Power-hungry demagogues on the Board of Education, namely Joe Sokolovic and Rob Traber, have done their mighty best to submarine Superintendent of Schools Carmela Levy-David’s most-basic decisions, places policy-setting board members have no business interloping day-to-day management of a school system.
A number of school chiefs have been chased out of the district in recent years such as Fran Rabinowitz and Aresta Johnson with former board member Maria Pereira making life miserable for them. She passed the torch to Sokolovic and Traber who have way too much time on their hands when not trying to elect John Gomes mayor whom they claim is the savior of school system finances. Good luck with that when he can’t find a way to file a campaign finance report on time.
Sokolovic has deftly manipulated minority party representation to keep his seat, aided in his last election by Pereira’s absentee ballot prowess. Traber is filling out a term of another, a steady stream of board members who have resigned.
They argue process, we care about process. Really? The only process they care about is controlling process against day-to-day management of a school system in Connecticut’s most populous city.
CT Post reporter Richard Chumney has more:
“Our Board of Education has been so incredibly supportive and so has the city of Bridgeport,” Levy-David said. “However, there are members of our board who do not understand the change, do not understand my need to be able to do my work in a respectful and conflict-free environment, don’t understand how to provide respectful dialogue and not expose me to public criticism, public derision and public ridicule that I am not deserving of.”
The changes that are in the works, Levy-David said, are largely designed to support a staff that includes scores of brand new teachers, ensure the district’s growing array of foreign-language speakers have the help they need to learn and improve instruction for students who may be falling behind.
To that end, Levy-David has hired an interim deputy superintendent as well as other employees on a temporary basis as she looks to appoint permanent replacements. Much of the friction between the superintendent and board is centered around concerns district officials may be overlooking longstanding procedures regarding hiring interim officials and awarding short-term contracts.
Full story here
