On the verge of hiring an interim school chief for one year followed by a process to select a longer term leader, the Board of Education is struggling to close a projected $6.5 million gap for the budget year starting July 1. A public forum to meet the interim finalists will take place Saturday June 22, 5:30 p.m. at Geraldine Claytor Magnet Academy, 240 Ocean terrace.
Meanwhile school board member Chris Taylor, for one, says screw it, run the district in deficit and let the state deal with it.
“I will vote ‘no’ on every item,” Taylor said at a meeting last week. “Let us run in a deficit. Let the state come down and address this fiscal crisis. It is not our job to assassinate our own students.”
Are some school board members positioning for a state takeover?
From Linda Conner Lambeck, CT:
Another two-and-a-half-hour budget cutting session managed to shave about $142,000 off a still gaping $6.5 million budget gap projected in the school district’s 2019-20 operating budget.
In the process, some members of the school board at the session late last week lost their cool and some walked out. The district’s three-person financial office also got up and collectively left when it was alleged they were not doing enough to help the layman board identify potential cuts.
“What I struggle with is the administration’s refusal to come up with viable options,” School Board Member Hernan Illingworth said. “We can’t vet it all … The administration rolls out the red flag so we can look like the bad guys. It’s very frustrating.”
Full story here.
Chris Taylor has missed over 65% of all meetings, did not attend a single City Council Budget & Appropriations meeting or any of the B & A Public Hearings. If he does attend a meeting he rarely has a piece of paper in his hand. Not even an agenda.
We have a fiduciary responsibility to balance our budget. His comments and actions are completely irresponsible. After his speech he got up and walked out BEFORE a single budget cut was discussed.
Hernan Illingworth also did not attend a single B & A meeting or Public Hearing.
I stepped out of the room and when I returned Marlene Siegel was explaining that the merging of the Science and Math Director had been placed as an option by a board member not staff.
Hernan started attacking the administration because they have not supplied enough options and were trying to put the Board in a position that made us look like the bad guys.
Weldon and I tried to explain that we have already taken $40,000,000 in cuts over the last three years, therefore there are not slot of options on the table left
Hernan started yelling and stated “f_ck it.” Marlene Siegel and her staff got up and walked out as they should have. Dr. Johnson was the only staff member remaining. Hernan got up and walked out while suburban Fairchild Wheeler parents were cheering him on. There was nothing to cheer about.
Jessica brought him back in. We were discussing another proposed cut and I asked whose proposed cut was it. Per Robert’s Rules of Order, the person who placed the item on the agenda is supposed to speak first. In addition, they can explain their thought process for recommending the cut.
Hernan went ballistic. He said “why do you want to know? It’s because you want to attack them. You want to attack them on OIB?” He went on to tell out ” you assaulted a staff member.” I told him “you are out of order, stop interrupting me because you have no idea what you are talking about.” He repeatedly interrupted me although I had the floor. He was lashing out like a toddler.
John Weldon was trying to bring the meeting to order, but Hernan was ranting.
It was pretty bad.
I emailed staff that night to offer my apologies for the attacks they endured. They were appreciative.
Jessica Martinez arrived late, again. She had gone to the state Board of Education meeting that morning pleading for help. The SBOE is not an appropriating authority.
She came in without a single piece of paper. Not even the agenda. Jessica is the Chair of the Finance Committee.
Jessica has the second worse attendance after Chris Taylor. She has the worst tardiness record and consistently leaves meetings early.
What do all three of these school board members have in common? They were all elected with the help of the corrupt DTC machine, and they all voted to terminate the successful Community Conversations where hundreds of parents, staff and community members were being mobilized and educated about our dire financial situation perpetuated by Mayor Ganim and the vast majority of the City Council. That is who they pledged their loyalty to. Not our innocent and deserving 20,400 students.
STOP VOTING FOR ANY BOARD OF EDUCATION CANDIDATE ENDORSED BY THE CORRUPT DTC AND THE SUBSERVIENT REPUBLICAN PARTY!
When Chris Taylor’s name is mentioned the first word that comes to mind is “defendant.”
The Daughter of Frankenstein loves to play the part of the Gadfly, always knocking other members of the BBOE But never coming up with a viable solution, she just likes to throw Molotov Cocktails at every meeting.
Ten years of her Horse-shit is enough!
Oust The Daughter Of Frankenstein !!!
Jim,
I submitted a list of 8 potential cuts to help balance the budget.
Stating facts is not throwing a Molotov Cocktail.
No current school board member has proposed more initiatives, policies or programs that directly impact students, parents, staff and taxpayers.
I’m not like you, Jim. I just don’t post on OIB. I actually get out and work on making our public school and our community better. You should try doing it too.
That’s total Horse-Shit!
You have to work together on the BBOE that’s something you don’t do, Ms. Frankenstein!
Call the Governors office, go up to SBOE get them to stop spending our tax dollars on Charter Schools, bring Ganim and every member of the BBOE and our entire city delegation.
It’s not about you Ms. Frankenstein, or the conflict or competitiveness you share with other members of the BBOE, it’s about 20,400 School Kids!
Work together!
Jim, I am not going to allow you, someone who has done nothing to help our 20,400 students, lecture me about what I should be doing to fight for the public students and against charter $chools.
I have been actively working on their behalf since 2001 while you have done nothing.
Give it a rest.
My Tax dollars has done a lot for these students, lady Frankenstein!!!
So my ? is ,Why hire an interim school chief? To have to go thru the whole process again next year?
