Portelos Update - Clear Evidence of support for him

My bad back prevented me from attending recently but this report was sent from two of the MOREistas there observing and some anon comments from what appear to be parents.
 - I was hoping to go today but have to drive a friend to the doctor. And there's another session scheduled for Weds though the snowstorm may kill that.

These are the 2 MOREista retirees who have attended most of the hearings.

Retiree 1 - Jan. 10:

All things considered, it was a *really* good day for the " respondent".

I thought the impeachment of Ms. Cavalleri backfired in the sense that her reappearance had the effect (on me, at least) of underscoring her basic truthfulness. Long story short... she used the wrong word ("lied") in her " private " (Facebook) email when she should have said " I forgot to mention", or "I just realized I left out.... " etc.

This led to a long jumbled cross examination by JS ... kind of reminiscent of the scene from the The Verdict where James Mason badgers the witness about whether or not she understands the legal meaning of the word "perjury". CC , on redirect, got Cavalleri to use the word "dyslexic"... getting it I suppose, into the record". God knows whether or not either hearing officer or JS understand the communication implications of the term but it least it's in the record. I don't know about Ms. Busto, but the only thing I took away from Ms. Cavalleri's appearance was the image of the DOE fiendishly scouring the internet for every and any mention of this case that might conceivably help them win. ( Who exactly does all this....errrrmmm... "research"? The mind boggles.)

Ms. Jesino... parent co-ordinator... was a delight. 10 plus years on the job, kids went to school at I-49, etc. In other words: superb credentials, credibility-wise. Basically she underscored defense version of events from beginning to end. JS tried to impeach her by establishing that she was still friends w. FP's sister. ( She is.) Not clear what she achieved beyond that. Loooooong series of "Isn't it true that..." questions, the answer to all of which were "no." The difficulty is Ms. Jesino seems to take the "WHOLE" truth part of the oath *very* seriously and answers in paragraphs, providing both antecedents to simple facts, as well as their consequences. . Most of the details of which helped the defense narrative. JS kept (I thought) circling and circling, ready to pounce.

Rare moment of levity: Ms. J appended the term "Sweeetie" at the conclusion of a long answer to one of JS's "isn't it true that" questions. JS admonished her and Ms. Busto commented that that was probably the "friendliest" cross-examination response that JS would ever elicit.

Jesino was cool, calm, collected, natural, appealing. And very credible. She was calmly reading a tattered paperback while we were waiting for DOE to come back after lunch break to begin cross exam. (Do they time these "delays" to try to psych the witnesses? If so.. it didn't work.) I stood-up to catch the a glimpse of the cover, saw it, made a mental note to write it down but got distracted and it is lost for all time. It was non-fiction

Retiree 2 - January 10, 2014

Norm,

The former parent coordinator was excellent, so matter of fact and in control while describing just how toxic and inept the the admin is. Said it straight: AP ------- was drunk and disgusting. Parents, students and staff all agreed that AP –––– clothing was revealing and she would gape her legs so folks could see her polka dot underwear. She contradicted emphatically and convincingly all the words that the previous witnesses claimed she said.

     [DOE Legal Slugette] Jordana was at a loss about how to cross examine. At one point [NYSUT Attorney] Chris actually coached her how to phrase a question, which she then used. Clearly she was flustered and unsure of herself. Her attempts to badger the witness failed to throw the witness off. The narrative the DOE has tried to seamlessly orchestrate now looks more like cover-up fiction than some version of reality.

The staff crying to coordinator that they feel they would be retaliated against by administration if they even speak Portelos' name. The SCI investigator Matthew Martucci that told Hill everything that was said about her...

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3 Anonymous comments on your post "Francesco Portelos: Teacher Under Assault by Princ...":

I was a member of SLT at IS49 as the title 1 rep. If Ms. Hill didn't like my questions and didn't want to answer them, she would act like a 12yr old and say, "you know ms. wright, i'm really trying to get along with you." if she made a face or disliked any of my questions then she had her puppets chime in and attack me with negative comments and discouraging me from asking or speaking my mind. she demanded 1500 dollars from the title 1 money ASAP. I told her I needed to speak with higher ups and she quoted me again with, u know ms. wright, i'm really trying to get a long with you. and asking me who do I need to speak with and when will I get back to her. I told her Tuesday, which was two days later and she huffed and puffed like she was going to blow me down. when saturday rolled around she sent me an email telling me to disregard her request.


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I was the title 1 rep and when I asked a question at the PTA meeting about the safe room, I was told at an executive meeting that was set up to intimidate me from asking negative questions in front of parents. I was told by sherina peterkins the so called president of the PTA and the so called leader in charge, Ms. Hill, that I am to stop whatever I am doing and ask ms. hill these questions in her office. that if my question is personal that I am to go to the principal in private. you stupid clowns, my son goes to your school and everything that happened or happens in this school is personal to me. I told them whatever. that if I want to ask a question I will ask it at the PTA.

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I was harassed by ms. hill's security officers. she had only two black females escorting me around like I was a criminal. everyone else walked in that school with no escorts except me. I called mike riley to complain. it stopped for 2 weeks and started up again. this was all because ms. hill didn't like that I was asking a lot of questions about the budget, the title 1 funds, questioning the CFN and just asking positive questions about the kids' welfare when it came to education. as a title 1 rep I was treated like shit. but I didn't care because I knew that heifer couldn fire me. one time even one of the officers interpreted for me in English back to English. go figure. I have a lot of stories about this piece of shit school