Laura Glesby Photo
Wilcox: "Not all board members would be able to meet in person."
Local legislators endorsed Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox’s bid to serve another term on the city’s school board — after grilling the mayoral appointee on the board’s online-only meetings and fractured parental trust.
Wilcox won that vote of support Monday night from the Board of Alders Aldermanic Affairs Committee, which met in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
Wilcox — a 53-year-old Westville resident, director of Quinnipiac University’s Netter Library, and father of three New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) graduates — saw his first three-year term on the Board of Ed expire on December 31. Earlier this month, Mayor Justin Elicker tapped him to serve another term on the school board through the end of 2026. In addition to being the board’s vice president, he is also the chair of the board’s Finance and Operations Committee.
On Monday, Wilcox faced tough questions about the state of New Haven schools, which have struggled with low reading rates and attendance levels, as well as the state of the Board of Education itself, which alders — picking up on critiques leveled by at least two Democratic mayoral challengers and fellow Board of Ed member Darnell Goldson — lambasted for meeting only online and potentially limiting parent involvement in school decisions. (Mayor Justin Elicker and Board of Ed President Yesenia Rivera have defended all-online meetings as boosting citizen attendance.)
All the while, Wilcox portrayed himself Monday night as a voice for transparency and community engagement among board members.
The committee interrogated Wilcox on the question of the board’s remote-only meeting on Zoom. The board has met online only since the start of the pandemic nearly three years ago.
“For every person I’ve had say we should be meeting in person, I’ve heard someone say they’re grateful we don’t,” Wilcox told the committee. “I acknowledge in-person meetings are important. I’m certainly not against it.” But, he noted, there are “board members and family members who have health issues” that would prevent them from showing up to an in-person meeting.
“There’s no reason the board can’t meet in person,” declared Aldermanic Affairs Committee Chair and Fair Haven Heights Alder Rosa Ferraro-Santana.
“Not all board members would be able to meet in person,” Wilcox persisted.
“I don’t understand why the board can’t meet in person. What is the reason?” Ferraro-Santana responded. “This is my biggest issue.”
At that, Wilcox conceded, “This is probably something the board should take up again.”
Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes asked if Wilcox could “give us some assurance” that he would bring the issue up in his capacity as vice president, noting that the board could meet in a hybrid online/in-person format if need be. Wilcox committed to raising the issue.
Antunes pivoted to pressing Wilcox on how the board plans to “improve the level of education” in New Haven public schools, amid a reading and math crisis affecting the district.
“We’re still suffering the effects of Covid learning loss,” Wilcox said. He said that chronic absenteeism and staffing shortages have been affecting schools’ ability to teach students effectively.
Wilcox listed a few of the measures that the school system is taking to address learning concerns: piloting updated reading curricula, hiring a new math curriculum supervisor, implementing more professional development, growing a now-20-person team of dropout prevention workers to check in on thousands of chronically absent kids, and implementing more before and after-school programs.
Rosa Ferraro-Santana: "I don't understand why the board can't meet in person."
Yale/Downtown Alder Alex Guzhnay asked Wilcox about his stated goals when he appeared before alders in 2019: to work on “transparency” and “conversations with stakeholders.”
“I advocate for transparency on the board,” Wilcox said, noting that he’s worked to clarify and update financial policies in particular.
He added that the upcoming search process for a superintendent to replace soon-to-retire Iline Tracey will be a test of that transparency.
Wilcox wasn’t on the Board of Ed for the highly-controversial hiring process of Carol Birks a few years ago, he said, but “hopefully the board’s learned lessons from the last time: it’s not going to work if you ignore community input.”
The board has already publicly debated questions of how to proceed with the superintendent search process, including in one recent meeting that devolved into personal attacks and adjourned early as a result. The board of ed plans to hold a public meeting from 3 to 6 p.m. online Wednesday to discuss the superintendent search process. (Click here to for the Zoom link. The password for that Zoom meeting is: Search23)
One question that remains is whether the board will comprise the entire search committee for the new superintendent or whether it will add seats on the committee for members of the public. Wilcox did not directly weigh in on this issue on Monday, but he said that he supported the board’s contract with the search firm McPherson and Jacobson because of the firm’s track record of community engagement.
Antunes urged Wilcox to go beyond soliciting public input on the future superintendent and actually give parents a “seat at the table,” on the search committee itself.
The topic of parents’ access and involvement in school district decisions recurred throughout the meeting.
Guzhnay asked how the board should “engage parents and teachers beyond Zoom, which albeit has been helpful for a lot of people.”
His question was echoed by Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez: “How will you make sure you hone in on hearing directly from the parents?”
“Being in the schools is a useful thing,” Wilcox responded, adding that he had recently visited Saturday school programs across the district. “Board members do that some. I’m encouraging them to do that more. I’d like to do that more.”
