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We are outraged that theboard has sat in silence whilethe children from theBrookyn Arms Hotel hadtheir rights abused. Ironically, it is Mr. Kaplan whom I oppoed in this year%u2019s electionthat has shown the most concern fo r the minority issueson the board.%u2014 Chris JacksonLinda Leff (right) was named as the newassistant principal for P.S. 58, despitestrong opposition from some boardmembers that an A.P. at that school wasnot needed as much as they were at otherschools. (Phoenix/Taylor Photo)to add a second assistant principal to a schoolwith 768 enrolled students when there wereother schools in the district like P.S. 131 inSunset Park with 1,000 students and only oneassistant principal.While Scala reminded Kaplan that theassistant principal position at P.S. 58 wasbudgeted several years ago, Kaplan maintained that the board should not be adding theposition when the district was suffering adeficit. %u201cThere is no equity in this decisionthat the board is making,%u201d he said.Kaplan%u2019s frustration with the decision andthe silence he had maintained publicly untilthe board meeting was in evidence as heshouted his concerns into the microphonecausing the public address system tomisf unction.Some board members shrugged the deficitproblem off, claiming that the board hasbudget problems at the beginning of everyschool year and that the figures do not makesense until the district blows how manystudents are enrolled in the district%u2019s 26schools.Vazquez told Kaplan that there was not aSchool Board MeetingErupts Into ShoutingContinued from Page 1they have been denied membership in theschool%u2019s PTA. The parent of one childattending the school has accused a teacher ofslapping her youngster and leaving animprint of the hand on his face. According toDr. Jerrold Glassman, the charges weredropped after it was learned that the childhad been in several fights during the day.Despite Jackson%u2019s assertion that the motherof the child was %u201chumiliated,%u201d Glassman toldthe parents attending the meeting, %u201cIt is myconsidered opinion that the allegation wasnot true.%u201dThe PTA elections earlier this school yearcaused a storm of protest as well, when theparents from the Brooklyn Arms Hotel learned they were not eligible to vote for executiveboard positions because they had not beenmembers of the association for the requiredtime period. The issue was raised at theSeptember board meeting and after a confrontation with Glassman and the principalat P.S. 38, the election was postponed untilthe hotel parents could add more members tothe PTA rolls. Jackson, however, nowcharges that the election that finally tookplace violated the election guidelines.At one point during the exchange at theNov. 20 meeting, with the accusationsreaching %u2018piercing vocal heights,pandemonium broke out when one audiencemember began to threaten the boardmembers. %u201cIf you don%u2019t do something aboutthese problems, we%u2019re going to come afteryou,%u201d he said.At that point, board member John Toner,now serving his first term, rose to his feet andyelled, %u201cI don%u2019t have to take threats and intimidation from anybody.%u201d As he movedtoward the man in the audience, board president Phil Scala tried to calm the situationthrough the microphone. A police officer,who had been called to patrol the meeting,moved in and asked the outraged parents tosit down. They did, but the discussion continued at its high pitch.Hie parents then turned to Felix Vazquez,the board treasurer, who has long been onrecord supporting the reruitment of minoritymembers to District 15 supervisory positions.%u201cMr. Vazquez, you have tried to drive awedge betwen the Black and Hispanic community rather than working to help the situation,%u201d said one parent from the BrooklynArms Hotel group.Vazquez later responded that he resentedthe %u201cuse of his name%u201d in connection with theproblems at P.S. 38, but he defended hisrecord as a proponent of minority concerns inthe district and reminded the parents that hewas not the board liaison with P.S. 38. Eachschool in the district has a board numberassigned as a liaison; Kaplan is the liaisonfor this Boerum Hill school.Throughout the exchange, Scala attemptedto placate the parents by asking them to address their grievances in a letter so that theboard could address each problem individually, a suggestion that did not live upthe parents%u2019 request for a special committeeto be immediately formed to examine theproblems.Scala said the board could not answer allthe %u201cspontaneous%u201d accusations. But Jacksonreplied, %u201cYou know perfectly well that theseare not spontaneous, and that the issues havebeen brought up at previous meetings.Without any firm commitments, fromeither the board or the Brooklyn Arms Hotelparents, Scala quickly adjourned themeeting. Prior to the discussion, however,the board also took action on an unusualresolution that required a public vote ofmembers between two candidates Linda Leffand Peter Solomon, for the assistant principal slot at P.S. 58.Hie vote ignited a round of fire between theKaplan coalition and the remaining six boardmembers who all cast their votes for Leff.The appointment of Leff marks the first major open division on the board since the newterms began July 1, 1986.%u201cWhen this process first began, I raised myobjection to the assignment of an aditionalassistant principal at P.S. 58,%u201d said Kaplan.He added that there seemed to be no reasonPTA president Heather Lewis addressesthe crowd at the school board meetingunder the watchful eye of a police officer.At one point during the meeting, the officer had to restrain an irate boardmember who lunged at the audience.problem yet. %u201cMr. Kaplan, you have been onthe board for 17 years . .. %u201d Vazquez said,before Kaplan interrupted and yelled, %u201cI%u2019mnot talking 17 years, I%u2019m talking'l7 days.%u201dBuffalano added, %u201cI don%u2019t know where Mr.Vazquez found this money because only lastweek we were told we were still in a deficit.%u201dThe district%u2019s deficit, which is runningabout $45,000, is a problem the board needs toaddress, but with tensions mounting, theDistrict 15 board appears to be entanglingitself in the web of political posturing that hascharacterized board deliberations ofprevious years. Leff might have been appointed assistant principal, and the parentsfrom the Brooklyn Arms Hotel might beoutraged with what they see as neglect, butthe school board seems to be resurfacingsome of its more familiar ways of doingbusiness.The next regular meeting of the board isscheduled for Dec. 17. The district includeselementary and junior high and intermediateschools in the Slope, South Brooklyn, SunsetPark and Windsor Terrace. Call 330-9283 formore information.Public Split OnBY ROB TAYLORThe members of Community School Board15 got a few surprises when they held a publichearing Nov. 20 to receive testimony fromparents on whether the board should inviteapplicants to be interviewed for the districtsuperintendent%u2019s position when the currentcontract of Dr. Jerrold Glassman expiresnext year. But the session did provideevidence that the issue will be hotly debatedwhen the board makes its decision on thematter.The hearing, held prior to the regularlyscheduled monthly board meeting, was attended by 14 of the 25 school Parent TeacherAssociations in the Slope/SouthBrooklyn/Sunset Park District 15, most ofwhich said the board should advertise forother candidates to fill the position.Parents said they did not want their suggestion to be construed to mean that they feltthe current superintendent. Dr. JerroldGlassman, who says he intends to seek theposition when his contract expires, was doing