A simple request for a donation from a Cobleskill-Richmondville club ignited a white-hot response from Cobleskill Mayor Mark Galasso last week.
In a letter to Future Farmers of America advisor Deb Fletcher, Mayor Galasso blasted the school district, administration and academic offerings as inadequate at best.
Mayor Galasso also submitted his letter as a letter to the editor; it's on page 4.
In response, Superintendent Lynn Macan and school board President Bruce Tryon called the letter divisive and damaging but offered to meet and work with the Mayor.
FFA members had asked Mayor Galasso, as president of Lancaster Development, for a donation to help fund their trip to a convention in Indianapolis.
"It was the third solicitation from a school group I'd gotten in two weeks," Mayor Galasso said later in a telephone interview.
"We've never refused a request. Not one. But I felt it was time to explain why it was 'no' this time."
The basic problem, he said, is that recent budget cuts gutted academic programs, yet taxes continue to rise.
Class offerings shrank to the point that Mayor Galasso and his wife, Carolyn Edwards, took their children out of C-R and enrolled them in the private Albany Academy. Several other families did the same.
"I don't think most people recognize how big the problem is. . .in particular with the leadership, the superintendent and the rubber-stamp school board," Mayor Galasso said.
His criticism isn't Mayor Galasso's first contact with school officials. During spring budget talks, he and other parents suggested improvements to administrators and the school board.
They were ignored, Mayor Galasso said, "and talked down to."
Both Ms. Macan and Mr. Tryon believe it's odd--and inappropriate--for a leader in one public sphere to lash out at another public sector.
Community leaders should work together for the public good, Ms. Macan said.
"Obviously he's a pillar of the community and obviously he's mayor," she said. "Attacking us doesn't help the plight of the school district and all of us in the community.
"In some other communities, leaders work together, strategize and move forward. That's where we should be."
Mr. Tryon agreed.
"Rather than tearing us down, he could be more constructive with his criticism," Mr. Tryon said.
C-R's problems, Ms. Macan argued, aren't with management but with a system in which funding is declining and regulations are increasing.
The issues are the same with every rural school district in the state, Ms. Macan added.
Mr. Tryon acknowledged the Galasso family's many past contributions to the district and hoped the letter wouldn't derail any attempts at reconciliation.
"We'd welcome him back [to help]," Mr. Tryon said. "If that's the outcome, it helps all of us."
Mr. Galasso wasn't so sure. Having his advice turned away in the spring made him leery of trying again.
"I'm willing to sit and talk to anyone," he said. "But I don't have a lot of faith that they're willing to listen."

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As the actual recipient of the letter, Ms. Fletcher, an agriculture teacher at the high school, had little to say.
"I know the letter's not about us [FFA], but it's unfortunate he had to use us to launch his political agenda," she said of Mayor Galasso.