Ed Board Overhaul Seeks 2 Spots For Parents

Hilaria Ogando wants someone on the Board of Education who knows what she knows: what it’s like to have so many substitute teachers in her child’s school, to hear about persistent bullying, to lose the lottery for a coveted magnet school seat.

“Parents, we see what’s happening in the schools every day, and we see what our children need,” Ogando said through a translator. 

Ogando joined a dozen other New Haveners in calling for a last-minute change to the city charter that would require Board of Education members to include at least two New Haven Public School (NHPS) parents. In a separate newly pushed for change, advocates also called for the removal of the mayor from the city’s school board.

Advocates for changes to the Board of Education’s structure testified at a public hearing at City Hall on Tuesday about how to revise New Haven’s founding document.

Meeting as a full-board committee ceremoniously titled the ​“Committee of the Whole,” the Board of Alders convened in the Aldermanic Chamber to hear public input on a series of proposed charter revisions — including edits set forward by both the Charter Revision Commission as well as individual alders. Alders will eventually decide on at least one question to pose to voters in November, who will ultimately decide whether or not to adopt the elected officials’ recommendations.

One critical question at stake was whether to extend terms for the mayor, city clerk, and 30 alders from two to four years each. Another was whether to continue to require all city department heads to live in New Haven.

No one came to testify on those issues on Tuesday. Instead, several members of the public addressed a recent alder-submitted suggestion to allow non‑U.S.-citizens to serve on city boards and commissions, and a majority called for an overhaul of the structure of the city’s notoriously rancorous Board of Education.

Currently, the Board of Education’s seven adult voting members include two elected members, four appointed members, and the mayor. It also includes two elected non-voting student representatives. At the moment, Mayor Justin Elicker is the only current New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) parent on the board. 

Ahead of Tuesday’s public meeting, Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller proposed two last-minute changes to the Board of Ed’s structure: adding a requirement that at least two of the board members be current NHPS parents and replacing the mayor with another appointed member on the board. Her request follows a similar set of proposals promoted earlier this year by the teachers union, which called for the mayor to be stripped of his school board voting powers and for more members to be elected instead of appointed.

Bump The Mayor From The Board Of Ed?

In a letter submitted to the Charter Revision Commission, Miller wrote that removing the mayor’s seat on the Board of Ed would strengthen the separation of powers between the city’s executive branch and the bodies governing public schools. ​“This separation serves to protect school district governance from hyper-politicization and the coercive forces that are potentially present given the Mayor’s broad role,” Miller wrote.

She argued that the mayor’s position on the board does not necessarily make the executive branch more responsive to the school system: ​“The current Mayor frequently asserts that he is ​‘just one Board member’ on equal footing with six other New Haven residents, as a deflection from critiques of the Board and school district. This practice reveals that a Mayoral seat on the Board of Education does not make the Mayor inherently more accountable for the school system, but rather can facilitate the opposite.”

And with respect to a requirement for two parents to serve as either appointed or elected members of the board, Miller wrote, ​“Without this requirement, there may be no one on the Board who can speak from direct experience regarding what kind of homework kids come home with; how kids feel about school; and how responsive teachers, principals, and administrators are to user-level concerns, etc.”

In a statement on Thursday, Mayor Justin Elicker wrote, ​“No matter who the mayor is, I think it’s very important for them to continue to appoint the majority of board of education members and for the mayor to also be a sitting board member. Frankly, I think it’s one of the most important responsibilities that the mayor has, and I think the vast majority of New Haveners want a mayor who is informed and engaged when it comes to our schools and our children’s education. When you have a vote, you feel a tremendous sense of responsibility and accountability for the decisions that are made.”

He added that serving on the Board of Education has ​“allowed me to see first-hand the needs of the district, to hear directly from more students, parents and educators, and to make more informed decisions for our schools and across city government. It’s also helped strengthen communication, coordination and partnership between NHPS and City Hall. We have a lot of challenges, and it’s important that everyone is rowing together in the same direction to help our children thrive both inside and outside of the classroom.”

Save 2 Spots For The Parents?

Miller’s two proposals garnered support from more than a dozen New Haveners who showed up on Tuesday, ranging from students to parents to educators. 

Ogando’s son just finished eighth grade at Barnard Environment Studies Interdistrict Magnet School. She spoke in Spanish, as New Haven Federation of Teachers’ Megan Fountain translated to English, about the perspective she’s gained on the school system from her position as a parent.

