He may not have taken anyone’s milk money or shoved freshmen into lockers, but according to some of the people who work with him, the director of facilities at the North Colonie school district epitomizes the word bully.
According to complaints filed with the district, name-calling, physical threats and sexual slurs personify the behavior of a man who was put on a four-month paid leave of absence pending an investigation of those complaints, but on Monday, July 28, Tim Bonk will once again resume his position as head of facilities at North Colonie Central School District.
Bonk’s reinstatement was the result of an agreement signed with the North Colonie Central School District on Monday, June 16, in which he `agrees to attend anger management/sensitivity counseling/training sessions as determined to be necessary by the district.`
The agreement goes on to restrict Bonk from using any `district technology, including but not limited to electronic mail, for personal reasons, from using profanity, from verbally abusing, threatening or intimidating the employees that work with and under his supervision, and from taking any action which could be perceived as being physically intimidating.`
Those angered most by the Board of Education’s decision to reinstate Bonk have said that the district’s administration is putting a man with abusive tendencies back in charge of a staff of 20.
The uproar
Outside a Board of Education Committee meeting, Tuesday night, June 24, several angry CSEA labor union members had gathered, hoping for a chance to speak out against the board’s decision. The union members said that they were told the portion of the meeting, during which Shaker High School hall monitor Linda Mancuso had planned to speak up about Bonk’s reinstatement, began at 8 p.m.
That night, though, the Employee Relations section of the meeting began at 7:30 p.m.
According to Mancuso, union members who had planned to attend the meeting were unaware of the change.
`We thought the meeting was at 8 o’clock,` she told Spotlight Newspapers. `I was given permission to speak, and they changed the time without telling us. I’m done. I’ve said what I had to say.`
Joan Hart, president of the Board of Education, said that the meeting was scheduled to begin earlier because it was expected to run long. Hart said that prior to the meeting, she had discussed the time change with Assistant Superintendent for Business Thomas Rybaltowski’s secretary, who typically updates the Web site about meeting time changes. The secretary, according to Hart, was unable to update the time on the Web site before going on vacation.
Hart said that the board had waited before proceeding so that they could allow Mancuso still to speak.
`I’m very apologetic that there was a mix-up. That evening, the employee relations didn’t have anything to do with the situation, but again I just really felt that it was very important for her to speak, and I did feel terrible that it was misconstrued,` said Hart. `I would never be part of a board that would cover something or purposely change something.`
Superintendent of Schools Randy Ehrenberg said that the board ended up waiting 30 minutes for Mancuso, whom Ehrenberg said was planning to arrive and speak around 7:30 p.m. According to Ehrenberg, no other union members stood up following Mancuso’s statements at 7:45 p.m. to speak their minds.
At 8 p.m., outside the Goodrich School and district office, Mancuso was one of several Civil Service Employees Association members who said they were seeking answers from the district.
CSEA labor relations specialist Linda Mosher, a representative assigned to the North Colonie School District, said, `The school district has not seen fit to share with CSEA the details or conditions of Mr. Bonk’s return to work. Bargaining unit members are reluctant to speak to the media for fear of retaliation.`
Ehrenberg said she did not understand why any union member would fear retaliation from the district, stating, `The North Colonie School District is not a place that believes in retaliation.`
She added that the district is not allowed to discuss personnel issues.
The investigation
According to Gregg Johnson, an attorney with Girvin and Ferlazzo, PC, a legal firm offering counsel to the district, an investigation of both Bonk and Director of Custodial Services Chris Demetreus began in February.
The investigation was launched after two separate individuals — the directors’ secretaries — lodged complaints of harassment by Demetreus and Bonk to the district’s administration.
A district employee would not speak about what specific types of harassment Bonk and Demetreus displayed, but did say that the secretaries were `forced to go home many nights crying.`
Complaints by the secretaries have been filed to the New York State Division of Human Rights, according to Lourdes Centino, a spokeswoman, but since the cases are still pending, Centino said the division is unable to comment on them.
Attempts to reach both the secretaries, Melissa Benidt and Lori Ochs, were unsuccessful.
According to Hart, Joyce Horsman, director of library and audio-visual services, completed an internal investigation. Hart said using private investigators from outside the district would have had a greater fiscal implications for the taxpayers of Colonie.
After the lengthy investigation, which Johnson described as `complete` and one in which every fact was considered, the Board of Education unanimously voted to reinstate Bonk to his position ` one that earns him $91,289 per year. At the same meeting in which Bonk was reinstated, the Board of Education unanimously adopted a proposal to accept Demetreus’ resignation.
Demetreus was unavailable for comment.
Bonk’s reinstatement settlement refers to a Notice of Discipline, dated May 8, which includes the names of employees to whom Bonk was required to issue an apology as terms of the agreement. Spotlight Newspapers filed a Freedom of Information, or FOIL, request for all documents pertaining to complaints of Bonk, but had not received this notice as of publication. Assistant Superintendent for Business Rybaltowski is in charge of fielding FOIL requests for the district.
