempstead Financial Records
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- There were questions Friday, surrounding a fire at a Long Island school which houses district records.
As CBS2 has extensively reported, the Hempstead school district is one of the lowest performing in the state.
Financial records went flying, others went up in smoke after someone deliberately set fire at the shuttered Marguerite Rhodes School in Hempstead.
School board member Melissa Figueroa said the timing is fishy -- just as she called for an audit of ten years of district finances stored in the building.
"I don't think it's any coincidence. I believe this is very suspicious and some adults in the community are responsible for this," she said.
The Nassau Fire Marshal ruled the fire suspicious. Neighbors said teens continually break-in.
CBS2's calls to the superintendent went unanswered, but the District Records Officer said records have been vandalized four times since May.
"I wouldn't say 'suspicious' we had damage from months and months ago," Robert Cialone said.
The school board president disagreed, saying, "looks very suspicious. I don't want to say it was intentional, but it is really very sad if a building has to be set on fire to cover tracks."
Maribel Toure told CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff, millions have gone missing since 2012, when a $25-million surplus became an $8-million deficit. This, in a district with a rising but still abysmal graduation rate of 52 percent and allegations of rampant patronage.
"When you have the same folks who have been running the district for generations we owe it to ourselves to take a closer look at the record keeping of the district. Follow the money trail," Toure said.
Figueroa was shouted down at a school board meeting last week. She is new to the school board, after a turnover that's brought some academic improvements -- enough to fend off a strengthened state takeover.
The fire has reignited concerns that there is a long way to go.
