Former School Board Chair Weldon Claims Fix Is In For New Superintendent

Commentary from John Weldon, former member and chair of the Bridgeport Board of Education 

Nine months ago, Michael Testani resigned as superintendent of Bridgeport schools to take the same job in Fairfield.  Afterward, the Bridgeport Board of Education fought internally for two months until, at the 11th hour, they elected to have Alyshia Perrin serve as interim superintendent, although she was the least qualified of all applicants in education and experience.  They also did this despite the fact that they were warned more than once that having a current employee serve in this capacity would weaken the search for a permanent superintendent because it would give the impression that “the fix is in” and quality candidates would decline to apply.

The board went on to make a big production of conducting a nationwide solicitation for a search firm that they didn’t select until March of this year (more than six months after Testani resigned).  When they did, they contracted a firm for twice as much money to do the same work as one of the two nonprofit Connecticut services that they were presented with in August.  They didn’t begin advertising for the position until April.  Again, they were warned that waiting too late in the school year to advertise would dilute the candidate pool because people looking to be a superintendent do so in the fall months so they can have a contract effective July 1, with time to relocate beforehand.  When the application deadline closed, they had a total of nine “viable” candidates.  This compares to New Haven, which conducted a search in the fall that yielded 31 candidates — triple that of Bridgeport.

Now, they are down to three finalist candidates: Two unknown candidates and Alyshia Perrin, all of whom are scheduled to answer pre-submitted questions at a community forum on June 7th at Aquaculture School.  How is it known Ms. Perrin is still in the mix?  Because she sent a text a few days ago to district staff asking them to come to the forum (noting her slot is at 8:00) dressed in green to support her (green is the color of The Links, Inc. which she is a member of and, according to its website, is “an association of professional women of African descent”).

Many staff receiving this message were reportedly offended and felt threatened by retaliation if they didn’t come to show support.  Some reported it to the search firm and the board and the result was that Ms. Perrin was told to send another message retracting her request, instead of her being disqualified altogether for trying to manipulate the process to her advantage.  I wonder why that is.  I believe it’s because she’s already cut the deals with individual board members to get the votes she needs to be superintendent.

If she’s willing to pressure staff to give her a little “insurance,” she isn’t above backroom deals with BOE members.  Since then, over the weekend, a BPS administrator, Dee Young, has been making the rounds that BPS doesn’t need a superintendent from Texas or Georgia.  How does he (or anyone) know where the other candidates are from?  Because it would appear that board members have tipped off Ms. Perrin, who has tipped off others, like Dee Young, to rally her supporters.

The board has wasted 10 months and squandered tens of thousands in taxpayer funds to conduct a sham, quasi-transparent nationwide search to give the image of being above board, when they just want one person for one reason that they can’t publicly state without getting sued.  If that weren’t the case, they would have disqualified Ms. Perrin for reportedly trying to influence / manipulate the process by coercing district staff, which is what any other hiring body with integrity would do under similar circumstances.

However, they’re not interested in integrity or getting the best of the best for Bridgeport Schools.  They’re only interested in the optics of a Black woman from Bridgeport being the figurehead of BPS and they’ll do anything they can to make sure that’s what they get.  If this was all they wanted, they could have just hired her permanently six months ago.  Instead, they’d rather dupe the public into thinking they’re not that corrupt by conducting a sham search.

In the end, I predict they will not disqualify Ms. Perrin, they’ll go through the motions of the forum, and then vote for Ms. Perrin, saying the best in the country was right in their backyard all along (who knew?), and congratulate themselves for a job well done.  The saddest thing about this is that an optic was put ahead of doing what is in the best interests of Bridgeport’s school system.  Another sad thing is the people who spent their time applying and interviewing because they thought it was a genuine opportunity when, all along, the fix was always in, and recent events only prove that.