The final Newburgh school board meeting of the academic year began with arguments, which led to shouting and ended with board members being escorted to their cars by security guards.

Much of the anger in the room during Tuesday's five-hour meeting was because of a change in Acting Superintendent Lisa Buon's contract.

A five-member board majority approved the contract change.

Instead of the more common 30-day notice for a termination, the board will now have to give Buon 90 days notice.

If the board were to vote Buon out of her position and compel her to leave early, she could still get paid for the 90 days, which would cost taxpayers about $70,000.

The contract change came as new members are about to join the board next month, taking away Buon's majority support and much of her power.

"I do not think anyone here has the expectation that the current acting superintendent would be in that position much after July 1," school board member-elect Mark Levinstein said to the board. "So why did the board majority hire this person known to sue her employer and why would they offer her such a generous contract addendum?"

Buon's opponents want her out of office sooner, saying her staff overhaul could lead to lawsuits from the administrators' union.

Board member Leticia Politi read a letter from five administrators expressing that they have no confidence in Buon.

"The acting superintendent continues to make unilateral decisions," Politi read from the letter, "shutting out staff, experts and community voices from critical conversations that directly impact our students and educators."

The current board majority and the teachers' union still support Buon, praising her for making difficult decisions regarding staffing and the district's literacy crisis.

"Our children deserve to follow the Science of Reading and to be taught with evidence-based, aligned strategies so we will not have 70% of the students in our district not reading [at grade level]," Buon said during a presentation on changes to the district reading program. "Our children deserve this, and we are moving forward with this"

Some board members said the vitriol reached a new level during Tuesday evening's meeting.

Board President Christine Bello said she is concerned for the safety of all nine board members.

Sources also told News 12 the atmosphere was still tense following the meeting and that board members had to be escorted to their cars by security guards.

Acting Superintendent Lisa Buon declined Wednesday to respond directly to her opponents' concerns about her contract.