We MUST have a Supeeintendent per state law.
i know that Maria, I was asking why an interim and not someone permitant
We will be conducting a national search which would take place over the summer. We recently put out a bid for the search firm. We have to interview firms and select one. Then we have to set up the parameters for the search. Then the firm conducts the search and brings us finalists. By the time s Superintendent is selected, they would likely not be finalized until the spring and would start in late June.
You could expand the search to Europe and Asia, dear. No one in his or her right mind will take the job. Politics has ruined public education in this town, for generations. Joe Ganim is so busy passing out no-bid contracts to his campaign’s contributors and taking raises for himself and a select group of insiders that there’s no money left in the city’s coffers to fund the education system. All the while the BBOE is wrought with pettiness, politics, infighting and too many members with control issues.
So,
The man illegally serving on the BBOE (not a Bridgeport elector, lives in Fairfield) wants to pass a deficit budget (NOT allowed by State Law…but he doesn’t follow laws>>>residency, zoning) and let the rest of the state taxpayers eat the bill.
The same taxpayers already funding 74% of the cost to run the BPS…..
Hey IDIOT!!!!! Do you know that a BOE that overspends its budget is personally liable for the funds???????????
Why do you think every BOE gives money back to the municipality each year? When spending gets close to the budget, they shut off the spending. No copy paper, TOO BAD. No BOE member wants to be stuck paying for this from their own pocket.
Marshall,
It is entirely possible that you know more about the subject you have covered than I, and many readers actually know. Can you provide more info on the subject of:
*BOE members having personal responsibility for exceeding a budget? (Statute)
*Where does the State of CT say that a balanced budget (whatever kind would you wish for?) must be created, reviewed and authorized by a BOE itself, when the City Attorney office handles labor contracts, when the Mayor has no listed priority for educational operations, and there seem to be suspicions in more than one quarter that a forensic audit might turn up genuine opportunities for additional cost savings? If the state needs to enter the scene, once again, is it possible that the businessman asking questions might be on to something that other folks are too intimidated to question? What a process Ganim2 has in operation: He decides how much he will add each year to increase City contributions for education. Since contracts handled by Labor negotiator create incremental percentage increase annually, he knows that this creates a problem for the educators before they start. He does not care as is evidenced by the rarity of his visiting a classroom, citing City educational acheivements, or talking to voters about his thumb on the OPM scale.
Seems like an impossible situation for the BOE? When Ganim came in with a NO TAX INCREASE claim when running, he met a $20 Million situation, or so he claims. What a dragon slayer!! With State cooperation and a major mil increase it got settled. Now reflect on the BOE, which has no avenue to Hartford, or so it seems, no ability to increase the mil rate for its own problem, etc. Any one in Bridgeport wish to run for the BOE? Time will tell.
@JML
CT GS Chapter 170 section 222 says “Expenditures by the board of education shall not exceed the appropriation made by the municipality, with such money as may be received from other sources for school purposes. If any occasion arises whereby additional funds are needed by such board, the chairman of such board shall notify the board of finance, board of selectmen or appropriating authority, as the case may be, and shall submit a request for additional funds in the same manner as is provided for departments, boards or agencies of the municipality and no additional funds shall be expended unless such supplemental appropriation shall be granted and no supplemental expenditures shall be made in excess of those granted through the appropriating authority. ”
There have been court cases where overspending BOE members have been held personally liable, and subject to civil penalties for violating these provisions of the law.
In order to prove the civil violation the overspending must be both willful and malicious.
When a BOE member announces his plan in advance to ignore the approved expenditures of the municipality, it is willful, and urging the other members to join in a conspiracy to break the law is a malicious act in and of itself.
This is quite different than an accidental overspending, or utility bills coming in higher than budgeted due to unexpected weather extremes…then a supplementary appropriation should be sought from the municipality (which often happens after the fact).
Here, we have a member of the BBOE, whose status is questionable, advocate the BBOE members conspire to deliberately break the law and let the State deal with unpaid obligations.
While Boards of Education are creatures of the State, they propose their budgets to the municipality and must operate under the budget approved by the Board of Finance and/or Legislative Council as they exist.
In this case we have an ill-informed buffoon blustering and suggesting anarchy.
I highly doubt that he has ever read, never mind understand Chapter 170 of the Ct General Statutes that establishes Boards of Education and governs their operations.
JML,
You have been so silent on Chris Taylor’s residency, yet you has so much to say about Eleanor Guedes and others.
Why the deafening silence?
For about seven years I was the only person questioning the position of Eleanor Guedes. I did not keep track of others but let me know if you find any such comment from others on OIB. I kept that story alive for years and did not ask, as you just did, where the support of others was.
I have stayed aware of the Taylor story and suggest that when it becomes time to weigh in I shall use my voice. I spoke again to the City Council last evening and raised the fact that their responsibility for OVERSIGHT is not well served when year after year the City budget is not coordinated well in advance of the release of Mayor’s budget to the Council with the Superintendent of education and BOE members. When the gap is so large, and no appropriation power is available and according to others in this column the only tactic is to eliminate transportation, schools, and qualified educators, well just maybe Board member Taylor’s gut response has some merit? Why does the BOE get the blame for a miserly revenue budget (as members of his cabinet increase school expenses through labor relations) and the State hands out more funds per capita to the other urban poor communities by tens of millions? Just asking another question that has bearing on this community drama? TIME WILL TELL.
JML, you were asserting Ms. Guedes lived in Trumbull, however I don’t remember your providing any evidence until the voter registration card was provided.
There are 122 exhibits, many highlighted by Lennie and the CT Post. providing compelling evidence that Chris Taylor lives in Southport. CT.
Yet you remain silent.
Everyone should be held to the same standard.
I wonder if Mr. Chris Taylor has a Louisville Slugger, If not, I have a few.