Official's return enrages union members

Wednesday, July 2, 2008 -12:52 p.m.

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.

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