Monday (tonight) at 6:30 an organizational meeting of the newly formed elected Board of Education is scheduled to take place at the Aquaculture School with Mayor Bill Finch chairing the process to select officers. Will they all make nice?
The new Democrats on the board Jacqueline Kelleher, Hernan Illingworth and Ken Moales join Tom Mulligan, Leticia Colon and Bobby Simmons. The remaining three members–Maria Pereira, Sauda Baraka and John “Bags” Bagley–all were elected running on the Working Families Party line. Bagley was the fourth member elected in last Tuesday’s special election. Prior to the elected board dissolving itself in July of last year in favor of state control that was overturned by the Connecticut Supreme Court, Pereira, Baraka and Simmons had generally voted in a bloc including their vote against vaporizing local control. Will Bags join the opposition bloc as one of the four new board members?
The first course of business tonight is selection of school board officers. This also represents the first meeting that includes Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas with an elected body.
One of the arguments made by supporters for state control was the ferocious opposition from the minority voting bloc that led to claims of a dysfunctional mess to the detriment of the students. In November city voters will decide if they want to continue with an elected school board or support the mayor’s charter revision proposal to appoint the body. No doubt a contrast will be pitched to voters showing the tranquility on the board during the year of a state-appointed school board versus the old days of bickering that blocked progress. If the fighting resumes with this elected board does it play into the hands of supporters of an appointed body? Pereira, Baraka, Simmons and Bagley are all opposed to a mayoral-appointed school board.
Meanwhile, Leticia Colon, barred by the City Charter to keep both her school board and City Council positions, resigned from the legislative body on Friday. City Council members will choose her replacement. From the City Charter:
(d) Whenever a vacancy occurs, for any reason, in the membership of the city council, such vacancy shall be filled for the unexpired portion of the term by a majority vote of the city council members from the same political party as the council member vacating such office. If there are no other members from the same political party as the member vacating such office, the vacancy shall be filled by majority vote of the whole number of council members. No person shall be elected to fill a vacancy on the city council unless he/she is a resident and registered voter of the city and is a member of the same political party as the person vacating such office. No person shall be elected to fill a vacancy in the office of any council member unless he/she is also a resident and registered voter in the same council district as the person vacating such office.
1. First thing the new board should do is rescind Paul Vallas’ contracts.
2. Next fire all (Vallas people) consultants …
3. Restorative justice for Tom Mulligan.
Leticia Colon = BoE chair?
1. Vallas has done an amazing job.
2. Continue to support the Vallas people.
3. Justice for the kids who should demand more from their elected board.
Let’s see how little this new board can accomplish in the next two months!
Whether the charter reform package passes or not the four who were elected last week will stay on the board until November 30, 2015. The new mayor who gets elected in 2015 will appoint effective Dec 1, as for the five who were elected in 2009, their terms end November 30, 2013. If the charter reform package passes Finch will appoint five members Dec. 1, 2013. If the charter reform package fails there will be a BOE election for five members next November. Either way this group of elected nine is in power until November 30, 2013. Whoever gets elected tonight is chair for one year and a couple of months.
countdown can’t count votes.
If Bill Finch loses the Charter question, he will force the BOE to take another vote to disband. There is no way in hell he is going to wait until 2015 to take complete control of the BOE.
That much you can count on.
*** Probably “not” due to past political events and personal feelings. But if these short, upcoming BOE meetings before the Nov. election turn out to be another us against them type of setting, it will be easy to make the choice between elected or appointed BOE for the voters, no? ***
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Steve, this is what JML and I have been saying for the past two years. We attended nearly all the Budget hearings and pointed out many areas where they were hiding a significant amount of money. We also pointed out the city paying less than they should on pension payments. We held 10 or more meetings around the city and pointed this out to those who attended. It’s still going on and the majority in this city do not give a damn.
I found Judge Lopez’s legal analysis of the quandary Ms. Colon finds herself in is right on the money.
Even if one wants to argue she did not believe she was not a member of the BOE when she took office on the City Council (which is an extremely weak argument), the minute the Supreme Court ruled the action to disband was illegal, she had to make a choice.
And we now know, her choice was to choose the City Council. There is no gray area. Every vote she took on the City Council after that ruling would be deemed illegal if challenged in a court.
She is off the board and needs to be replaced.
And if the City Attorney rules otherwise, I hope someone hauls his ass into court again so as to continue to prove the bias by which he issues his opinions.
I just returned from the BOE meeting. J. Kelleher was elected chairwoman and Hernan Illingworth was elected Secretary. I could not hear who was nominated as Vice chair.
Working Family Party tried to stop the seating of Leticia Colon but they were told there was a ruling from the city attorney’s office allowing her to sit.
I want to remind all the BOE members that you are there for ALL of the kids, you are not there to do combat with each other. Leticia Colon and Tom Mulligan I hope you are there for the kids and not for political reasons. You were both ineffective prior to the breakup of the board.
Let’s hope and pray the kids get what they deserve and that is a functioning school board and not a bunch of grownups showing kids how not to behave.
There are some very lucrative contracts the BOE will give out. Kids? Try contracts.
It’s too bad the BOE audit Russo got money for never got anywhere. It would have been nice to do an operational analysis as to how and to whom BOE contracts are meted out, and most importantly, why was one vendor picked over
another.
Take a look at the ‘elected’ members of the BOE and examine their loyalties to the political influencers in this town. Shameful!!!