Alders Confirm Quiñones-Benítez, Yarborough For Ed Board

The Board of Alders unanimously approved Dr. Abie Quiñones-Benítez and Dr. OrLando Yarborough III to serve on the Board of Education — praising the former’s bilingual-education bonafides, and the latter’s longtime commitment to youth mentorship. 

Alders took those votes Monday night during their first full bimonthly meeting of 2022. The meeting took place in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

The final confirmation votes marked the culmination of a process that began just over a month ago, when Mayor Justin Elicker decided not to renew the terms of board members Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur and Larry Conaway — who frequently questioned administration policy and cast dissenting votes during board meetings. Elicker then tapped Quiñones-Benítez and Yarborough to be their replacements.

Quiñones-Benítez is a former Spanish teacher and a former principal of Christopher Columbus Family Academy (now FAME); she has a PhD in curriculum and instruction from UConn. Yarborough is a leadership consultant and pastor who has a PhD in Genetics from Yale. 

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller praised Quiñones-Benítez as someone who ​“will bring to the board a unique depth of experience in dual language learning and bilingual learning.” 

Pointing to her decades of experience working in the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) system, Miller called Quiñones-Benítez a ​“determined advocate for families, children-centered learning, and equity, as well as a skilled navigator of the Board of Ed bureaucracy.”

Fair Haven Alder Jose Crespo also lauded Quiñones-Benítez’s ​“exceptional leadership.” 

And Downtown Alder Eli Sabin said that both Quiñones-Benítez and Yarborough demonstrated during their recent Aldermanic Affairs Committee confirmation hearings a ​“commitment to improving our education system for English Language Learners, for folks who are struggling with disabilities, as well as their commitment to improving our school system in the way we teach literacy in our public schools.”

Although she ultimately voted in support of Yarborough along with all of the rest of her colleagues, Miller expressed hesitation about his appointment because his daughter does not attend New Haven Public Schools. 

During his committee confirmation hearing, Yarborough said that his daughter went to kindergarten at Beecher school last year, but currently attends St. Thomas Day School, a private school in East Rock. (Quiñones-Benítez said during that same hearing that two of her daughters attended and graduated from NHPS.)

“As a practical matter, I think it’s difficult to understand the real-life implications of your decisions when they don’t impact you directly,” Miller said on Monday. She lamented that of the 20,000 students in the city’s public school system, none of their parents or guardians have a seat on the Board of Ed except for the mayor, whose older daughter goes to FAME.

She nevertheless supported Yarborough’s appointment because of his ​“demonstrated commitment to working with young people.”

"Many Of The Parents Need A Voice"

During their videostreamed confirmation hearings before the Aldermanic Affairs Committee in December, both Quiñones-Benítez and Yarborough made their cases for why they would be good fits for the city’s Board of Ed.

Quiñones-Benítez said she will bring to the role not only her ​“very long career at the New Haven public schools” as a paraprofessional, teacher, and instructional and special education counselor, ​“but also as a parent.”

“My experience in New Haven has been that many of the parents need a voice.” She promised to be that voice, both for parents and for ​“those who are professionals who are trying to do the best for our students.”

What do you make of in-person vs. remote learning during the ongoing pandemic? Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez asked during that December hearing.

Quiñones-Benítez stressed the importance of being ​“in a social environment to learn. We have to make a tremendous effort to bring kids into the classroom.”

What was your experience as a NHPS parent? Sabin asked. Where could the school system do a better job?

“Both of my children had special needs,” Quiñones-Benítez replied. ​“One was an advanced student, the other experienced instructional difficulties. Both said the most difficult thing was to be listened to by the adults, and learning to be advocates for themselves.”

She said as a school board member she would ​“encourage everyone in the district to listen to children. If a child is asking for support in a specific way, that we consider that as adults.”

Yarborough, meanwhile, told the committee alders that he was born and raised in Baltimore, and that he moved to New Haven in 2003 to attend graduate school.

In 2015, he became a board member at the Friends Center for Children in Fair Haven Heights.

And for his entire decade-plus in New Haven he’s been ​“heavily involved in mentoring high school and middle school students,” in part through his membership at the Church on the Rock New Haven and through his role as pastor the Black Church at Yale.

What was your experience with NHPS when your daughter attended Beecher for kindergarten last year? Sabin asked.

“Our daughter learned during the pandemic,” Yarborough said. She learned to read and write. She learned math and art and music and science. And her teachers showed up every day and taught via Google Meets.

“Our classroom teachers went above and beyond,” he said.

The biggest difficulty his family experienced, he said, ​“was the lottery system, just trying to choose a school, trying to understand what’s random, what’s not random, trying to receive a seat at the school in our neighborhood.”

While his daughter’s time in NHPS ​“was a beautiful experience for us,” he said, now that she’s at St. Thomas Day School, he and his family are ​“curious about smaller classroom size and how that will help her learn. That’s what we’re exploring this year.”