Harp Taps Jackson-McArthur For School Board

Mayor Toni Harp has made her choice for replacing one of two Board of Education members whose seats expire at the end of December.

Harp has nominated Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, a pediatrician, and owner of New Haven Pediatric & Adolescent Medical Services, to replace long-serving member Carlos Torre.

The terms of Torre and fellow board member Che Dawson, who both hold two of the four seats that the mayor is allowed to appoint under the current hybrid board, both expire at the end of December. The mayor’s most recent appointments have been Frank Redente and Jamell Cotto.

The two other voting members, Ed Joyner and Darnell Goldson, are elected in citywide elections. The two non-voting student members, Jacob Spell and Makayla Dawkins, are elected by their peers.

Jackson-McArthur’s appointment was communicated to the Board of Alders ahead of its most recent meeting at City Hall Monday and likely will be forwarded to the Aldermanic Affairs Committee for consideration. The full board would then vote on the appointment.

Assuming the alders approve her picks, the naming of two board members gives the mayor the opportunity to have a solid majority on the Board of Education. Until recently Harp opponents had a voting majority on the ed board; her administration recently has had a tenuous one-vote majority.

Jackson-McArthur currently is a commissioner of the city’s Board of Health Commission. That appointment is good through February 2021.

If alders approve the appointment to the Board of Ed, that appointment will be good through Dec. 31, 2021. She also most recently served on the original search committee that selected the new schools’ superintendent.

“I am most confident given Dr. Jackson-McArthur’s credentials and commitment to our City, that she will serve the citizens of New Haven in a most conscientious and productive manner,” Harp wrote in a letter to alders dated Nov. 16.

A suggested replacement for Dawson has yet to be communicated to alders.