Sitting through a Board of Education meeting these days is a battle of attrition. The friction rubs up 5 to 4, the general vote controlled by the thinnest of margins by Democrats over three members of Connecticut’s Working Families Party, Maria Pereira, Sauda Baraka and John Bagley, joined by renegade Democrat Bobby Simmons who’s up for reelection this year. The BOE is sorting through a lot of issues with one of the largest ones the future of Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas. Will he stay beyond the end of the school year? Conversations are underway to offer a contract.
It seems as though the goal of the minority coalition is making enough noise, questioning Vallas’ every move, to frustrate him into saying sayonara. If successful, the minority coalition may consider that a major victory. Do they have anyone better in mind? Irrespective of Vallas’ short-cut management style does anyone think he’s not an improvement over what the system had 10 years prior?
Some of the hair-splitting is annoying for parents sitting through these four- and five-hour BOE meetings, and at times frustrating for Vallas enduring four members who want to stick a rag in his mouth. Should the superintendent be allowed to respond to questions by the public at BOE meetings? Should the superintendent be allowed to speak at Mayor Bill Finch’s neighborhood sessions to gauge parent input about schools? These are the types of items school board members debate.
Did the people elect school board members to petty these kinds of decisions? Whatever happened to the school chief running the day-to-day operations and the school board setting broader policies?
In addition to Democrat Simmons, the WFP-aligned Pereira and Baraka are up for reelection in November. Simmons will have to do a Houdini act to be endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee this summer, forcing him to run a September primary if he seeks reelection. There’s talk the Democratic Party regulars are recruiting petitioning candidates to challenge Pereira and Baraka in November. The Bridgeport BOE operates under minority-party representation so theoretically Pereira and Baraka could be dethroned by either Republican candidates or those petitioning onto the ballot, for instance traditional Democrats running as independents supported by the party. Democrats Tom Mulligan and Leticia Colon are also up for reelection this year.
If this winter does not enjoy a January thaw do not despair, the heated exchanges at BOE meetings will more than make up.
Two different takes on this story. In Jonathan Pelto’s “Wait, What” blog he describes Vallas and crew as being petulant, storming out of the meeting. However, in Linda Conner Lambeck’s CT Post blog “Education Matters” it reads as a petulant BOE discussing ad nauseum matters that should not take much time at all (as noted in your recap above). If this is truly how Working Family Party members on the BOE are going to act and behave, then I will seriously reconsider my vote for them next time around.
If that is their strategy, there is no better way to play into the hands of the Mayor and his out-of-town backers.
Vallas has done nothing but rip off the taxpayers of this city. The minority party members are doing their job … asking questions instead of being a rubber stamp for Mayor Finch.
From Wait, What? … Superintendent Vallas and the Bridgeport Board of Education’s failed to properly adopt a school budget, both last year and again this year, meaning that Vallas and his administration lacked the legal authority to transfer and spend tens of millions of dollars in federal, state and local funds.
When these issues were raised publicly, neither the Bridgeport Board of Education nor Bridgeport Mayor Finch took the necessary steps to investigate and act on these allegations.
… and as prescribed by Connecticut’s whistleblower laws, the materials about the purported illegal activities that have been collected over the past year will be turned over to the State Auditors for their review and action.
Meanwhile–Bridgeport schools Fail …
Jennifer Buchanan: Get a clue and start reading the FACTS not some loser journo fraud drumming up lies. Schools budget was PASSED:
www .ctpost.com/local/article/Resounding-vote-for-Bridgeport-s-school-budget-3436405.php
I wonder how many commenters on here actually attend BOE meetings. It’s a mess. Pereira, Baraka and Simmons are obstructionists of the worst kind. Worst than the Republicans in Congress! It’s no surprise the BOE voted to disband itself two years ago. How do you work with people who want to prevent any kind of progress or action from going forward? At meetings, they nit-pick Vallas’ every move. They spent an ENTIRE HOUR on Monday discussing whether Vallas had permission to go on a listening tour in the community! He’s trying to do outreach in the community and they don’t want that. They don’t want the community and Vallas to have a strong relationship because they are threatened by it. They’re even more threatened by his popularity with parents. Then on Monday, to top off all the nonsense, Pereira votes “No” to over $200,000 in grants for the district. She bellyaches about how Bridgeport needs more money for the kids and then when someone comes up with the money she rejects it. It is astounding! Good news is these meetings are recorded and are now on public access TV. Their antics are being captured and saved for future reference. Even better news is these three are up for re-election this year. They are going to have to fight to keep their seats. The tide is turning on them and they are finally being exposed for the leaderless obstructionists they truly are.
