Nora Grace-Flood File Photo
Teachers union Prez Blatteau: Running uncontested for 3 more years.
The polls are now open for the New Haven teachers union elections — and first-term incumbent President Leslie Blatteau is running unopposed at the top of the ticket.
Voting for New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) leadership positions began on Monday, and runs through Dec. 3.
For the first time, NHFT’s voting process will allow members in good standing to vote via email. Paper mail-in ballots can also be requested and will need to be mailed in time to be received by the Dec. 3 deadline.
Nominations for executive board members were submitted Oct. 23 at NHFT’s general membership meeting.
Blatteau, who defeated longtime President David Cicarella by 452 to 350 votes during the 2021 elections, is running uncontested for another three-year term as president. She will begin her second term in office on Jan. 1, 2025.
The other teachers union leadership positions up for vote this election season include executive vice-president, executive secretary, treasurer, vice-president for high schools, vice-president for middle schools (grades six through eight), vice-president for elementary schools (preK-grade 5), and vice-president for special education services. Voting members can also cast their ballots for three high school leads, seven pre‑K to eighth grade leads, two special services leads (one special education lead and one specials lead from art, P.E., music), as well as five trustees and 15 delegates.
The election will be run by a third-party firm called MK Elections.
Also running uncontested this year are incumbent union Secretary Mia Comulada Breuler and incumbent union Vice President Jenny Graves.
Current treasurer Mike Pantaleo plans to retire at the end of this school year. Current trustee and co-chair of the finance committee Joe Gonzalez is running uncontested for treasurer.
Click here to read biographies of all of the candidates running for various teachers union elected positions.
Over the past three years, Blatteau pointed out, NHFT negotiated a new contract for city public school teachers, helped the school district in its work to recommend staffing guidelines, and rallied at the local and state levels for “democratically run, fully funded schools.” Recently, the mayor has proposed and an aldermanic committee has endorsed sending more city funds to the district for closing a budget deficit and for improving building maintenance.
Blatteau noted that on Nov. 16, NHFT will join the coalition known as CT For All in hosting members at a Democracy School event to be held at John Martinez school from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for state organizers and community members to discuss Connecticut’s fiscal roadblocks for public education.
When asked why she is running for another three-year term, Blatteau described her first term as a “learning term.”
She said that her goals are to continue to push for the teachers union to have a seat at the table for New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) decisions and discussions and to ensure “ideas from the bottom up are heard and implemented.”
“I love the opportunity to be in a position where I can hear directly from members their concerns, but not just their concerns, also their really concrete and innovative suggestions for how to make things better,” she said. “And that’s where we want to go in the second term, is making sure that we continue to have a seat at the table to problem-solve real issues.”
Those issues include educator concerns around how professional time is used, evaluations, facilities, and educator retention and wellbeing.
Blatteau said she plans to continue trying to create solidarity amongst other NHPS bargaining units and unions.
“Our schools will be more engaging, more productive, more meaningful spaces when we, our educators, stay, when the wellbeing of our employees is improving rather than declining,” she said.
She concluded that over the past three years she’s used her skills as an educator– including talking less and listening more and being rooted in human-centered coordination when it comes to building her team’s capacity — as she’s led the union. She’s aimed to bring compassion and understanding to the work, she said, just as educators do with students on a daily basis.
Blatteau at a teacher, student rally in May for increasing NHPS funding.