Passion Politics, School Board Candidates Pitch Dems For Endorsement

Jessica Martinez
Jessica Martinez

On July 24th, the 90-member Democratic Town Committee will endorse candidates for Board of Education. Two campaigners hoping to run together under the endorsement flag, Jessica Martinez and Chaila Robinson, have issued letters to party regulars seeking support. Under the rules governing state-mandated, minority party representation, no more than six Dems (for nine seats) can sit on the school board. Three current Democratic members–Maria Pereira, Dennis Bradley and Ben Walker–are not up until 2019, so that leaves room for three more elected in November. A September primary is expected.

Martinez is no stranger to city politics and education activism. She’s a member of the town committee on the East Side 137th District, the heart of Latino politics. On public education policy she is the antithesis of board member Pereira who is anti charter school embraced by Martinez. It has become an engaging public debate between charter school advocates such as Martinez who argue more choices create better opportunities for young people versus the Pereira mantra asserting charters that receive public money suck vital funds from traditional school districts.

If Martinez is successful in her school board effort, get set for a showdown between the irresistible force versus the immovable object. Like moms protecting their cubs, both Martinez and Pereira are potent personalities who make passionate arguments on behalf of their respective positions. They’ve occasionally done battle on OIB about education policy.

Pereira, Democratic leader of the Upper East Side 138th District who was elected to a four-year term in 2015, may run her own school board candidates. It will make for quite a showdown. Chaila Robinson is new to elected politics. She has forged an alliance with Martinez. In their respective letters to Democrats they share their backgrounds and school activism. They’ve provided the letters for OIB publication.

My name is Jessica Martinez, a Bridgeport parent leader and advocate born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut. A graduate of Maplewood School, James J. Curiale and Central Magnet High School, I attended Delaware State University where I was majoring in Criminal Justice and English. I’m writing to you to express my intent on running for the Board of Education this election year and my hope is to gain the support of my fellow DTC members, where I am currently elected in the 137th district.

My son, my pride and joy, will be going into the 8th grade at John Winthrop School for the 2017-2018 school year.

As a community leader, I am  passionate about engaging, informing and activating Bridgeport parents. I believe that parent involvement is not only critical to a child’s academic success, but it is also to holding the district accountable for ensuring our children receive a competitive education. For over 8 years in a variety of roles, I have worked diligently to build relationships with parents, gather critical information about parents’ needs, and develop curriculum to facilitate workshops and community forums in an effort to bring change to Bridgeport Public Schools. A regular attendee of the Board of Education meetings, I often spoke during public comments to lobby for particular initiatives, hold the BOE accountable or to praise the BOE’s successes.

Examples of “some” of my experience in advocacy and community outreach are as follows:
— Founding member on the leadership team, of the Greater Bridgeport Young Democrats.

— Certified through YALE Center of Emotional Intelligence, to train parents on the R.U.L.E.R Program which is, “Emotional Intelligence Training” that the district adopted for teachers and students.

— Panelist at the 2017 annual “Baptist Convention” Education hour.

— Panelist at the 2017 annual “Yale’s Education Conference”–Discussion Education Funding.

— Parent Leadership Training Institute 2016 Graduate and keynote speaker.

— Elected Town Committee member for the 137th district.

— Former President of the District Parent Advisory Council’s Executive Board.

— Former Parent Advisory Council-Vice President at Luis Munoz Marin School.

— Organized parents around the approval of the commissioner’s network at Luis Munoz Marin Elementary School.

— Policy writer for the “Parent Engagement Policy,” a policy passed and adopted by the BBOE in 2012.

— Member of the East Side NRZ.

— Committee member of the East Side Promise Neighborhood, focusing on creating a plan on how to ensure the children of the east side in Bridgeport are academically achieving from pre-school-3rd grade.

— Certified Cal Ripken League baseball coach and Caribe Youth League baseball coach from 2008-present. Where I had direct access and impact on the youth in Bridgeport, primarily young boys/men.

— Served on the BCYL Organization and Sacred Heart University Subcommittee, restructuring and reorganizing BCYL to maximize growth in Bridgeport through education and sports recreation.

