Ed Board Prez Grilled, Wins Reappoint Vote

School board President Yesenia Rivera won a confirmation vote to serve another four years, after alders grilled her about children left behind by online learning, and about lengthy, contentious, and chaotic meetings held under her leadership.

That vote came Monday night during a Board of Alders Aldermanic Affairs Committee meeting. The two-and-a-half-hour virtual meeting was held online via Zoom and YouTube Live.

Committee alders unanimously recommended approval of Mayor Justin Elicker’s reappointment of Rivera to a new term on the Board of Education that, if confirmed by the full Board of Alders, would extend through Dec. 31, 2024.

The director of a school-based childcare program, Rivera has been on the Board of Education since former Mayor Toni Harp tapped her to fill an empty seat in early 2019. She has served as the board’s president since January.

The alders’ hour-plus interrogation of Rivera on Monday was led by the committee’s chair and vice-chair, Fair Haven Heights Alder Rosa Ferraro-Santana and Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton. They and their local legislative colleagues pursued two main lines of inquiry as they evaluated Rivera’s tenure to date:

• What is the Board of Education doing to connect with students who have dropped out of online classes as the city school system remains entirely remote due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic?

• What can she do differently as the board’s president to make sure that its meetings are efficient, respectful, focused on matters directly related to public education, and not derailed by disputes among board members?

“Consider yourself as a conductor on the train,” Hamilton told Rivera. ​“That board is your train. You’re the conductor. It’s your job to do the best job you can running that meeting, keeping order. As the chair, you have the last word, and your word goes.”

“If you don’t keep order,” Hamilton cautioned, ​“then order will not be kept there, and you will look bad, and we will all look bad. Understand?”

Yes, Rivera replied. She said she tries to err on the side of caution during meetings, and to make sure that everyone gets a chance to speak. ​“Sometimes people take advantage of that.”

Her primary responsibility as a Board of Education leader is to make sure that the interest of the city’s school children are taken care of, Hamilton replied. But she must also run a professional meeting. ​“Keeping order is part of being a professional.”

Top Priority: ​“Equity & Parity Amongst All Our Children”

The education-focused line of questioning returned again and again to the challenges of remote learning during the pandemic. NHPS shut down all in-person learning when the pandemic first hit in March. Unlike every other school district in the state, it did not offer a hybrid learning option this fall except for 125 students with autism and other severe learning disabilities.

Rivera was one of three board members to vote this summer in support of returning to some form of in-person school. Four voted in favor of staying all online until Nov. 9 out of a concern that the school system and its buildings were not ready to safely welcome back students to classrooms.

Has every public school student received a laptop, tablet, or other Internet-accessible device? Ferraro-Santana asked. And how many students are not currently logging in to online classes?

Based on conversations with NHPS Superintendent Iline Tracey, Rivera said, ​“it is my understanding that most of our kids have received the devices as well as WiFi and Comcast essentials to do remote learning.”

She said she did not have the exact attendance percentages on hand for the meeting, and added that ​“we were told as a board that it was a small percentage of kids not logging on.” She committed to encouraging NHPS administrators to present those attendance numbers towards the beginning of each Board of Education meeting. New state data show that New Haven students attended roughly 93 percent of school days last year, but only 86 percent of school days this fall.

What is the Board of Education doing to re-engage students who have not logged on to online learning? asked Hill Alder Ron Hurt.

Rivera said that Tracey has had teaching staff and school truancy officers ​“going literally door to door to try to find kids missing from online education.” They’ve been visiting homes and making phone calls. ​“It gets challenging sometimes with people moving or not providing new addresses or phone numbers,” she said.

Hurt encouraged her and fellow Board of Education members to reach out to the Board of Alders for help in connecting with families. Alders are in daily contact with their constituents, he said, and hear all the time about the needs of young people in their respective wards.

“There needs to be a relationship between the Board of Alders and the Board of Education,” he said. ​“We need to make sure that there is some kind of partnership. We are better together. We cannot afford to lose any children to this remote learning.

What is your vision for the Board of Education? Downtown/Yale Alder Eli Sabin asked. What would you like to accomplish, during the pandemic and, hopefully, once Covid-19 is at bay and in-person schooling returns in full?

“I believe we need more funding for our English Language Learners,” Rivera said, ​“a group of students I believe are marginalized.” She said the school system need to do more to ​“proactively prepare for students arriving from other countries.” And, she said, once students are back in the classroom, the school system and the Board of Education need to make sure that they continue to support students’ academic growth ​“because things are going to be different because they’ve been home so long with remote learning.”

“I want to make sure that there’s equity and parity amongst all of our children,” she continued. ​“I don’t see that happening at the moment as much as I believe it should.”

And what have you done to ensure equity in the city schools in practice? Hurt asked.

