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Edward Joyner brought the “Comer Method” to schools around the country. Now he wants to turn his attention to his home city’s schools.
Joyner is one of three candidates to have filed papers to run for seats on the Board of Education this fall. Thanks to a 2013 charter referendum vote, New Haven’s board, formerly all appointed by the mayor, will now have two elected adult voting members. (It will also have two non-voting student members.)
Joyner is one of two candidates seeking to run in a Sept. 16 Democratic primary for the District 1 seat. Assuming both candidates qualify for the ballot, he will face Anais Nunez, a charter-school activist. (Nunez did not return calls for comment this week.) Former Beaver Hills Alder Angela Russell (who also couldn’t be reached) is the only candidate to file so far to run in District 2.
The two districts are pictured above.
The not-for-profit civic group New Haven Votes has prepared this survey and this fact sheet to get the public more involved in this first-ever election.
“Education has to be everyone’s responsibility, even if you don’t have children,” Joyner, who’s 68, said in an interview this week. He said he seeks to serve as “a unifying force to make sure everyone’s voice is heard” on the Board of Ed. “We need the collective wisdom of the community to help the kids inside, and outside, of school.”
Joyner served as principal of Jackie Robinson Middle School from 1982 to 1986, as assistant principal of Hillhouse High School before that. He has served as a consultant to school systems from Miami to Detroit, from North Carolina to Missouri to California, and he has co-authored several books and academic papers on school leadership and child development. (Read his resume here.) He served as executive director of Yale Child Study Center’s School Development Program from 1996 to 2005, and worked in various capacities before that. He also directed the center’s Comer Project for Change in Education.
The latter project refers to Yale’s Dr. James Comer’s patented method for tackling the problems children bring into the classroom from home so they and others can learn better. (Read all about that here.)
Joyner co-chaired Mayor Toni Harp’s transition team in late 2013. She recently appointed him to the housing authority’s Board of Commissioners.
Joyner hesitated to take definitive positions on some of the Board of Ed’s hot-button issues, such as the potential expansion of charter schools or his view of Superintendent Garth Harries’ performance. He said he wants to avoid a “rush to judgment. You want to treat people the way you want to be treated. I believe everybody wants to do the right thing.”
He did say he would have voted against the proposed Board of Ed financial support for a new Achievement First charter school called Elm City Imagine. (Opposition from board members quashed that proposal.) The Board of Ed must first make sure it’s doing its best with its own schools “before we decide to do anything else,” he said.
"The Board of Ed must first make sure it's doing its best with its own schools "before we decide to do anything else," he said."
If that's his campaign position, then I'm all in for Dr. Joyner. We already have a number of charter school officials who serve on the Board of Education (Che Dawson, Alex Johnston) and I would hesitate to add another. It is in every New Havener's best interest to have someone on the Board who doesn't have the charter school movement's interests (and the outsourcing of public education) first and foremost on their agenda. Good luck Dr. Joyner.