Aliyya Swaby Photo
Garcia-Blocker whispers an answer to Harries after being prevented from speaking out loud. At left, Dawson.
Alicia Caraballo, who voted twice against the mayor becoming Board of Education president, became the board’s vice-president — and thus the mayor’s presidential second in command.
The Board of Ed elected Caraballo to the post at its regular meeting Monday night.
The vote had been postponed from the previous meeting, when a 4 – 4 deadlock revealed the political fractures beneath the once-unanimous board.
The vote fit with the tone of the rest of the board meeting Monday night at L.W. Beecher School. It featured little action but persistent squabbling over procedural details and chain of information — including a Marx Brothers-like dance over who could speak out loud, and who had to whisper remarks to other people who could repeat the remarks out loud.
Daisy Gonzalez was absent from the meeting, leaving the board at seven members — which made the possibility of a tie vote over the vice-president position less likely this time, unless some members abstained.
When Mayor Toni Harp was first voted president of the board in the fall, she said then-Vice President Che Dawson, an ally, would take over for any meetings she missed due to mayoral responsibilities. “I’m going to try to fit it in. But that’s why you have a vice president,” she said in September.
Caraballo and Goldson at Monday night’s meeting.
But when it came time to reelect Dawson to the position two weeks ago, with a new make-up of the board evenly split between critics and supporters of the current schools management, Dawson and Caraballo tied. This Monday night, Dawson dropped out of the running. “The group wanted to support Alicia. I didn’t think it was worth further division on the board,” he told the Independent after the meeting. “I’m happy to support her.”
Now the mayor’s VP is Caraballo, who has been supportive of some of the mayor’s educational policies but not of Superintendent of Schools Garth Harries’s performance or of Harp’s decision to serve as board president, calling it a “conflict of interest.” The vote for vice-president was unanimous this time.
Expanded Day Learning
Goldson and Harp.
The division on the board also stems in part from the addition of two new elected members — Edward Joyner and Darnell Goldson — who sat for their second meetings Monday. Goldson voted Mayor Harp back into board presidency at the last meeting, saying she had not yet had enough time to prove her effectiveness in the role. At Monday’s meeting, the two repeatedly clashed over board procedure, especially on how and when information should be transmitted to members from the district.
Goldson asked Harp to explain why the district had signed a non-binding letter of intent to partner with Citizen Schools on an expanded day learning program, without a board vote.
Harp said the previous board had visited programs and organizations carrying out programs targeting students who were not thriving educationally. “Citizen Schools rose to the top,” she said. The partnership will not be formalized without a board vote.
Goldson said signing the letter of intent would keep the board from seeking other options. The letter proposes the board contribute $567,000 per year to the program.
Joyner said Citizen Schools had not been subject to the same kind of federal program evaluation as other, more established organizations. “I struggle with the criteria the board used to select this one,” he said.
“You haven’t been left out, but you’re coming in the middle of a process,” Harp said. “You weren’t here …That’s why this may seem new to you.”
Playing Telephone
Celentano Principal Keisha Hannans (pictured) approached the board during public comment to ask for more information on the district’s proposed change in its school funding model — which could drastically redistribute funding allocated to each of the 47 schools. She said she had requested to receive information on the changes in the budget process as soon as possible. But she was told she will not get it until a week before her individual meeting with district officials. Those meetings with principals started Monday and end in mid-February, she said.
Hannans requested that the superintendent use a meeting with the principals this week to inform the principals about those changes. “Major systemic changes require several conversations with the stakeholders,” she said.
Goldson made a motion to require Superintendent Harries to get information on the changes in the funding model to the board and principals within a week.
Superintendent Harries said he had met with the administrators union last week and was surprised after that meeting “that this was raised here.” He said it is important that the principals understand the funding model. The school funding committee did not reach a consensus on how to improve equity in how the schools were funded, except to agree that inequity exists, he said.
The current planned timeline is to discuss the budget in the Finance and Operations Committee March 7, and then have two full-board discussions March 14 and 28.
Board member Michael Nast asked whether all principals feel the same way, or if Hannans was representing just herself. Goldson asked whether Hannans could answer that question.
Harp denied the request to have Hannans respond. Instead, she said, because the board was in the middle of discussing Goldson’s motion, Hannans had to whisper the answer to Goldson, who could say it on the record.
Hannans was representing many in the administrators union, she whispered to Goldson, who then relayed the remark the board and the public.
Dawson asked whether Goldson’s information request would be feasible for the district to carry out. That was a question for Lola Garcia-Blocker, the district’s chief of staff.
Could she answer the question directly? Harries asked.
No, Mayor Harp said. Garcia-Blocker crossed the auditorium to whisper the answer in Harries’ ear.
“It’s a shame that this is the way we’re doing business,” Harries said to Harp.
“That is not what you were asked to comment on,” Harp responded.
After consulting with Garcia-Blocker, Harries said he could switch gears and talk with principals about the school funding changes at the meeting Thursday.
“We won’t get to the level of funding at every school,” he said.
Goldson noted he had requested information on school funding last week.
“Apparently they only answer questions that are easy,” he said. “A week is more than enough time to get that information to me as a board member.” The Board of Alders starts its budget process in March; the Board of Ed should begin earlier, he said.
Nast voted against Goldson’s motion. All other board members voted yes.
"Harries said he could switch gears and talk with principals about the school funding changes"
I guess the changes are coming, whether we want them or not.
"discuss the budget in the Finance and Operations Committee March 7, and then have two full-board discussions March 14 and 28."
This is irresponsible. Principals need to be hiring in March, not still wondering what their budgets will look like.
New motto for NHPS: "They're Gonna Do What They Wanna Do."