As a lifelong Bridgeport, Connecticut resident, I have faith and hope in my City and its people to be the change we need. I thank you for considering me for this opportunity to serve the 21,000 children and the needs of parents throughout the district. I am ready to work hard and fight the right fight providing solutions that not only comes from me and my experiences but also my constituents and fellow amazing parent leaders

Chaila Robinson
Chaila Robinson

My name is Chaila Robinson, I was born and raised in Norwalk CT, and now reside in Bridgeport, CT with my two sons.

I became a parent leader at Hallen School 6 years ago when I noticed that there was a desperate lack of support for student literacy and someone needed to speak up on behalf of parents that wouldn’t normally speak up about the lack of literacy assistance required for the children in the Bridgeport public school district to succeed.

I’ve spent countless hours and days investing my time and interest in making a difference in the future of the children & families within the Bridgeport community. I feel that my hard work and dedication was recognized 3 years age when asked to step up as the President of the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) within the Bridgeport community.

In my current position as the President Advisor I’m responsible for advocating for all of the students, keeping parents informed of all school and local community events, as well as organizing and hosting all recreational educational events.

I will continue to support this community by being the person that carries the voice to the prospective agencies, committees, and professionals addressing the wants and needs of the children and parents in Bridgeport.

I am seeking the DTC support as I set out to run for the board of education, as a parent leader I had my share of heart ache, disappointment, and success.

I became that voice for the children and the parents, in Hallen Elementary School where I set up many engaging events for parents and kids. I also help raise close to $8000 in a 3 month time period so that the children had a usable and age appropriate playground. This journey hasn’t been easy but it sure has been worth it. The children of the city of Bridgeport deserve so much more. My goal is to help our children achieve greatness no matter what neighborhood they come from one child at a time.

I strongly feel that the bridge between child parent, Education system, city/ sate and community has been damaged and that bridge needs to be repaired as it is the only way for success of our children to be great. We all have like minds, different ideas but the same goal, and if we can all come together we can make the change required to help our children be succeed in school, at home, and in our society.

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63 comments

  1. Well Joe you are going around the city talking about public safety and whats been happening we have 17 murders to date. You are even in the area where shots are fired.
    I have a question for you Why is the president of the union hanging around with you and Perez.
    Joe when are you going to talk about education and what your plans are. Do you plan to continue the Tommy- Nazza routine you have been forcing on the city since your reelection. You are making Finch look like a super star.

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  2. I never thought that anybody could make Bill Finch look good but Joe Ganim is making Finch to look like a really good mayor, which he wasn’t.

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  3. I think that having two educated, intelligent and community involved parents with children in the Bridgeport school system will only be any asset to the education of our youth. Parents across the nation are telling us that they want to be able to choose the best public school for their child.
    President Barack Obama championed these publicly funded but independently run schools, whose promise is that freedom from traditional bureaucratic regulation will allow educators to innovate, thus improving student outcomes.

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    1. Donald,

      The only thing those publicly funded, privately run schools have done is enrich the pockets of the millionaires and billionaires that invested in them.

      These private schools cherry pick their students, and depend on their host district to support their special needs student population…that’s before that student is de-selected from that private school. What ends up happening is the host district ends up with that student without the funding that would have followed that student.

      Charter schools are one of the biggest transfers of wealth from the poor to the rich in history. An approved Trumpcare bill won’t even come close to the amount of money transferred to the rich via the charter school investment model.

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      1. Eric Alicea, we all see that the public school system is not the answer to educating the 21,000 school system in Bridgeport. People like you just want to stay with a failing school system that will produce citizens unable to truly provide for their own future and society.

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          1. Jennifer, if you knew anything about public education you would know that in CT, the average teaching salary is heavily influenced by towns such as Greenwich, Westport, etc.

            I believe you reside in Indiana, if I am correct you should simply Google charter school fraud in Indiana. You will find plenty of material to keep you busy so that you can become more educated about the rampant charter $chool fraud in your state.

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          2. Jennifer, as we all can see is that the Bridgeport public school system is FAILING the 21,000 Bridgeport school students. We also see that Bridgeport public school system is not the answer and according to others we should not loo at anything else but the fail public school system. Charter schools might not be the answer but we sure do know that the public school system is not the answer.

