Aliyya Swaby Photo
A few days after submitting a letter to the Board of Ed requesting they mediate a disagreement with the city, parents gathered to rally support for a beloved board member at risk of getting the axe.
Leaders used Thursday’s Citywide Parent Team meeting at Wilbur Cross High School to field questions about the disagreement, which centers around whether the ed board should have eight or seven members for the next year. They encouraged parents to support Board of Ed member Daisy Gonzalez, whom the Board of Alders voted to remove from her position in late December, terminating her term two years early. (Gonzalez remains on the ed board, which has retained lawyers to fight to keep her there.)
The Citywide Parent Team nominated and elected Gonzalez as a parent liaison to the Board of Ed, and she was then appointed by Mayor Toni Harp, not Ruth Swanson, who is on the parent group’s steering committee. Gonzalez is a direct link for parents who otherwise would not feel heard on the board, Swanson said.
The language in a 2013 charter revision switching to a hybrid Board of Education comprised of elected and appointed members did not account for how to drop from eight to seven members, as required under the charter. The Board of Ed passed a resolution in mid-December proposing a gradual shift to seven members by January 2017. A week later, the Board of Alders voted to dump the most recently appointed ed board member, Gonzalez, to preserve the seven-member board. The Board of Ed is preparing to legally fight to keep Gonzalez if necessary, and voted for just one year to have an eight-member board until another board member’s term expires.
“It’ll take a year to resolve it with lawyers,” Swanson said of the dispute. “By then it will be at the correct number and we will have lost Daisy.”
Jennifer Ricker presented a letter to the Board of Ed at Monday’s meeting urging them to use mediation instead of legal action.
Click here to read the letter.
Even if the Board of Ed transitions to being fully elected, having a parent liaison such as Gonzalez is important for representing those who are out-of-district, Ricker said. She is from Hamden and said it is “nice to know that I have a parent liaison on my side,” although she cannot vote for the elected members.
At least one person on the other side of the debate was listening to their plea. Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow showed up to Thursday’s meeting to sit in the audience and listen, urged to do so by parent constituents. He declined to comment when leaving the meeting, because of potential litigation connected to the dispute.
Ricker and parent leaders Thursday night also brought in the district’s directors of instruction, to direct parent questions about how to get their concerns heard. Abie Benitez, Gil Traverso, Lola Garcia-Blocker, Kim Johnsky and Iline Tracey explained their roles, listed the schools they each oversee and fielded individual questions.
“Do you have to go to the Board of Education or parent liaison when you have a concern?” one parent asked.
Tracey listed the chain of command for parent concerns: first, teachers and administrators at school level, then “if you’re not getting headway,” a parent liaison, then “if you’re not getting any answer” a director of instruction, then district parent advocate Danny Diaz, and as a last resort Superintendent Garth Harries.
“Some people jump the gun and go straight to the superintendent,” she said.
“Do you really want parents involved?” asked Letisha Harris, who has a child at King/Robinson.
Yes, Tracey said. “The question would be the level of involvement we want,” which school leaders should work with parents to define.
Nijija-Ife Water said a lot of parents “feel like they have gone up the chain of command and still” haven’t gotten responses. “That starts to develop a very angry parent. By the time they get to you, they’re so angry. They can’t talk to you. You can’t understand where they’re coming from. How can we move forward with parents?”
Johnson said directors of instruction and district officials “make decisions that we feel is in the best interest of the child.” They understand angry parents care about their children. “The resolution in all cases will fall on: Where does the child fall?”
Bravo, Alder Furlow, points for just showing-up!