Christopher Peak Photo
New board president Rivera with predecessor Goldson; Goldson said he is eyeing Gary Winfield’s State Senate seat next.
At its first meeting under a new mayor, the Board of Education Monday evening elected new leadership of its own, starting with a new president.
Board members promoted Yesenia Rivera, previously the board’s vice-president, to the top job as the school board’s president. She will replace Darnell Goldson, who served in that role for the last two years.
They also picked Matt Wilcox, previously the Head Start Subcommittee and Food Service Task Force chairs, as the board’s vice-president, and Ed Joyner, the board’s former president, as secretary.
That took place in a series of unanimous votes at the start of Monday’s regular meeting at King-Robinson School. It was the first meeting that newly elected Mayor Justin Elicker attended as a board member.
Goldson said that, within the past week, he decided not to run for another term as board president, as he eyes higher office.
He said he’s close — “98 percent there” — to announcing a run for state senator, where he said he can be a more effective advocate for increased school funding. He lives in Gary Winfield’s district.
“I think I’ve done as much as I could do on the board,” Goldson said. “I want to start making the case to the voters of the City of New Haven that we have to advocate for our city to get our fair share, that 56 percent of non-taxable grand list, returned to us.” (Click here for a recent interview in which Goldson elaborated on that argument.)
After the vote, Mayor Justin Elicker thanked Goldson for his work as the board’s president, saying he had “put his heart and soul into this.” Rivera also thanked him for “the mentorship.” Goldson said it had been “an honor.”
“Almost five years ago, when I first joined the board, I never expected to serve as its leader,” Goldson said. “I came in thinking there were too many administrators with too much money to spend, and I have learned it’s just the opposite. We don’t have enough administrators, we don’t have enough money for our teachers, and we certainly way underpay our paraprofessionals. We are starved by the state. That will be my fight over the next several years.”
Yesenia Rivera: New board prez.
Asked Monday night about her plans as president, Rivera said that she might not be “an expert in parliamentary procedure” just yet, but she’ll try to make sure the board prioritizes students in decision-making and maintains “transparency in everything we do.”
Rivera said she made up her mind to run for the presidency after receiving a lot of phone calls and doing a lot of thinking this weekend.
“We talk about wanting more leadership in the [Hispanic] community, so how could I not step and take this?” Rivera said. “But to be clear, it wasn’t just the Hispanic community that asked me. I’m not here to represent one community; I’m here to work for all of our kids.”
Rivera said that she plans to continue advocating for the school district to hire more bilingual staff.
“We had a lot of our Latino leaders within the district — teachers, principals, Central Office staff — who left under [former superintendent, Carol] Birks’ leadership, so I’m hoping that’s something we can kind of correct going forward,” Rivera said.
Wilcox and Rivera both joined the school board over the past year. Rivera’s appointment coincided with a call for more Hispanic board members, especially given the growth of the student population.
Hispanic students have been the largest ethnic group in the school system since 2015, and they are expected to make up an out-right majority by 2022. Yet Hispanic educators make up barely one-tenth of the district’s staff.
Sparring
Then-Mayor Toni Harp swearing Rivera in as a new board member last March.
As soon as the leadership votes were cast Monday night, sparring began over the appointment of a new transportation director.
Goldson said he’d received an email from a finalist alleging that the process was tainted from the beginning. He pressed Iline Tracey, the interim superintendent, to explain what role the former director, Fred Till, who oversaw the chaotic school bus rerouting that resulted in thousands of complaints, played in appointing members of the search committee.
“I’m not going to go there,” Tracey said.
Rivera cut Goldson off, saying he was “barraging” the superintendent with his line of questioning. As Goldson started listing the problems he had with the search process, Rivera asked him to stop. Mayor Justin Elicker asked for the board to vote. Goldson kept talking.
“You’re out of order,” Rivera said. “C’mon, let’s have a civil meeting.”
The board ultimately voted, 4 – 3, to appoint Britt Liotta, who’s currently the chief operating officer at Norwalk Transit District.
During Monday’s meeting, the board also split over the creation of a new role for a supervisor of professional learning, a $140,000 role that will manage the district’s trainings.
In another 4 – 3 vote, board members went ahead with hiring Tessa Gumbs-Johnson, who’s currently an assistant principal at Hamden High School.
They also unanimously approved the promotion of Monica Morales as Quinnipiac Real World Math STEM School’s principal, and accepted the retirements of Carmen Rodriguez, a supervisor of English-learner programs; Donna Aiello, Worthington Hooker Elementary School’s assistant principal; and Myrta Bonilla, Wilbur Cross High School’s assistant principal.