The saga of one Onondaga County school district continues. The Jordan-Elbridge Board of Education spoke out Wednesday for the first time since they lost a court battle and the board apologized for keeping community members in the dark. Our Katie Gibas was at the meeting and joined us with more on what new information has now been released.

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ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- The Jordan-Elbridge School Board apologized to the community for keeping silent for so long on a series of personnel problems in the district.

This is the first time the public has heard from the board since a judge ruled the district illegally appointed an interim superintendent. But the issues go further than that.

A handful of employees, including the former high school principal and the former assistant superintendent, have been suspended with pay. Board members say they realize the public is frustrated, but by law, the board members are not allowed to talk directly about personnel issues. They did say this all relates back to pressure from the federal and state governments to improve student achievement.

"Some of the personnel changes that have occurred in the district recently were made to accelerate the rate of improvement in our test scores, which are simply unacceptable. Other personnel changes have been made because of serious deficiency in regulations, some of which were uncovered by regulators," said Mary Alley, Jordan-Elbridge School Board President.

Board members say they will work to provide better information to the public in the future and apologized for the mistakes they have made.

On Wednesday evening, the Jordan-Elbridge Board of Education apologized for keeping silent so long. At a press conference, Jordan-Elbridge School Board President Mary Alley and school district attorney Frank W. Miller spoke. Watch that entire press conference below.

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