Voting no to $200K is just irresponsible. You only have to observe Pereira a couple of times, as I have, to realize she isn’t part of the solution, but blatantly a substantial part of the problem. She does nothing but grandstand and demonstrate combative posturing. Bad enough she lacks any semblance of professionalism, but she truly needs some anger management.
It’s obvious that BOE President does not know how to run and manage a meeting. There are rules of order for conducting a business; plus what’s the problem, the mayor and Mr. Vallas win every motion that is put up for a vote. Mayor Finch’s five members have no need to ask any questions because they are there just to rubber stamp whatever Finch and Vallas put forward plus Vallas is a rookie in dealing with these issues.
Now that’s what I am talking about, Ron. Why are these so-called “obstructionists” allowed to rant on? No board president I have ever worked with, and there have been many, would have put up with ANY type of cross talk in a board meeting let alone out and out combat. And we are talking about a board meeting, affirmative? Tossed out on their bums is what they would have been, until they decided they wanted to conduct themselves in a manner that approached professionalism.
Off-agenda tangents are frustrating in any meeting, and should not be tolerated at the level of the Board of Education. This how we move things along, this is how business is conducted. It’s called production.
Make no mistake, the voters in Bridgeport put these WFP folks in those seats to help fix a broken school system. We did not put them there so they can continue to service their own narcissistic need to be “anti.” BUT the Board Chairperson does have a rulebook and the power to keep them in line, and it is her responsibility to wield it.
You make an excellent point. I think Baraka, Simmons and especially Pereira have put the welfare of the school system on the back burner. Their only self-serving agenda seems to be as combative and inflammatory as humanly possible. It’s apparent they continue to push people’s buttons just to see how much they can get away with. I agree the Chairperson should exercise more control, but I can only imagine what kind of behavior Pereira would demonstrate if someone dared to try to put her in her place. It’s a plus these meetings are being filmed so the voters who put these WFP board members in place can see how badly they behave. No doubt they have got to go and be replaced with rational people who know how to be professional and willing to compromise.
It’s easy to make noise, posture, point fingers in the minority. What solutions do Pereira and Baraka offer? None. They just obstruct.
anna, tell me what can Pereira and Baraka do to obstruct? They don’t have enough votes to change ANYTHING!
*** Asking questions, giving opinions and requesting more info in writing is one thing and sometimes actually listening and trying to come to terms to make a difference towards progress is another. Why is it this BOE seems to lack these simple skills of common sense and continue to point the fickle finger of blame at one another meeting after meeting? Do they get anything done that’s pro-education? Hello! *** STAY ON THE BOE AGENDA, NO? ***
The problem is the whole process is dishonest. Started with a Finch-controlled BOE and a weak chair in Bellinger, the dishonest and failed takeover by the state, an election everyone thought wouldn’t matter, then surprisingly a defeat of the narrowly tailored Charter Revision question and mayoral control and now everyone is seated. Should be settled. Sadly, the new Board Chair is as weak as the previous and the meetings which could be controlled are not and even sadder the WFP folks are doing their best imitations of our worst expectations. Obstruction for the sake of obstruction is not the way to defeat Finch or the DTC. The way to defeat the folks who believe they are morally superior and utterly entitled to tell Bridgeport how to educate their children is through constructive criticism and positive input. If we move forward constructively, then when Vallas, team, etc. get huffy, rude and arrogant and stomp out instead of answering questions, then we have some credibility. Behaving badly will defeat us. WFP–get with the program and represent all of us and not your own narrow self interests.
Baffled in Bridgeport: Quit your bellyaching about the “whole process being dishonest.” The state takeover got overturned. The charter revision failed. Any problems with the current structure we have in place on the BOE fall squarely on the WFP members, Simmons and their pack of supporters who worked so hard for those so-called “victories.” The BOE has suffered for decades from a failure of leadership, lack of solutions and lack of ACTION. These disgusting traits have made Bridgeport schools the worst in the state and the WFP members have only made it worst by narcissistically serving themselves at the expense of the children’s future. If they hate Vallas’ ideas for fixing the schools so much, why don’t they propose their own ideas? They don’t because they ain’t got NONE.
*** In my opinion, teamwork is a two-way street with possible solutions found somewhere in the middle! Wasting time asking questions and demanding answers on items that are not part of the BOE agenda during a meeting in the end serves no productive purpose. Old business and new business, etc. should always be left towards the end of a meeting after the present-day items on the BOE agenda have been addressed, not before! Simple Roberts Rules of Order need to be followed closely and enforced by the BOE president. The public has their allowed time to speak before the meeting, “not” during the meeting! If these simple rules of order in conducting a publicly viewed meeting cannot be enforced and followed then how can the board expect to accomplish any reasonable amount of work towards improving Bpt’s school system in any way? *** HELLO ***