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          3. Lennie,

            I am advocating for a new OIB policy effective immediately. The policy would require any individual that would like to post comments around public education be able to write well thought out and comprehensive sentences with words spelled and punctuated properly.

            I am not speaking to perfection because this is a blog, after all. This would mean Ron Mackey would be banned for life. 🙂

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        1. Ron, I agree, no one has all the answers, improvement is definitely needed. Example- middle school teacher in Bridgeport failing school had 100% parent attendance at school parents report night because she knew the parents worked, she served pizza and invited siblings to attend. She was written up by the principal for breaking the no food in classroom rule. Innovative teachers hands appear to be both tied and slapped and in this case, it has nothing to do with budget constraints.

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          1. Jennifer, I find that hard to believe considering we serve breakfast in every school which is primarily served in our classrooms.

            Your “example” was poorly written and made little sense. I believe you were referring to report card conferences.

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        2. Yeah Ron,

          I am looking forward to watching my children fail. It’s people like you that bloviate regarding a topic which you have done little to no research on.

          BPS has been chronically underfunded for generations. Institutional racism has been rearing its ugly head against our children since I was matriculating through BPS. Do you and people like you realize that Harding High School at point was a school of distinction? Do you realize that since white flight started in Bridgeport that support for our schools left with them.

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      2. Eric,

        We know there is no independent study that demonstrates charter schools perform any better than our true public schools. However, we do have reputable studies that show that students of color perform significantly worse than their peers in true public schools.

        This is why the NAACP issued a formal resolution binding on all its chapters calling for a national moratorium on charter $chools and a focus on investing in our true public schools.h

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  4. Eric, you actually have three children in the public school system because you desperately want your children to be unable to “provide for their own future and society”. After all, isn’t that what every parent wants for their children?

    Unbelievable

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  5. These two women took time to sit down and write these formal letters addressed to DTC members. They are not quick posts on a blog from their cellphones, yet the amount of poorly formed sentences, typos, spelling, capitalization and punctuation errors is pretty startling.

    I am not surprised by Jessica because as I have indicated here previously, she cannot write comprehensive sentences and her spelling and punctuation is horrible.

    I am however surprised by the amount of typos, spelling and punctuation errors in Chaila’s letter. Chaila is articulate and intelligent, however she fails to identify she is a member of FaithACT$ for Education. In additiin, she is the Hallen School Parent Advisory Council President, there is no such thing as a,”President Advisor”.

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      1. Who made you the spelling police you elitist witch. There are people out there that have little formal education and you want them banned because of their spelling well Screw You

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          1. Lisa – sorry for your loss. Never easy burying a loved one and you have gone through three.
            Take care.

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      1. Mr. Smith, thank you for the corrections, however I did preempt my statement with the difference between a formal letter and a blog post,especially when utilizing a cellphone.

        I assure you that neither Jessica Martinez or Rom Mackey can hold a candle to my writing skills. Their errors aren’t typos or just typing quickly, they have a genuine issue with comprehensive writing skills.

        Anyone who posts here frequently is well aware Pennie’s system to review and edit your posts is very difficult and challenging to utilize.

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  6. Maria, you clearly understand everything that I post no matter, spelling, grammar, everything but more importantly so does everyone else. Your piss poor performance as a member of the Bridgeport Board Of Education will be over the next time you run. You have done nothing to improve the level of education for the 22,000 school children in Bridgeport. Everything is about Maria.

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    1. Apparently, we had “21,000” students at 7:56 a.m.and suddenly we have “22,000” students at 10:56 a.m. The birthrates in Bridgeport are simply astronomical.

      Lennie, I would like to introduce another proposed policy. Anyone unable to post easily obtained and verified data regarding the BPS, will not be allowed to post about the BPS on OIB going forward. The policy could be called “You Just Can’t Make Sh_t Up” policy. 🙂

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  7. I am not an expert on education by any stretch, but it strikes me that the reason charter schools are so popular in Bridgeport is because our school has serious issues. I do not see the same argument happening in the rich cousins of Fairfield County. How hard are people clamoring for Charter School in Greenwich, Darien, and Westport? The issue isn’t charter schools, it’s our underfunded public schools. If Bridgeport schools were fully funded there would be less issues; para-professionals would be back in the classroom for the younger grades. Services could be created to help at-risk youth. Mismanagement by the Mayors and City Council over the years have put us in a situation where we pay more for Policy OT and less for schools. Perhaps if we paid more for education, we would need less police?

