Markeshia Ricks Photo
Gonzalez: Eyeing the seat.
Mayor Toni Harp is shedding one of her titles: president of the Board of Education.
Her one-year term is expiring. Next Monday the board selects a new president. (It was originally scheduled to do so this Monday, but the meeting was postponed due to inclement weather.)
Harp said on her weekly “Mayor Monday” program on WNHH radio that she has decided not to seek the position again.
“I’ve been president for a year. I said all along it was something I would do as a transition” from a fully mayorally-appointed to a partially elected Board of Ed.
Harp took considerable criticism for becoming board president, adding one more quarrel to the Board of Ed’s unofficial agenda over the contentious past year. Mayors traditionally serve on the board, but not as president. Harp said she was taking the unusual move to try to get the board to focus more on pressing challenges like improving students’ reading.
Asked how the gambit worked out, she replied, “mezza-mezza.”
“Some people feel the mayor has enough powers” without the need to take on another leading position, she acknowledged. She said she feels the board has made progress on reading, launching a “Saturday Academy,” for instance, and creating a committee that’s about to release a systemwide strategy for improvement.
Harp said she plans to support board member Daisy Gonzalez’s quest to become board president. Gonzalez was originally appointed to the board as an unofficial parents’ representative; members of the Board of Alders tried to get her removed from the ed board last year as part of a dispute with Harp over the board’s size.
“I want to do the work that we’re supposed to be doing — which is making sure our kids are getting a good education, that our our parents are being heard,” Gonzalez said Monday when asked why she wants to become the president.
Click on or download the above audio file to hear the full episode of WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday,” which also covered traffic safety, her participation last week in a U.S. Conference of Mayors event, new money coming in for Cherry Ann Park, and Yale labor peace.
The episode was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.