Can You Hear Me Now?

The board and administration of Buffalo Public Schools may have officially decided to forget all the problems at McKinley High School: Principal Crystal Barton’s firing of volunteer womens basketball coach Michelle Stiles; her protection of McKinley basketball mens coach and accused serial seducer James Daye; her heavyhanded suspension of Jayvonna Kincannon, who protested her coach’s dismissal; the subsequent dysfunctions of the school board as it responded to the scandal; the investigation that cost the district $25,000, faulted Barton for refusing to cooperate with the special investigator, and yet yielded no consequences.

You remember: That was the scandal that broke just before the awkward revelations in the report written by City Honors Principal Bill Kresse, which itself narrowly proceeded the sexual abuse scandal at Discovery School 67, which was followed quickly by the news that Buffalo Schools Superintendent James A. Williams had been shopping his resume and was a finalist for the superintendent’s job in Memphis.

All these mounting scandals seem to have quieted with the end of the school year and the stultifying July heat. But apparently one Buffalo citizen is not going to let the school board and administration off the hook so easily. Developer Carl Paladino has purchased radio spots on WBEN, chastising all of the above and giving a little instruction of his own to WIlliams: “Hello—it’s time for you to go.”

The ads began airing on July 16.

Paladino took some heat for remarking at a civic affair that he believed Williams was hired only because he’s African-American. The backlash to those remarks in newspapers and among politicians seems only to have rigidized Paladino’s opinion that the New York State Department of Education ought to toss the lot of them out of City Hall.

You can listen to Paladino’s ad and discuss this story right here on AV Daily.

—geoff kelly