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  8. Eric, if I’m not mistaken you said on the forum that either your children or grandchildren went to a charter school? At any rate it’s my understanding that the first charter school introduced to Bridgeport was New Beginnings in 2002. The fact is that Bridgeport schools were abysmal failures prior to 2002 and one can safely say that they are not only still abject failures, but have gotten worse. That’s not the fault of charter schools, it’s the fault of BBOE who prefer to argue, fuss and fight rather than put their differences aside for the benefit of the children they represent. It’s the fault of city government that continually underfunded city schools.

    The fact is that charter schools serving overwhelmingly black and poor students in large cities with a so-called ‘no excuses’ education model” produced “dramatically higher levels of achievement than comparable students attending regular public schools.” There are those among us that would have us to believe that charter schools are a Black and Brown institution solely, but the fact is despite the media focus on Black inner city communities just over half of charter schools are located in cities and only 30% of charter school students are Black.

    Finally, to address the NAACP resolution, Shavar Jeffries, president of Democrats for Education Reform said it best in his statement on the NAACP’s resolution. “The NAACP, a proud organization with a historic legacy of expanding opportunity for communities of color, now itself stands in the schoolhouse door, seeking to deny life-changing educational opportunities to millions of children whose parents and families desperately seek alternatives to schools that have failed them for too long.”

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    1. Brother Day,

      Your whole post is mistaken! I am a proud parent of 3 children that attend Classical Studies Magnet Academy, a Bridgeport Public School! I would never subject my children to the farce that is the charter school industry; that’s akin to abusing one of my children.

      You went on a Google frenzy this morning. Shavar Jeffries is just the latest Uncle Tom to throw his people under the bus doing the man’s bidding for pennies on the dollar.

      Bridgeport’s charter $chools are overwhelmingly Black and Brown. Capital Prep is 90% Black. NBFA is on probation for academic performance. Since NBFA has changed their school day times, and eliminated their after-school programming families have been leaving the school. Coincidentally, their management firm has not reduced their management fee.

      None of the charter schools in Bridgeport perform better than any Magnet schools in Bridgeport (Excluding GCMA). One would still be comparing apples and oranges using the Magnet v. charter example, since both models are “selective” that’s what we’ll use.

      Did you really fix your lips (or in this case use your fingers) to say that it’s okay for our children to be exploited since they “may” have a better opportunity from a charter school!? Are you starting to sundown?

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  9. Eric, you say,” The only thing those publicly funded, privately run schools have done is enrich the pockets of the millionaires and billionaires that invested in them.” So what? Show me some empirical data that shows that charter doesn’t out perform historically public schools. If charters are indeed academically out performing public schools then why should a parent of school aged children want anything other than the best educational opportunity for their children irrespective of how much money rich white people are making off the education of said children.

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    1. Don, some people try to make it a union issue because public schools have union workers and charter schools in Connecticut don’t but there are charter schools in New York that do have union workers. The Bridgeport public schools are failures and Maria wants to stay with a fail school system.

      Don, you sum it good, “why should a parent of school aged children want anything other than the best educational opportunity for their children irrespective of how much money rich white people are making off the education of said children.” That means public schools, magnet school and charter schools all must be in the mix to help solve the problem in educating our children.

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  10. I’m sorry, but did you just reference New Beginnings that was just put on probation by the SDOE for having worse test scores than the BPS? The same New Beginnings that is the most segregated school in Bridgeport with over 99% of students being minority but overwhelmingly black.

    You couldn’t have referenced a charter school in all of CT doing more to fail the needs of black students.

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  11. I strongly support Jessica Martinez and though we are opposite sides of the Charter School debate, I believe she will be everything we in this city need of a Board of Education member should be. She respects my position as I do hers without confrontation but in amicable debate. Neither system is worth anything to me until they actually start to teach the truth; Columbus was a rapist and a thief who got lost, only Europe believed the world to be flat and the Moors where traveling the World long before them, Europeans also put a price/claim on land that at that time had none (other than to use what you needed) etc. etc.

