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Riverhead school district salaries now listed on public agendas

The Riverhead school board’s newest member is celebrating her first victory.

District employee salaries were listed on the Board of Education’s agenda for the first time at Tuesday’s meeting — a move school board member Laurie Downs has been seeking since she was sworn in.

“I’m happy that it came out,” Ms. Downs said in an interview. “I’m sure the community is happy … It’s all good. The board agreed and they changed it, so I have to thank the board.”

School board president Susan Koukounas said public vetting isn’t needed to add salaries to the agenda since there’s no formal policy about such an action. There just needs to be a general consensus among board members, she explained.

Last month, board members Ann Cotten-DeGrasse and Amelia Lantz said they supported adding salaries to the public agendas.

“It is, after all, a matter of public record,” Ms. Cotten-DeGrasse wrote in a letter that Ms. Downs read at the meeting. “To not make this information public makes it appear that the BOE has something to hide, which could not be further from the truth.”

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