Rivera pointed to the board’s decision to reopen in-person education for up to 125 students with autism and other severe disabilities. ​“We felt those students really needed that care from teachers in person. We made that happen.” Unfortunately, she said, ​“we had to scale that back now because of Covid concerns.”

What makes you excited about being on the Board of Education? asked Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn. Why would you want to continue to serve on the board?

“I don’t quit,” Rivera said. She said she hasn’t missed a single board meeting since joining. ​“My commitment to this board and to this district is there.”

She said she has great working relationships with the superintendent and with most of her fellow board members, the mayor, and the state education commissioner. And she said she is driven by the need to make sure ​“kids are getting what they need from us as a board.”

Rivera said her three daughters all attended NHPS. When they were at Edgewood School, she said, ​“I felt that they were getting the best of everything going into New Haven Public Schools. For some reason, I feel that in the recent past, that has been lacking. I don’t feel kids are getting the education that my kids got when they were in the public schools.” As a board and in concert with NHPS staff and administrators, she said she’s committed to changing that.

Biggest Challenge: ​“Managing The Different Personalities”

What is the biggest challenging you’re facing right now in trying to realize your vision for the Board of Education? Hamilton asked.

“The biggest challenge right now is managing the different personalities on the board and the politics of it, and trying to make sure we’re staying on task with our Roberts Rules of Order,” Rivera responded.

Although his name did not come up once during the meeting, fellow ed board member and former board President Darnell Goldson loomed large at Monday’s aldermanic hearing.

Goldson, one of the board’s two elected members, often asks more questions than other members at meetings, and he sometimes speaks as long as the others do combined. He has been accused by a NHPS administrator of creating a hostile work environment. Goldson has defended himself as simply asking tough questions.

Why did the Board of Education sign off on spending $14,000 on an outside attorney to investigate whether or not Goldson harassed NHPS CFO Phillip Penn over a dispute about a schools contract? asked Ferraro-Santana. Wouldn’t that money have been better spent on something else?

It certainly would have, Rivera replied. ​“But given that this was an employee complaint, we had the obligation to make sure it was investigated.”

Ferraro-Santana said that the Board of Education should follow the model of the Board of Alders in terms of how it runs its meeting. Alders try not to belittle colleagues, she said. ​“We try to be as tactful as possible.”

“We try to iron out our issues not in public, but offline if possible,” she continued. Not every dispute has to be played out over hours and hours during a public meeting.

She said that Rivera and other ed board members should always keep in mind the parents and children and other members of the public who log on to watch Board of Education meetings.

“They want to know, ​‘Do our kids have books, and pencils, and whatever is needed in our school system,’” she said. They do not want to watch in-fighting amongst board members.

“A Quiet Leader”

During the public testimony section of the meeting, public school principals, parents, current and former Board of Education members, and other supporters spoke up on behalf of Rivera’s reappointment to the school board.

“She is clearly a problem solver,” said former longtime ed board member Carlos Torre. She is at ease with different kinds of people and ways of thinking.

“She’s a quick study,” he continued. And, in the less than one year she’s been president of the board, she’s taken a ​“totally dysfunctional board” and steered it towards a ​“more purposeful body striving to address the needs of our children.”

Current Board of Education member Ed Joyner agreed. He described Rivera as providing ​“honest, hardworking, kind and courteous leadership.” If she is returned to her post, he promised, Board of Ed meetings will be ​“orderly, with people following the rules, and people not rushing in to make accusations.”

Fair Haven School Principal Heriberto Cordero said that he has noticed how well Rivera and the superintendent work together. ​“It’s trickling down to all of us,” he said about the accord. ​“We’ve been able to do our job.”

Columbus Academy Principal Roy Araujo said he appreciates Rivera’s efforts to ​“hear everyone, to hear everyone voice, even in the face of some challenging voices.”

“She brings a level of stability and calm that is so needed during this pandemic,” said Wexler-Grant Principal David Diah.

Nitza Diaz, the parent of a 3‑year-old preschooler, described Rivera as a ​“quiet leader.”

“Her strength comes from observing and listening” and working well with others, she said. ​“What she brings to the board is tranquility.”

She also said Rivera embodies much-needed Latina representation at the highest reaches of a school system that has a student body that is 47 percent Latino.

The one member of the public to criticize Rivera’s reappointment was Boise Kimber (pictured), a Newhallville reverend and frequent Board of Education attendee.

“I do not think that she has provided good leadership during this pandemic,” he said. ​“She has been on the losing side of the board. She voted to send children back to school, despite the schools’ lack of safety, despite their protocol.”

Ultimately, the committee alders sided unanimously with Rivera’s supporters in recommending that serve another four years on the board.

“Her job is not easy,” Hamilton said. ​“She needs to be supported to be able to do the best job she can. The members of the Board of Education are not exactly easy. I think the more cooperation she can get from that group, the better it is is.”