Mayoral Challengers Take Opposite Sides
Tom Goldenberg and Shafiq Abdussabur.
Tom Goldenberg and Shafiq Abdussabur, who are both running as Democrats against incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker in the upcoming mayoral election primary, were the only members of the public to testify on Monday.
Both candidates decried the current state of schools, referencing reading scores and absenteeism rates. They offered opposite takes on how alders should handle Wilcox’ reappointment.
“Given the level of dysfunction, our current Board of Education needs to be under serious review,” Goldenberg said. He called on alders to hold back on reappointing Wilcox — or any current members of the board — until his specific concerns about absenteeism data, in-person meetings, and parent inclusion in the superintendent search are met.
Abdussabur, meanwhile, argued that the alders should reappoint Wilcox. “We can’t afford to take resources from the board. We have absent teachers, absent students — we can’t start dealing with absences on the board.”
Both called on the board to host in-person or hybrid meetings rather than remaining solely online.
Alders Debate "Crossroads"
Downtown/Yale Alder Alex Guzhnay: Going to schools is "honestly the bare minimum," but demonstrates "initiative."
When committee alders had an opportunity to deliberate before voting, they weighed the strengths and weaknesses they heard in Wilcox’s pitch — and debated whether failing to reappoint him would make him “collateral damage.”
“I have concerns,” said Antunes. He said he’s particularly disappointed that New Haven’s technical and trade education programs, while growing, have not yet amounted to a robust curriculum like at the old Eli Whitney school. Still, Antunes said, Wilcox “presented well.”
“I’m also at a crossroads,” Guzhnay said. “I would have liked to hear Mr. Wilcox’s commitment to parent representation on the superintendent search committee … I don’t think I was too, too impressed with his answer on that.”
Guzhnay praised Wilcox’s commitment to visiting schools. “That’s honestly the bare minimum, but it shows some initiative.”
Ferraro-Santana observed that “the last time we appointed [Board of Ed President] Yesenia [Rivera], she made a lot of promises and didn’t keep them.”
“I can’t wholeheartedly support Matt Wilcox without putting a noose around his neck,” she said to gasps from other attendees, by demanding tangible improvements on learning and in-person accessibility in order to go through with the reappointment.
(Update: Alder Ferraro-Santana issued a statement regarding this comment on Jan. 28: “I would try and offer an explanation for what I said, but there are no excuses. My intentions, though good, don’t matter here: only my poor choice of words. I take responsibility for my selfish action and the terrible pain I have caused anyone.”)
Rodriguez defended Wilcox. “He has listened to us. He has good attendance. I’d like to give him another opportunity.” She added, “Mr. Wilcox is one of many commissioners on the Board of Education,” arguing that he shouldn’t be held responsible for every failure of the board.
The sole committee alder to firmly advocate against Wilcox’s reappointment was Beaver Hills Alder Tom Ficklin. “He is the victim of collateral damage,” Ficklin conceded, but he criticized Wilcox’s “resistance to hybrid meetings.”
After the meeting, when asked about his sole vote against Wilcox’s reappointment, Ficklin declined to comment further, except for stating, “You might want to ask Matt about parent representation on the Board of Education.”
Tom Ficklin: Board should go hybrid; what about "parent representation"?
He alluded to an argument that Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller laid out more explicitly in a recent email newsletter: that Wilcox should be replaced by a parent of current public school students, since no other board member except for the mayor has kids who are actively in the city’s public schools.
Miller wrote in a newsletter to Ward 14 residents earlier this week: “It is concerning to me that this reappointment would mean that parents and guardians of the 19K+ NHPS students have NO representation on the Board outside of the Mayor. Parent representation on the Board of Education should be a given, not only because parents and guardians have a right to representation, but also because they can bring a high level of urgency to the table given that decisions impact their own children immediately. Current parents and guardians may also have more direct knowledge of what is currently happening in schools.”
Ultimately, all committee alders except for Ficklin voted to favorably recommend Wilcox’s reappointment Monday night, while planning to convene other Board of Education members for similar interviews, perhaps in tandem with the alders’ Education Committee.
“We’re a city of second chances,” Antunes said. Wilcox’s reappointment will next go before the full Board of Alders for a final vote.
This all can be avoided if New Haven implements an elected Board! New Haven is the only city in the state that has an appointed BOE, and appointed by the mayor of a one party rule. Give parents the opportunity to campaign and get voted in and make significant change in our NHPS system. The dysfunction of this board is appalling and needs an overhaul. YES, at minimal a hybrid meeting is in order. Enough of not meeting in person. If a board member can not attend in person they should be replaced. This is an extremely important position and needs to be taken seriously and meet in person!! Everyone has gotten lazy and likes the couch. Time to wake up and resolve NHPS's problems head on.
Charter revision should consider making these positions elected. Maybe have one or two appointed, but NOT the majority of the Board!!