As you’ve probably read by now, the controversial matter of now-former Kingston High School Principal Vincent DeCicco has been resolved. Basically, he’s taking a pay cut and a new job in the Kingston City School District’s central administration.

But before we close the books on this affair, the Editorial Team would like to make a few points.

First, as we wrote here, the whole thing — social media use by school principals, homophobia in the community, the challenges LGBTQ+ students face at Kingston High School — was a great opportunity for a public dialogue on an important, yet sensitive, topic. That dialogue never happened, except on social media, with the expected dismal and depressing results. We don’t know what would have come of a public dialogue — maybe it would’ve been even worse than the one on Facebook — but we think it’s a shame it never happened.

Or to put it more precisely, it never had a chance to happen. That’s because state education law and the collective bargaining agreement covering DeCicco’s job don’t allow it to happen, to the point where members of the public were forbidden to bring it up during public participation at school board meetings. Most of us would love to have the same privacy and job protections afforded highly paid KCSD staffers; while unions struggle elsewhere, they are alive and kicking in New York’s public school system.

So what happened was that the entire process of coming to a decision on DeCicco’s future with the school district took place in a black box into which the public is not — will never be — allowed to see. The Kingston City School District is by far the largest taxpayer-funded entity in our community. The district’s 2022-23 budget, which passed easily in May, is a little over $203 million. Of that, a little over $110 million comes directly from local property taxpayers. (The rest comes from taxpayers too, come to think of it.) While we are not trying to minimize the value of privacy, and we strongly support privacy protections matters involving students and their families, we think this is a hell of a lot of money to pay for a process in which those who foot the bill for it cannot participate in any meaningful way. Talk about taxation without representation.

The word “accountability” is thrown around a lot these days. But who could possibly be held accountable — by the public, anyway — for the decision to remove DeCicco? We’re not allowed to know what factors went into or was left out. We presume the final decision went to the school board, but did they debate it among themselves or just accepted the superintendent’s recommendation?

We do understand the need for privacy in many personnel cases. The state Open Meetings Law allows boards to go behind closed doors to discuss them, and that’s fine — most of the time. But in this case, considering the issues it raised, we think there should have been more talk and less secrecy.

PROGRAM NOTE: Watch this space for a special editorial next week about the future of Kingston Wire and how you can help make it a bright one. Until then, we wish one and all a Happy Thanksgiving.