Markeshia Ricks File Photo
Daisy Gonzalez with a supporter the night the alders voted to unseat her.
The Board of Education will have eight members until 2017, but only seven will vote at each meeting.
That is the upshot of a settlement agreement the Board of Alders unanimously voted Monday night to accept with the Board of Ed after months of a battle fought partly inside of the legal system. The Board of Ed voted to accept the agreement at a retreat Saturday.
Click here to read the agreement.
The settlement ends a lawsuit the Board of Alders brought to prevent the Board of Ed from having eight members.
The problem developed as two new elected members prepared to join the board on Jan. 1 — and because of a screw-up, the board would have eight members, rather than seven, as called for by a change to the city charter approved in 2013.
The 2013 charter referendum approved two elected members and two non-voting student members on the Board of Education. It required the board to have seven members, but left out language to address how to downsize from eight.
With the new settlement, all eight current voting members — five appointed, two elected and Mayor Toni Harp — will continue their terms on the Board of Ed.
But only seven will serve at any one time.
The five appointed members will rotate in two week increments, so that one will not be a voting member during that period. Ed board members can decide how to rotate appointed members, but it “shall be accomplished fairly such that each rotated member has as equal an opportunity as is logistically possible throughout the remainder of 2016 to participate and vote,” the agreement states.
The agreement will not affect the new elected members or non-voting student members, or Mayor Toni Harp, the board’s president.
Board members Michael Nast and Alicia Caraballo are serving terms set to expire at the end of 2016, at which time Mayor Harp can appoint one member to bring the total to seven. But Daisy Gonzalez is the most recently mayorally appointed board member — so the Board of Alders filed suit against the Board of Ed in state court, asking for an injunction preventing her from continuing as a member.
Just weeks before, the ed board had voted to approve an extra member for the 2016 transition year.
Alders hired criminal defense attorney Norm Pattis to file the suit. The Board of Ed hired Stephen Sedor, of firm Pullman and Comley.
Both lawyers submitted requests for a continuance of the case from March 2 to March 16, reporting they were close to a deal to settle the case out of court.
The Board of Alders and Board of Ed, including Daisy Gonzalez, released a joint statement on the settlement: “We are pleased that the Parties were able to work collaboratively to bring about a mutually beneficial resolution. We believe that the Parties’ resolution gives effect to all provisions of the Charter and allows them to continue to go about their efforts to serve the students and residents of the City of New Haven.”
In the settlement, alders rescinded a previous order requiring Gonzalez to step down from the board, allowing her to finish her term ending December 31, 2018. They also withdrew their civil action against the Board of Ed.
For previous coverage:
• Alders, Ed Board Near Settlement
• Alders Sue Ed Board
• Veto Issued, Withdrawn
• 4+4=Stalemate
• The Lawyers Win
• Separation Of Powers Battle Looms
• Schools Approve 8‑Member Transition Board
• Eyewitness to Blunder (Opinion)
• Bartlett: Goldson’s Wrong (Opinion)
• In Board Of Ed’s Math, 7=8 (Opinion)
• Schools Try To Fix Supersized Board
• Oops! New Board of Ed Illegally Supersized
It's about time Adults got it right Now spend the money that each side planned to use to sue each other on the students and then shut up and support the good teachers who are in schools to help kids. Adults on both sides were childish and demonstrated a lack of respect for taxpayers I actually think a clean slate of Alders and BOE as well as a new Supt and Central office would be best for students and taxpayers. Personal agendas remain a major hindrance to progress in the schools and students lose I'm disappointed in both newly elected BOE members, particularly Dr Joyner, who knows better. "Meet the new boss , same as the old boss".