Details of alleged abuse
Bonk declined to comment regarding the uproar surrounding his reinstatement, but in the weeks between the decision and the date when he is expected to resume his duties as director of facilities, several CSEA members approached Spotlight Newspapers, eager to speak but fearful that doing so would put their jobs in the North Colonie Central School District in jeopardy. One employee described the `fear of retaliation` from `a district that will do anything to cover up everything.`
In a complaint filed with school officials Feb. 23, John Weismann, who works in the facilities department, described much of the inappropriate language Bonk allegedly used toward workers.
Regarding an electrical issue at the high school, the complaint describes Bonk as saying, `Never tell that little retard anything. If you are asked anything from now on, lie. Tell them [the teaching staff] it is a light bulb, and never tell him anything. They are overeducated, stupid people.`
Weismann’s complaint also quotes Bonk as saying, `You had better stop f***ing with me or you will be looking for a new job.`
Later in the complaint, he describes erratic behavior from Bonk, including shouting expletives and proclaiming, `If you f*** up my truck, I will f*** you up.`
Weismann and coworkers Doug Williams and Tom Lemieur filed a report Jan. 31 about that incident with the Colonie Police Department. Spotlight Newspapers has a copy of the report.
Lemieur, a non-instructional 10-month motor vehicle operator, also came forward with anecdotes of misconduct and tales of what he described as `torture` that he had to endure under the supervision of Bonk.
He said he became aware of Bonk’s unprofessional behavior during his first week of employment, when Bonk allegedly called Lemieur into his office so that he could show him `pornographic` e-mails of jokes and derogatory phrases about women.
Lemieur said he stayed silent at the time, remaining on Bonk’s `good side` for what he described as a period of about eight months.
A former Colonie police officer, Lemieur said a family situation had come up in his eighth month of employment, and when he approached Bonk to tell him he would no longer be able to work unscheduled overtime due to his family commitments, Lemieur said Bonk `became unreasonable.`
According to a complaint Lemieur filed with the state Division of Human Rights, the individual who was supposed to fill in for Lemieur during the summer months refused to work under Bonk.
`Mr. Bonk told me that he was now going to have to find a trained monkey to replace me for the summer,` Lemieur wrote in the complaint. `Not having a summer fill-in person for me began a chain of events that resulted in me having no more purpose for Mr. Bonk.`
The complaint continues that on June 20, 2006, Bonk called Lemieur into his office to discuss Lemieur’s summer availability, to which Lemieur replied that he had previously said he was unavailable. According to the complaint, Bonk told Lemieur that if he refused to work he might not complete his probationary period.
At that time, Lemieur said, he had already completed his 178 contractual days and was already working extra days.
Lemieur said that when he tried to talk to Bonk about the issue, Bonk was nowhere to be found on Lemieur’s final workday of the season.
`[Over the summer], when I thought of work and Mr. Bonk, I became upset at the thought of being fired. I have always been successful with my education, careers and life; now a blemish was to be put on the working history. A feeling of hopelessness had come over me,` Lemieur said in the complaint. `I began to question my decision to work for the school district. Mr. Bonk was changing the terms and conditions of the employment. I feel he is trying to force me into working 12 months, which due to my age and retirement status makes it impractical.`
Lemieur, who is in his early 50s, said he had seen warning signs about Bonk’s age discrimination the day he and Bonk first shook hands.
`During my interview with Mr. Bonk in June 2005 for my current position, he made it clear to me that his use of older employees was to employ them, then get rid of them when they no longer serve a purpose for him,` Lemieur wrote in the complaint.
Lemieur said that although age discrimination was a recurring theme between him and Bonk (Bonk allegedly called Lemieur `Tommy Boy,` which Lemieur said was belittling and made him feel like a child), he witnessed sexual discrimination on Bonk’s part as well.
`I saw him use cat calls and refer to someone as ‘Hey, sexy’ within my first week of employment in August 2006 in the parking lot of Shaker High School,` said Lemieur, `And there were other women that worked in the district that he would make light of their sexuality ` other women, he talked about the size of their breasts.`
Weismann and Williams said they also had witnessed many incidents of Bonk’s intimidation toward Lemieur.
Lemieur said he had originally planned to file charges with the state Division of Human Rights, but he and Bonk eventually managed to reach a verbal agreement in September 2006 that the harassment would stop.
Looking ahead
As the Monday, July 28, date for Tim Bonk’s reinstatement approaches, the CSEA is weighing its options.
`We’re going to give [the district] the opportunity to work with us,` said labor relations specialist Linda Mosher.
When asked what that means and whether the union is planning any future action, such as a strike, Mosher said, `Let’s just give them an opportunity [to work with us] first.`
The next North Colonie Central School District Board of Education meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m. in Shaker High School’s Counseling Center.“