Melissa Bailey, Emily Hays Photos
Incumbent Cicarella (left) won twice as many votes as his challenger (right).
Teachers have elected Dave Cicarella to be New Haven Federation of Teachers president — for the third time this term.
In the union’s re-re-election, 470 for Cicarella and 228 for his challenger Vincenzo Sullo.
The election do-over occurred under supervision by the U.S. Department of Labor, per the orders of a federal district judge this spring.
“The count was very gratifying. To get that margin of victory, especially in these times — I like to think a big part of it was that they recognized the work. We worked very hard for our members during the pandemic. That feels good,” Cicarella said.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant ordered this second redo of a fraught Dec. 2018 election between Cicarella and Tom Burns. Bryant sided with the Department of Labor that the national American Federation of Teachers had improperly kicked Burns out before the first reelection by not providing him enough notice of what was happening.
The AFT responded after Bryant’s ruling by sending Burns a more extensive notice of its intent to disqualify him from running in this spring’s redo. Hillhouse teacher Vincenzo Sullo stepped up in Burns’ place.
Zoom
An MK Elections employee scans voter envelopes.
Four ballots did not count towards either candidate, because the ballots were either torn, blank or write-ins.
Cicarella can now serve out the rest of his term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2021. The next regularly scheduled election will take place in early December.
Cicarella has not decided whether he will run again in December he said. If he steps down from his role at the end of his term, he would retire rather than go back to teaching.
The decision depends partially on who would want to take his place, he said.
“I still enjoy the work. That’s why it’s a difficult decision,” Cicarella said.
Sullo, on the other hand, said he will run definitely again in December. He declined to provide comment immediately after the article, because he was attending to a family matter.
