Emily Hays Pre-Pandemic File Photo
Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera.
Yesenia Rivera will spend another year as the president of the New Haven Board of Education.
The board reappointed her and its two other officers on three separate 4 – 3 votes on Monday evening. The Board of Education president helps set the agenda for each meeting and is responsible for maintaining orderly meetings.
“There’s a problem with communication on this board. We’re clearly divided. I want to work with the whole board. I really do,” said board member Larry Conaway.
The two other split votes reinstalled Matthew Wilcox as vice president and Edward Joyner as secretary.
The board has split down these same 4 – 3 lines frequently in the past year since Rivera was first elected as board president. On the majority side are Rivera, Mayor Justin Elicker, Wilcox and Joyner. Conaway tends to vote with Darnell Goldson and Tamiko Jackson-McArthur.
Conaway, Goldson and Jackson-McArthur did not nominate alternatives for any of the roles. Each had words of praise for one or another candidate. And each made a statement for each nomination on how they felt that board leadership is not including them in decisions.
Jackson-McArthur said that she found out through the Independent that New Haven Public Schools was planning to reopen for elementary schoolers on Jan. 19.
“I have have been deeply disappointed with the leadership that has led this board over the last year,” Goldson said, pointing to Rivera’s approval of the investigation into whether he was creating a hostile work environment.
“This leadership is inept. Not listening to other members or engaging in conversation is the wrong way to lead the board,” Goldson said.
Goldson was the board president before Rivera was elected. He decided not to run again this time.
Rivera just won approval from the Board of Alders to serve another four-year term on the ed. board, after asking tough questions about how remote learning is going and how she is managing the often long and contentious meetings.
Community members who supported her reappointment to the Board of Ed. praised her quiet leadership, stability and ability to work well with school administrators. She is the director of a childcare program based at Edgewood School and has been on the board since 2019.
Elicker said that he was disappointed that the dissenters saw politics in how Rivera, Wilcox and Joyner treat others on the board. He said that every board member has work to do to heal divisions on the board.
“I don’t see politics. I don’t see any inappropriate behavior that folks are mentioning from any of the three individuals. I’m disappointed at some of the accusations,” Elicker said. “These three individuals, in my strong opinion, work very hard to be inclusive.”
Jackson-McArthur pushed back against Elicker’s statement. She said that he should not have called their statements accusations, because they are explaining how they feel sidelined on the board. She thanked Wilcox for being the only one of the three to respond to the criticisms by saying he heard them and wants to work on it.
“As a physician, what we’re taught not to do is take what someone says and negate it, because you can’t tell someone how to feel nor perceive,” Jackson-McArthur said. “Part of the reason why we are 4 – 3 is because of this, because of what just happened.”
Click below to watch the video of the meeting.