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    1. Is the same Jessica Martinez who repeatedly sent me nasty emails to my personal email address after I specifically directed her to stop or I would be forced to report her to the police?

      She continued to do so, therefore I filed a police report after showing the police officers the emails in question. She was personally contacted by a detective in January and told if she emailed me again that she would be arrested.

      That is the respectful Jessica Martinez you are referring to, Hector?

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      1. Maria,

        Thank you for this detailed information. Continue to bash me and lie as you do, you will be in a legal disaster.

        Due to your lies and “false” police report internal affairs and the chief of police has been all over this case since I got a phone call in January. So I now have more evidence to share for the investigation because the truth is you did NOT file a report and the officer who called me on behalf of “another” officer did not follow procedure or protocol. My cell phone records with the officers number highlighted was added to the investigation.

        I would like to remind you as I did the cop while chuckling at the request to, “stop emailing you”; If you want me to stop emailing you then resign from your elected position that serves the Bridgeport children and parents. I have only emailed you twice on the same day and I have ALL of my emails from you, Maria Pereira, saved and they are ALL from your personal email address giving me permission to reply. Finally, you don’t have a legal leg to stand on or else a real police report would’ve been filed and I’ve never done anything illegal towards you or in life period!

        So, as I stated before the fight you want you won’t get. But I dare you to continue to bash me, defame my character, lie…etc. I have all the evidence I need against you, try me, you will lose! You know me, you really know me, a women of truth, grit, integrity, intelligent, selfless, for the people. A true fighter who NEVER gives up.

        Your dictation, community terrorism, lies, harassment and attacks will come to an end.

        Fyi, this email will be forwarded to the investigators and I have no problem with posting it publicly as well.

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        1. I have a copy of the police report. There is something clearly wrong with you and you clearly lack any self control as you just emailed me again.

          After posting the tirade above, I don’t think anything else needs to be said about your lack of self-control, lack of intelligence, and complete lack of understanding someone else’s boundaries.

          But do continue to flash that lovely smile of yours, Jessica.

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  12. C’mon Eric, you know as well I do that Classical Studies just became a magnet school last year. I know because my grandson goes there and have been going there for the last six years. Why is it you mofo’s think because a Black person disagrees with your position that you fill you have the right to call them an uncle Tom? I’ll ask you the same question I asked that ignorant ass Maria, do you know what an uncle Tom is and what vital part they played in Black history and the uplift of Black people historically and educationally? It was the so-called Uncle Tom that taught Blacks to read after the slave master taught him to read his mail. Your use of ethnic slurs belies your intelligence and is demeaning especially when you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.

    There are those Latinos in Bridgeport that tell me you know about throwing your people under the bus as you have done so numerous times on numerous occasions. As a rule I just listen and don’t comment nor do I ever pass on bullshit when I hear it, but this time I think it’s relevant and justified based on your characterization of a Black man that you have never met as an uncle Tom. You’re no better than Maria and both of you can go to hell.

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    1. Donald, Donald, Donald,

      Please allow me to correct you once again. Classical Studies became a magnet school three years ago. Do you know why CSMA is a magnet school now? Lemme, splain something to you. I was the president of the CSA PAC when we went from K-6 to K-8. The gentleman after me was president of the PAC when we achieved the magnet designation (as a way to get automatic entry into Central Magnet). While you bloviate oh great Bloviator about what you think you know; there are actually folks out here hitting the ground where the people are and doing something about it.

      Anyone that shills for something and money is involved; and it sells out “their” people are scum. –Uncle Tom was actually the protagonist in the book.–

      If I’m going to hell, you surely will be taking the EZ-Pass lane there. I read your comments often and you truly live in some alternate universe. It seems as if you’re frustrated since your ignorance about this issue has gotten the best of you.

      Latinos have told you that I have thrown whom under the bus? First off, Puerto Ricans are Carribean. Secondly, the two or three “Latinos” you know could not have said that I have thrown anyone under the bus. If so prove it.

      That’s like me saying, “The brothers and sisters on the job at BFD think you should stay in your lane.” I totally made that up even if it may actually resonate with some truth. Bottom line, don’t make stuff up oh Great Bloviator.

