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Sign at Monday night’s hearing.
Rodriguez: I’ve got credentials.
The mayor’s choice to fill a Board of Education seat sailed through a confirmation hearing, while an advocacy group’s call for a debate on who should serve in the future went unheeded.
The approval and (unanswered) call for debate took place Monday night at a City Hall meeting of the Board of Alders Aldermanic Affairs Committee.
The committee unanimously voted to approve the mayoral appointment of former Alder Joseph Rodriguez to the Board of Education. That recommendation now goes to the full Board of Alders for final approval. Alders praised Rodriguez as a committed parent with the political experience needed to make a difference in the post.
Tamiko Jackson-McArthur.
A second mayoral Board of Ed appointee, Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, also appeared for questioning. Her appointment, however, is already official, because the committee didn’t hold a confirmation hearing within the required time to exercise approval authority. She, too, won accolades from the alders for her two decades of work as a pediatrician focused on children’s social and emotional needs.
Along with the qualifications of the two appointees, the hearing centered in part on what kind of people should serve on the Board of Education.
Several members of the public criticized the fact that only one member of the seven-member Board of Ed (Ed Joyner, one of the two elected members) has an academic background in the field of education. (Joyner’s background is extensive; click here to read his resume as it stood when it first ran for the Board of Ed.)
Sarah Miller.
Parent advocate Sarah Miller called on the committee to append standards for board appointees to their vote on Rodriguez.
Miller, a city public school graduate and mom of two Columbus Academy students, has helped organize a new watchdog group called NHPS Advocates. She said the group has collected over 500 signatures on a petition calling for the alders to create criteria for Board of Ed appointments, including educational expertise and freedom from conflicts of interest.
She said she believes both Rodriguez and Jackson-McArthur potentially bring valuable experiences to the board. But they didn’t teach in a classroom or have an academic background in education. The board needs more than one member with a formal background in education, Miller argued.
“This is about the knowledge and independence required to effectively govern a complex urban school district,” Miller argued.
“We need individuals on our Board of Ed who know the history of education, who understand different educational and instructional philosophies, who are familiar with education best practices, and who can interpret educational trends and models. When educational strategies and approaches are being debated, there needs to be a reservoir of knowledge and experience to draw from in making decisions about what happens in our classrooms and hallways and cafeterias.”
Miller’s remarks were offered in the first portion of a lengthy hearing involving appointments to numerous boards and commissions. When the alders on the committee closed the hearing three hours later to discuss the appointments and to vote, they didn’t bring up Miller’s request, let alone debate it.
Harp: Ed Credentials Aren’t Everything
Earlier in the day, Mayor Toni Harp did address the criticism about her appointees’ lack of qualifications and defended the mix, during her most recent appearance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday” program.
Harp had chosen Rodriguez over another person who sought the appointment, Lauren Anderson, an associate professor and education department chair at Connecticut College. Anderson has an undergraduate degree from Yale in political science, a master’s in early childhood and elementary school education from Bank Street Graduate College of Education, and a PhD in urban schooling from UCLA, as she wrote to the mayor in seeking the post.
On her résumé, Anderson lists her expertise in preparing educators to work in urban schools, navigate governing policies and centering equity in their classrooms. She also specializes in the leftist analysis of texts known as “critical literacy,” children’s literature and elementary education. Her latest listed academic journal article, currently under peer review, is entitled, “On petticoats pilots, pallbearing, and precarity: Parsing the contemporary policy context for teacher education.” Click here to read her resume, which lists her other publications as well.
Harp wrote in an email to a woman who endorsed Anderson, Mirna Martínez, the New London Board of Education’s president, that she’s “certain that Ms. Anderson would have been a great selection for the Board. I will consider her for future board positions.”
In explaining her decision to go with Rodriguez instead, Harp argued on “Mayor Monday” that academic degrees in education aren’t the only criteria on which members should be chosen.
She argued that the board needs to have a variety of backgrounds represented, such as Jackson-McArthur’s expertise in “social-emotional” issues as a pediatrician and Rodriguez’s experiences as a school parent as well as an alder, senatorial aide and community activist familiar with how government makes decisions.
Some people argue that a more important criterion for serving on the board is having children in the public schools, Harp observed.
“Joe Rodriguez is a parent. He does understand government, and by the way he probably understands contracting,” she said.
SCSU ed prof and former BOE member Carlos Torre endorses Rodriguez and Jackson-McArthur — and the idea of appointing more people with ed degrees.
“I’ve appointed a doctor [Jackson-McArthur]; we provide medical services in New Haven Public Schools. So I think that makes sense. She also has two children in the New Haven Public Schools. I appointed someone who’s the head of an agency [Jamell Cotto of Farnam Community] and can understand what that role is, and also has a child in New Haven Public Schools. I appointed someone who worked in youth services for many years [Frank Redente] and retired and has that perspective. Then we have someone elected who has a doctorate in education and has taught education all around the Untied States [Joyner]. Then we have another person who is the chairman of the board [Darnell Goldson] who really understands governance and understands Robert’s Rules of Order and” Freedom of Information law.
“So I think we have a very well-rounded board.”
Harp noted that the candidates seeking the two elected positions on the school board so far have run unopposed.
Rodriguez, Jackson-McArthur Questioned
Committee members Hacibey Catalbasoglu, Evelyn Rodriguez (chair), Gerald Antunes.
In his testimony before the alder committee Monday night, Rodriguez bristled at suggestions in news articles that he might lack the credentials to serve on the Board of Ed.
He spoke of his past advocacy for better security at his daughter’s preschool and for Spanish translation for parents at events at Benjamin Jepsen School. He said he has been active in a parent group at Jepsen, where his daughter is currently a second-grader.
“We live in a time when community participation and parent participation “ — particularly by fathers — “ is needed more than ever,” Rodriguez told the committee.
He said if confirmed to the board, he would have three priorities: equity in resources among schools (“Some schools have more; some schools have less”); working to straighten out the school system’s “financial mess”; and boosting bilingual education and dual language programs.
Jackson-McArthur, whom the alders gently questioned for 40 minutes, vowed to make improving the school district’s “social-emotional” services a priority during her term.
Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg asked both nominees if they supported closing one or more schools to help close the Board of Ed budget gap. The school board is looking to curb a $7 million overrun in the current fiscal year budget and find $9 million in savings in next year’s and cut up to $10 million more if the alders don’t approve their increase.
Both Jackson-McArthur and Rodriguez said they’ll need to learn more about the fiscal situation before committing to a position.
Rodriguez testifying.
“On the surface the answer is absolutely no. Because I’m a father,” Rodriguez responded. “But it would also be naive of me to sit here and say I would vote no on any school closure…. I would need to fully understand the financial mess the Board of Ed is in.”
Click on the above audio file or Facebook Live video below for the full “Mayor Monday” program on WNHH FM.
This episode of “Mayor Monday” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.