“I have seen firsthand the disruptions in education that occur when the school is understaffed and lacks consistent leadership,” Ogando said in Spanish. ​“During my son’s time at Barnard, they changed the administration three times. There were a lot of substitute teachers, and the kids didn’t respect them very much. This happens when there are few experienced teachers in the school and there are many substitute teachers: they cannot earn the respect of the students. There were many bullying problems and some families had to take their children out of the school.”

Maritza Spell contended that though the current mayor is a public school parent, ​“the specific struggles that most New Haven Public School families experience are not reflected in his experience.”

Paraprofessional educator Claudine Wilkins-Chambers said that ​“without parents, there may be no one on the board who can speak from direct experience on what kind of homework children get, what they come home with, how their day was, how is the food — they wouldn’t get a good report on the food — how students feel about school, and what kinds of sports and activities are they getting, what kind of support are they getting.”

Maria Threese Serana, whose 16-year-old John Carlos Serana Musser was recently elected to serve as a Board of Ed student representative (and was present on Tuesday to offer similar testimony), echoed Ogando’s call for parent representation on the board. She called, too, for non-citizens to be allowed on the Board of Education, among other reforms. 

“So you’re the parent of a junior,” asked Amity/Westville Alder and Majority Leader Richard Furlow after Serana concluded her testimony. ​“The Board of Ed terms are four years. So that means that you wouldn’t qualify to serve as a parent because you would be two years without any children in school. So I’m just wondering how that would work.”

Serana responded, ​“I didn’t say I would like to be on the board. I’m saying parents should be on the board.”

“But you have a high school student,” Furlow interrupted.

“I’m not saying that I should be on the board,” Serana said again. ​“I’m saying parents should be represented in the Board of Ed.”

“As long as they don’t have any kids in high school,” Furlow said. ​“Which means that only elementary and middle school parents would qualify. Unless [the child is] a freshman” with four years of school ahead of them.

“I think those details would have to be straightened out,” Serana said.

​“I appreciate your testimony, I’m just trying to understand. You’re bringing us an idea without the details,” said Furlow. ​“You’re saying bring more parents in and figure out how to do it.“

Serana recommended that Furlow and the other alders consult a larger group of parents on the matter. ​“I cannot speak for all the parents.”

“That’s what this public hearing is about. I really, really appreciate your testimony,” Furlow said, concluding his questioning.

After the meeting, Miller offered one suggestion to address Furlow’s concerns: requiring that board representatives be parents at the time of their appointment or election.

NHPS parent Lisa Bassani, meanwhile, noted that even if individuals who have fewer than four years left of being NHPS parents would not fulfill the obligation, ​“there are still thousands and thousands of parents who would be eligible and who would provide the same representation for all of us.”

How Many Elected, Appointed?

Several attendees of the meeting, including Ogando, also called for two of the appointed Board of Ed representatives to be converted to elected seats, a change that would make the majority of the board elected representatives.

Similar debates about whether school boards should primarily comprise appointed or elected members have taken place in other cities, including in Chicago, which recently initiated a shift to more elected board members. New Haven used to have an entirely appointed school board, until the last charter revision process in 2013 established a ​“hybrid” system allowing voters to elect two board members.

Supporters of appointed boards often argue that such a structure allows the mayor to select a group with diverse identities and areas of expertise and prevents schools from being too politicized, while supporters of elected boards tend to believe that such a system is more responsive and accountable to the students, families, staff, and educators directly impacted by the school system. 

The latter argument for more elected board seats recurred in public testimony on Tuesday night.

“I strongly advocate for a more democratic Board of Education,” said incoming Board of Ed student representative John Carlos Musser. 

In an exchange with Serana, Musser’s mom, Furlow pushed back on the notion that an elected board is more democratic. ​“Right now the democratic process is through appointment,” Furlow said. ​“The mayor appoints the members. There is a public hearing, where people come to testify if they are in support of that candidate. If not, they can say, ​‘we don’t support that’ — or recommend people.”

Furlow’s words did not convince educator Steven Poland, who testified right after this exchange.

Poland spoke of being ​“frustrated and at times disgusted” with the ​“infighting” and ​“dysfunctionality of the Board of Education.” (Though Board of Ed members have gone a full five years without challenging one another to duels, tensions remain and one recent meeting even ended early due to arguments between board members.) 

He advocated for increasing the number of elected positions on the board, which he argued would ​“make our public education system significantly more public and democratic.” Referring to appointed members of the board, Poland said, ​“there is no transparency around how or why they were appointed to make decisions that enormous impacts on the lives of all students and staff in our schools.”