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  13. Thank you for all of the encouragment and support! I am so excited and ready to work with everyone, we don’t need the same views, I don’t know it all and I look forward to being able to learn from one another and grow even more. Bridgeport Public Schools has many problems, therefore, more than one solution will get us to a better place. So, I not only respect different point of views but I welcome that, knowledge is power and helps me grow.

    I love you Steve A. and Hector D. and I thank you for taking the time to get to know me and my heart.I look forwaed to working along side of you for great outcomes.

    To everyone else, I look forward to having a chance to get to know you, please feel free to contact me via email jmar2230@gmail.com or via phone 203 923 4446.

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  14. In two days, five individuals have posted in support of you. One utilized a handle, therefore we have no idea who it is. We then have Donald Day who resides in the suburbs. Hnmm…

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    1. Eric, that’s ok, I know it was Angel Figueroa who got his ass kicked running against Mario Testa after being put up by Maria to run. I notice that you came in last place for the Bridgeport Board Of Education with only 4.2% of the vote with 194 votes against seven opponents so I guess Maria was of no help.

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      1. Actually, it was Lisa Parziale who suggested we nominate Angel. It had nothing to do with defeating Mario Testa, it was about keeping our campaign promise not to support Mario. We wanted to have a formal record of voting against him.

        Your numbers regarding Eric are completely inaccurate which is in no way surprising coming from you. Both Eric and Sauda received about 200 votes just at Thomas Hooker School alone.

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        1. By the way, not only did Sauda and Eric trounce every Republican BOE candidate at Thomas Hooker School, they received MORE votes than Howard, Dave and Andre.

          That’s right, the WFP candidates beat every endorsed Republican and Democrat at Thomas Hooker School.

          I knocked on every door by myself and knocked it out of the park. Just call me “effective”

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  15. Eric, if you knew what you were talking about you’d be dangerous, but instead you’re a fool. Classical Studies became officially a Magnet for the school year of 2015-2016. That’s two years with 2016-2017 being the second year.

    Alternate Universe; Your children were enrolled in Classical Studies prior to it becoming a Magnet and you are opposed to Charter schools so now does that make you an Uncle Tom like Jeffries who advocates for Charter Schools and you for using them to better educate your children. You had children enrolled in Classical Studies Charter School, which was later designated a Magnet, which now give them clear path to Central High Magnet to give them a better chance academically so that they can go to Post University like dear old dad. Good for me and mine, but the hell with the rest of Puerto Ricans and Blacks that couldn’t play the system as well as I, huh.

    Go call Bill O’Reilly and give him his word back.

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    1. The Google Frenzy continues.

      It’s better to be thought a fool, than to opens ones mouth and remove all doubt.

      Yay, I feel special you googled me and clicked on the ballotpedia link. Their information is all wrong. I came in 5th in an 8 way race. Sadly I had to deal with the death of my grandfather during the run up to the election. Joe Larcheveque won the 5th seat by about 85 votes. Your dumb ass just can’t count.

      My oldest child is not interested in Central Magnet, so your wrong there too. You act as if Post University is a bad school. Where did you go to school?

      Play what game you douche? All of the lottery schools in Bridgeport are just that the luck of the draw. Last time I checked there were more than 300 students at CSMA I have 3 that attend…how am I just taking care of me and mines.

      I never thought I would think of you as an imbecile, but you’ve proved me wrong. You have yet to a salient point regarding anything on this topic.

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  16. You know bloviating, but do you know hypocrite; . a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

    You’re adamantly opposed to Charter schools for other peoples children, but wasn’t opposed to them for your own children. It’s very easy to legislate morality for other people children, huh smart guy. You delude yourself into thinking or believing that I would Google you to find out who you are, please. I’m not that dude.

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    1. Eric got his ass kicked when he ran for the BOE and your hero and boss, Maria, couldn’t help you win. Eric you looked like a fool along with the others from the 138th district DTC voting for Angel as the head of the DTC.

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        1. Maria, you made yourself look like a fool when you made Angel to challenge Mario Testa as the chairman of the DTC. Angel got 6 votes out of the 90 member DTC and in fact Angel couldn’t get all of the 9 votes from your slate of candidates.

