Aliyya Swaby Photo
Mayor Toni Harp is adding Board of Education president to her list of leadership roles in the city. The one board member who voted against that move called it a “conflict of interest.”
The board member — Alicia Caraballo — phoned her no vote in to Monday night’s full board meeting at Martinez School. She then joined others to unanimously vote Che Dawson in as vice president and Daisy Gonzalez as secretary.
“Since I am held accountable already for the performance of the city’s schools,” Harp said, it was fitting “that I throw myself in the middle of it. My involvement will only be more direct.”
Aliyya Swaby File Photo
Carlos Torre, the outgoing president, nominated the mayor for the position. Gonzalez seconded the motion. Caraballo (pictured) was the only opposing vote.
“I just feel that as mayor, first of all, she appoints board members. It seems to me that it’s a conflict of interest,” Caraballo said when asked why she voted no. “And I think that as president of the board, you’re not just running a meeting. There are a lot of responsibilities as chairperson … I just didn’t feel comfortable.”
Harp’s new role might not stick, as board members might have to take a revote in January, when two new members are elected.
Thanks to a 2013 citywide charter revision referendum, the city’s eight-member board of ed is going from being a mayoral-elected body to a hybrid board, with four mayoral appointees, two members elected by the public and two non-voting student members. The public will elect the two voting members in November 2015, and they will take their positions in January 2016.
Darnell Goldson is running unopposed in District 2 and Democrat Edward Joyner is facing Republican James O’Connell in District 1 in November.
The board votes in new leadership every September, as it is required by city charter to do so once a year. But state law requires the board to hold elections within a month after newly elected members take their positions.
Those two regulations currently conflict with one another, said Superintendent Garth Harries. “We have to hold the election tonight,” he said. Eventually, the final board “will have to change the bylaws so the election shifts from September to January. We will have to reconsider it in January.”
So the mayor’s responsibility, as she saw it, was to lead the board “in a time of transition.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll do it,” she said.
Torre has held the role of president for a composite 20 years. A professor at Southern Connecticut State University, he had perfect attendance at full board meetings in 2014.
Mayor Harp was absent three times from full board meetings last year. She acknowledged she likely would not have the time to make every meeting as board president.
“I’m going to try to fit it in. But that’s why you have a vice president,” she said.
Addressing the public after the vote, Harp said she would push the board to “build and expand” on the district’s updated school reform plan. She said the district’s recent Standard Balance Assessment scores, which were well below the state average, “exposed a number of glaring issues waiting to be addressed … we must do more. We must do better.”
Twenty years on the Board of Ed and almost all of it as Board Chair. REALLY???? Can't see a better rationale for term limits to Board of Ed membership. 20 years is ridiculously long, and its not like there is anything fantastic we can point to that Carlos Torre did or lead.