Paul Bass Photo
Shafiq Abdussabur at WNHH FM: Community grows face-to-face.
The city’s Board of Education should ditch the remote and resume meeting in person to tackle the school system’s challenges, in the view of Democratic mayoral candidate Shafiq Abdussabur.
Abdussabur made the suggestion Tuesday during an interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
The board has been meeting over Zoom since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when school instruction also went remote. Board meetings remained remote after students and teachers returned to in-person school instruction. (The Martinez School student council has been meeting in person.)
Abdussabur, who filed papers this past Friday for his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, argued that in-person Board of Education meetings would attract more community involvement in tackling problems like declining reading scores and high absenteeism and truancy.
“In person you could actually have people come and attend,” Abdussabur stated on the program. (Note: Abdussabur separately co-hosts the WNHH show “Urban Talk Radio.”)
“This is what we learned with Covid, now that Covid’s over: Every New Havener does not have good connectivity. Meaning that they are not going to have good internet. Every New Havener does not have the ability to get on Zoom. Every New Haven citizen that might be concerned and want to have civic engagement may not know how to navigate their way through a Zoom. Zoom is a very depersonalized way to engage people. Why? You get on these Zooms, and the chat is disabled. I say something that I want to say, everybody can’t see it.
“The other thing is: It’s one-dimensional. you can’t be in the room and feel people’s vibe. You can’t socialize. You can’t build community.”
Some local boards, like the Board of Alders, have resumed in-person meetings. The Police Commission has begun holding hybrid meetings. Community management teams have varying practices. Others, like the zoning board and City Plan, have remained remote.
Democratic Mayor Justin Elicker, who sits on the Board of Ed and appointed a majority of its members, said later on Tuesday that he supports continuing remote meetings. He noted that the move to remote has coincided with more citizens attending. (Board of Ed meetings have public comment sessions.)
“We have seen a very significant increase in participation because it’s more accessible to people at home. That’s been a great thing. … I think it’s been overall working well to make sure that the important work of the Board of Ed gets done,” said Elicker, who is running for a third two-year term.
“In-person communication is always helpful and important. It doesn’t necessarily need to happen at a Board of Education formal meeting. There are always other opportunities. I’ve tried to make myself available personally as mayor for in-person opportunities to engage, whether it’s ‘have a beer with the mayor,’ ‘have coffee with the mayor’ ” sessions.
Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera cited the same argument in announcing recently that meetings will remain remote for the foreseeable future. Board member Darnell Goldson argued that online meetings make the board less accountable. (Click here to read about that.) In general, some people have argued that online meetings work more efficiently by making it easier for people to participate; others have argued that the online format leads participants to drag out proceedings and make them less efficient.
“Participation in virtual meetings by members of the community has been robust,” Rivera told the Independent in a comment for this story. “We believe we are reaching at least as many people virtually as we did in person.”
Abdussabur was asked about the observation that some people who otherwise would not participate end up signing up to speak remotely through Zoom Board of Ed meetings. They can do that by simply clicking on from home rather than going in person to a public gathering place.
“What people?” he responded. “You can’t have community without communicating to all people. You can’t have the ability to have inclusivity if all people can’t be included.”
Plus, he said, in person, participants can “shake their hand” with other people, “or salute them. ‘Hey, how are you? How’s your family?’ That’s how you build” community.
In other campaign news, another Democratic mayoral candidate, Tom Goldenberg, held a campaign fundraiser Saturday at Il Gabbiano restaurant on Long Wharf. Speakers included his wife, public health professor Jessica Holzer, and Jayuan Carter, a politically active New Havener who had served on Elicker’s transition team after the 2019 election. The meeting, at one point announced as closed to the press, ended up in fact open to the press.
Click on the video above to watch the full conversation with mayoral candidate Shafiq Abdussabur, during which he discusses his campaign and personal background as well as a proposal to negotiate with developers to provide subsidized housing for city police officers, on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Click here to subscribe to “Dateline New Haven” and here to subscribe to other WNHH FM podcasts.
Click on the above video to watch a recent interview with Democratic mayoral candidate Tom Goldenberg on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Mr. Abdussabur is right. If the Mayor and School Board President are concerned with the number of people who can "access" the meetings via Zoom, it should hold hybrid meetings where the Board meets in person while allowing citizens to join in by Zoom.
Democracy is not designed to allow the tyranny of the (supposed) majority to override the rights and inclusion of the minority. The Board's argument fails to admit that people who can join the meeting via Zoom likely have the means to attend in person but wish to avoid inconveniencing themselves, but the Board is willing to inconvenience those who cannot participate by Zoom.
The Board's perspective here is both classist and egregious.