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  17. Donald Day, you look so absolutely foolish. Classical Studies Academy has ALWAYS been a Bridgeport Public School. It just took on the additional title of “magnet” in the 2014/2015 school year which would bot be recorded by the SDOE until the 2015/2016 school year.

    This is what happens when suburbanites weigh in on issues relevant to Bridgeport residents. You should feel completely embarassed.

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  18. Well Maria, you should know embarrassment as you have been a total embarrassment on the BBOE. Is there anyone that liked you a year ago that likes you this year? Don’t answer that because it’s rhetorical as no one that liked you a year ago cares for you now and that’s sad. Eric like the dodo bird will fall by the wayside like Sauda, like Howard, like Robert and a myriad of others. It appears as if you’re very hard to like for to long and that’s sad.

    Maria, why does it bother you that I moved to the suburbs? I bought my first home on Seaview Ave at 21 and my second at 31 on Edwin St which like a good Bridgeport resident I paid taxes to the city I love, what about you? What have you done for the City with the exception of embarrass it with your anti-social behavior. Bridgeport would be a better place to live and the children would enjoy a better education and a chance to succeed academically if you moved to the suburbs. May I suggest Litchfield county.

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  19. Well Mr. Day, unlike you, I clearly have hundreds upon hundreds of constituents in Bridgeport that support me. I have clearly proven that at the polls over and over again.

    No politician gets 100% of the vote and all politicians are criticized. It doesn’t take courage to stand with the many, it takes courage to stand alone.

    And, while both you and Mackey continue to post unsubstantiated and completely inaccurate statements on OIB, Eric, myself and others will work together to “Fight the Power’.

    In the end, you sir, could not debate the facts. You instead chose to repeatedly use foul language when responding to both Eric and myself. As I shared with Eric, that’s when you know you won the debate.

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  20. Don, your rhetorical question to Maria is right on point, “Is there anyone that liked you a year ago that likes you this year?” Don I asked the same type of  question to Maria years ago after she got elected to the BOE. I questioned her about individuals who had supported her in the past and I asked her if they were still supporting her. This will Maria last term of being elected to any City elected position.

    You and I have known Sauda Baraka and her family for well over 30 years, way before she was on the BOE. Sauda has always been a fighter in fact Sauda was first elected to the BOE as a Republican but she became a danger to the Republican Party because she would not be a puppet for them. So Sauda ran as a third party candidate and she still got elected by the voters to the BOE. Sauda is highly respected and independent and she’s not control by any party boss.

    Then there’s Bobby Simmons who was also on the BOE and along with Sauda fought together for what was best for the Bridgeport school system. Bobby is a Democrat and like Sauda he’s highly respected and independent and he’s not control by any party boss. I’ve known Bobby for over 30 years and Bobby has always been in the fight and in the struggle to uplift blacks. When ever I run into Bobby we always stop to talk, it’s never one of those hi and we move along. We talk about the state of what is going on. Maria had two strong individuals who were all ready standing up and fighting for the school students in Bridgeport. Bobby is no longer on the BOE but Howard Gardner is on the BOE now fighting along with Sauda but Maria has cut those connections.

    Don, there are others who names I won’t say on OIB who were trying to be helpful to Maria by sharing their experience with her but like Sauda and Howard are no longer down with Maria. Maria does not have skills to expand her base and her base is only the Thomas Hooker area. Maria does NOT know how to form a coalition outside of her base and she doesn’t know how to win friends and influence people but she sure knows how to push people away.

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  21. Maria, your ignorance is only surpassed by those that voted for you. How long will Eric ride the Pereira ship of fools that others have abandoned? As soon as he has the balls to disagree with you he will fall by the wayside like many others. Believe that Eric. If I used foul language to you or Eric it was after the use of a racial slur to define Black people which I found reprehensible and will absolutely do again.

    Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. Robinson has a stake in the future of education for the youth of Bridgeport as they both have children in the school system and yet you don’t. All of your histrionic personality disorder, your exaggerated dramatic behavior and aggressive actions stops the educational process which has no effect on you because you have no children in the Bridgeport school system, yet you continue to do it. As I said before, if you really care about the education of Bridgeport’s youth you would move to the suburbs and again may I suggest Litchfield county.

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