Kingston’s school board was deadlocked in its leadership election last week, with four members supporting Steven Spicer and four voting for Herb Lamb. Spicer received support for his candidacy from Marie Anderson, Cathy Collins and Suzanne Jordan, while Lamb picked up votes from Jennifer Fitzgerald, Marc Rider and Priscilla Lowe. Trustee Robin Jacobowitz was absent during the district’s reorganizational meeting on Wednesday, July 12.
Spicer and Lamb were president and vice-president of the school board during the 2022-23 school year and Spicer has recently faced allegations of anti-police sentiment from a member of the public and of the sending anonymous insults by a former trustee.
During the first public participation portion of the meeting, Scott Denny, Republican and Conservative candidate for Kingston mayor this November, accused Spicer of being anti-police and politicizing the position of president.
“I do want to express my deep concerns about where we’re going in terms of president of the school board. That is the highest-ranking official on this board, and that person indirectly is totally responsible for the safety of our children,” said Denny. “Our current president of the school board has run anti-police rallies publicly in Dutchess County in front of the Red Hook Elementary School. I fear that the safety of our children can be jeopardized, because you don’t support our police, we don’t have the proper SROs [school resource officers] in place, we don’t have a safety plan in place. We need somebody to see clearly through the politics of policing. We don’t have that right now.”
Later in the meeting, Spicer rejected being cast as anti-police. “I’ve never been anti-police,” Spicer said, acknowledging his role in a rally after the death of George Floyd at the hands of members of the Minneapolis Police Department in May 2020. “I did run a rally in support of George Floyd,” Spicer said, adding that he’s had a good working relationship with local police departments through the SRO Committee.
“I have great deal of respect for them, and I work well with them,” Spicer said. “I’m not anti-police. Nobody thinks that about me. I’ve never said anything anti-police.”
During the second public-participation segment, former trustee Maureen Bowers said that being president of the school board didn’t deprive a person of their right to free speech.
“The board president becomes the spokesperson for the board, signs contracts, and does all kinds of things, but the board president has no power beyond the nine-member board,” Bowers said. “It is not a powerful position beyond what the nine of you decide to do as a board, and I think that’s important to remember and in terms of participating in outside activities …. I used to hear this all the time from Mr. [James] Shaughnessy [former board president]. You do not lose your first-amendment rights to free speech as long as it’s very clear that you are acting as a person, and if you are quoted in the newspaper, ’It’s my opinion, it’s not the opinion of the board of education.’”
As of press time, the board of education splash page on the KCSD website still shows Spicer and Lamb as president and vice-president. There is also a group photo of the 2022-23 school board, including Shaughnessy, who resigned as a trustee in April of this year. Shaughnessy served continuously on the school board after winning at the polls in 2006, and was board president for many years. He resigned with more than a year remaining on his term, announcing at the time that he wanted to give voters a chance to determine who would fill the leadership seat.
More recently, Shaughnessy alleged that Spicer had sent him a bitter anonymous card two years ago. In a public Facebook post on Saturday, July 1, Shaughnessy posted photos of a pair of printed envelopes and letters he said were both sent to him by Spicer.
The first bore Spicer’s name and return address on an envelope postmarked July 9, 2021, and a congratulatory letter after Shaughnessy defeated him to retain the presidency of the school board; Spicer was elected vice-president that year.
In a side-by-side image, the first envelope sits above a second one, this time with no return address, and a postmark dated July 19, 2021. The image also includes a short anonymous note reading: “This is how you plan to close out years of public service? Petty bitterness & B.S. Just so sad & shameful, Jim. Embarrassing really.”
In his post, Shaughnessy addressed the anonymous note.
“When I received it, I immediately suspected that Spicer had sent it,” Shaughnessy wrote. “I could hear the cadence of his voice in reading the note. When the envelopes are placed together, there is no doubt in my mind that Spicer sent both.”
Shaughnessy was the lone no vote against appointing Spicer to the school board in February 2019 after trustee Danielle Guido resigned the previous month.
“Spicer should never have been appointed to the board in the first place, and he certainly should not have been elected president,” wrote Shaughnessy in his Facebook post. “In my opinion, he has done nothing of positive significance in his year as president.”
Neither Shaughnessy nor Spicer responded to queries for comment. Nor did district officials. Shaughnessy’s Facebook post remains public as of press time.
The board of education will meet again on Wednesday, August 9, at which point they are likely to vote again on the presidency of the board.
Join the family! 
