Coviello: ‘The Three Stooges’ Of The BOE Takeover

From Democratic mayoral candidate Charlie Coviello:

The pathetic lament by Mayor Bill Finch that he has no power over the Board of Education has been exposed from the B.O.E.’s recent actions that he has always been the boss of that organization. Starting with control of appointment of hand-picked candidates, that were anointed as B.O.E. members, Finch controlled the Board of Education budget and squeezed the Superintendent’s ability to staff teachers for our children.

With the power to limit the effectiveness of our education process, Finch has been personally responsible for the decline of our children’s educational achievement levels and the massive substance-abuse problems that infect over forty (40%) percent of our middle and high school children.

Our failing schools can be directly attributed to substance abuse and lack of resources to address this problem since the BOE’s cancellation of the Peer to Peer Leadership Group at Central High School. Children who are high on drugs and alcohol cannot learn.

By playing the money control game, Finch has in a final moment of insanity turned over our children to the State of Connecticut Board of Education, who will not have any tolerance for his political interference or meddling in the failing Bridgeport School System.

By any standards, Bridgeport is the disgrace of the entire State of Connecticut and Mayor Finch and his six (6) Board of Education members (Bellinger, Fuller, Robles, Colon, Mulligan, and even Republican Cunningham) are the culprits who brought us to our knees. The three (3) remaining members (Simmons, Baraka and Pereira) are to be commended for their valiant fight for our children. If only they had a majority.

As a Candidate For Mayor of the City of Bridgeport, and the Grandparent of a Bridgeport school child at Tisdale School, I was the only person who has attended most Board of Education meetings and called for John Ramos’s resignation, pointing out the alliance with Mayor Finch’s mastermind moves to play our children and community for his political advantage.

The Three Stooges of the events leading to the State takeover, Finch, Bellinger, and Ramos are an embarrassment that perpetuates the opinion in Hartford that Bridgeport’s political leadership is incompetent in these difficult times.

The State Board of Education should fire John Ramos and provide us with new leadership for our Board of Education.

The Mayor should reconsider his run for re-election based on his failure to lead from the beginning of this crisis. He has never once appeared before the Board of Education. His running for re-election is a joke that no one is laughing at. How can anyone take his candidacy seriously when through his actions in the failure of our education system, he has admitted his total failure as Mayor of the City of Bridgeport.

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11 comments

  1. While I was never a fan of Ramos who is an empty suit, all jargon, no leadership; this rant from Coviello is a perfect example of why things are so bad with the BOE as well as the City.

    To hold Finch personally responsible for student academic declines and substance abuse is so over the top it condemns Coviello as a posturing, whack-job gadfly. Obviously his brains have followed the same path out of his head as his teeth!

    I am not at all happy with how this whole BOE transfer has played out and very serious questions remain unanswered. Hopefully they will be answered and state oversight can shake things up.

    Having attended several meetings this year, I never cease to be amazed at the crowd. It’s a circus. Don’t know why anybody would want to serve on the BOE.

    Dysfunctional families have dysfunctional children. Throwing these misfits into schools with weak educational leadership and dramatically lower educational & behavioral standards delivers the schools we now have.

    Make no mistake … Ramos is a weak, empty-suit educational bureaucrat and should never have been hired or renewed. But idiot gadflies like Coviello do just as much to gum up the works.

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  2. Charlie doesn’t even qualify for “Stoogedom.” This diatribe wasn’t written by him anyway. Thank you Barry Piesner (another gadfly with BS and no substance).
    Coviello is just looking for a job with the city. He has been associated as a hanger-on since John Mandanici was mayor and has parlayed his associations into nothing of importance.

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  3. While I am absolutely abuzz with praise for Mary-Jane Foster, Charlie makes a point. The mayor does have control over the purse strings. Cutbacks on programs that fund early intervention, staff and teachers which result in overcrowding in classrooms, closing of the school-based health centers all can be traced back to money. How is the state going to do anything different if they don’t have more money? Finch wanted the vocal minority out and didn’t want to give them the chance of getting control of the board which by the way would have been the will of the electorate. What better way to have control of the board of education than to prevent good and vocal people from running? Finch has not displayed any leadership and runs from the tough decisions. He said he had a Hobson’s choice, if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen. Bill knew the state of the City when he ran for office but all he saw was power and glory. He never considered his leadership skills and having to make the hard calls and tortuous choices. That’s what Mayors do. Finch doesn’t have the right stuff.

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  4. *** It’s hardball ’til an offer is made by someone, no? There is some wisdom in his words and feelings of sorrow for the kids regardless of who wrote the statement. Take a little something from each opposing candidate and form a strong campaign towards victory in Nov. *** HERE THEY GO? ***

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  5. Charlie is an embarrassment of a candidate. He should do the right thing and drop out. Lennie should do the right thing and not give Charlie’s ranting a prominent place on this otherwise well edited website.

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    1. Whiskey Hill Kid, I totally disagree with you. Mr. Coviello should have the right to state his position on OIB. It matters not if I agree or disagree with anything he states, he should be able to say it.

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      1. Hey Ron, your reply indicates you don’t think Charlie Coviello is an embarrassment of a candidate. I do, however, agree with you that his point of view should be recognized, but not as a serious challenger. He has no constituency, no appeal either intellectually or as an attractive candidate, and no money. He’s also a wannabe and has been for the past 40 years.

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