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Decision No. 12,986

Application to reopen the appeal of PATRICIA FRIEDMAN, from action of the Board of Education of the Franklin Square Union Free School District, and Terry Spano, Robert Higgins, Gary Smith and Angelo Puleo, trustees, regarding her removal as member of the Board of Education.

Decision No. 12,986

(August 16, 1993)

Behrens, Loew & Cullen, Esqs., attorneys for respondent, William M. Cullen, Esq., of counsel

SHELDON, Acting Commissioner.--Petitioner applies to reopen the Commissioner's decision in Appeal of Friedman, 32 Ed Dept Rep 447, which dismissed her petition challenging her removal from respondent's board and seeking removal of its trustees. The application must be denied.

Petitioner's initial appeal was dismissed on procedural as well as substantive grounds. The Commissioner held that the petition was barred by the doctrine of resjudicata. Despite that ruling and three prior unsuccessful challenges to her removal in State Supreme Court, petitioner seeks to reopen the Commissioner's decision on the basis that her claims for the same relief were not barred by the doctrine of resjudicata.

Applications for reopening are governed by 8 NYCRR '276.8. It provides:

Applications for reopening are addressed solely to the discretion of the commissioner, and will not be granted in the absence of a showing that the decision which is the subject of such application was rendered under a misapprehension as to the facts or that there is new and material evidence which was not available at the time the original decision was made.

Petitioner has made no such showing here. She seeks to reopen the Commissioner's prior decision on the basis that he misapprehended the facts upon which it was rendered. However, in reviewing her application, I find that it consists primarily of reargument as to why the original appeal should have been sustained. An application for reopening is not intended to provide an opportunity for such reargument (Application of Vecchio, 31 Ed Dept Rep 82; Application of Board of Education of Monroe-Woodbury Central School District, 28 id. 115; Application of Burke, 28 id. 205). Accordingly, I find no basis for reopening the Commissioner's prior decision.

THE APPLICATION IS DENIED.

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