GOP calls for end to illegal School Board Meetings

West Hartford Republicans are calling for an end to board of education “retreats” like the one held in July and one planned for November.

“These so-called ‘retreats’ are a disturbing violation of the public trust. They violate the spirit and letter of the Sunshine Laws which require public boards to hold public meetings,” said Lib Spinella, a Republican board member seeking her second term. “Seeing how the Democrats on the board have been operating in the shadows on issues that the public has a right to know about, it’s clear why there is such a lack of trust in government in general. Elected officials need to have their conversations out in the open for the public to see, not behind closed doors.”

The lengthy Meeting Notes from the July retreat include plans to discuss the following at the next retreat:

“Very important for this group [retreat] to have an in-depth conversation about racial imbalance”

“Demographics and their meanings for the schools”

“Expansion of the [school] year, day, number of hours in the [school] day”

Andrew Bannon-Guasp and Ellen Brassil, Republican board candidates, are outraged by the board’s plans to discuss racial imbalance at the next retreat.

“The fact that the Democrats who set the agenda have yet to have an in-depth conversation, debate and vote on this topic in a public meeting, but instead are planning to do so behind closed doors is outrageous,” said Bannon-Guasp. “This [racial imbalance statute] is the single biggest issue facing the board and town. Not only are they planning to discuss this issue behind closed doors in November, but they do not have plans to publicly address this issue until December - after the municipal elections.”

Ms. Brassil, elected to the board in 1997 and 2001, had this to say: “The actions of this board majority are unacceptable. Public information and dialogue help to keep our public officials accountable. The lack of a complete, open and public debate and vote on how, or if, to comply with this antiquated statute shows a lack of regard for the public they were elected to serve. Public officials need to be open in their conversations and show the thought processes that they're basing their decisions on.”

Republicans are also troubled by the apparent use of taxpayer dollars to pay a facilitator for these retreats, the disregard for the board’s bylaws and lack of a transparent process. “The board as a whole should be deciding how to spend their time, how the administration is going to spend their time and how taxpayer dollars are spent,” said Diane Mudge, Republican board member elected in 2007. “The board has never voted to hold these retreats, who would facilitate them or what would be discussed. The nature of the topics under discussion makes these “retreats” problematic, and I believe illegal. There must be a stop to these immediately.”

Complete meeting notes from the July 2009 "retreat" can be viewed by clicking on the attached link. http://www.medpartners.net/retreatnotes.pdf
As noted above, CQE views these "retreats" as little more than illegal meetings. As such, we find most of the content of the meeting notes to be inappropriate and/or not focusing on what's in the best interest of the children who attend our public schools. The board's focus on their own "legacy," and on dimestore marketing ploys litter most of the meeting notes. Some (but clearly not all) of the content viewed as problematic by this writer is highlighted in yellow.

May 2009 letter from W.Htfd Board to the State Dept of Education

Before I get into the contents of the May 1, 2009 letter to the State Dept of Education (http://www.medpartners.net/whpsltr.pdf), I’d like to mention a couple of points of interest / concern:

• I read through dozens and dozens of pages of correspondence, and I did not see a single section or statement that focused on improving the quality of education that our students - regardless of race - are receiving. Instead, virtually all of the correspondence focuses on counting noses, and outlines plans to treat children differently based on race.
• The letters I received from my FOIA request spanned a 9-year period, and totaled more than 50 pages. These letters were filled with statements about the West Hartford school district working diligently to identify issues and options with respect to racial imbalance at certain of West Hartford’s elementary schools, plans and timelines to address these issues, etc. There is one HUGE problem with all of this correspondence: Under whose direction were Superintendent Sklarz or List operating under when sending this correspondence? The West Hartford Board of Education certainly has never formally (i.e. via a vote at a public meeting) established their position on how (or if) to try to comply with this out-dated statute. Are we left to conclude that David Sklarz or Karen List (or any other Superintendent of schools) would make commitments to the State without receiving any direction from the board majority? Having served on the board for 7 years (including 2 as chairman, and 2 as vice chairman) I can tell you unequivocally that would never happen. A reasonable (and informed) person is left only to conclude that the board chairman – acting without benefit of a public discussion, debate, and vote on how /if to comply with this statute – simply directed - behind closed doors - the Superintendent to respond in the manner in which they did. This is a violation of not only the board’s own by-laws, but also of the Sunshine Laws that require public boards to hold their meetings (and their discussions) in the light of day for the public to hear. Moreover, this violates the public trust held by every elected official.
• There is a widely-held misconception that racial imbalance issues exist “only” at Charter Oak and Smith schools. However, correspondence between town and state references impending racial imbalance at Bugbee, Duffy, and Morley schools.

Now, onto the May 1, 2009 letter. This blog isn't long enough to list all the things that wrong and/or offensive about this letter. At the bottom of this post is a link that will allow you to read that letter in its entirety, but in the meantime I would call your attention to a number of sections of this letter that this writer (and a number of others) were troubled by:

Pg. 2: Our own administration makes the following statement: "Too many of the magnet students are minority students." (Can they get any more blatantly racist than that?)

Pg. 3: "If the magnet student demographics better reflected the district average" AND "we get 20 neighborhood students to leave for other schools in the district." Not sure what we "get" 20 neighborhood students to leave means. It is CQE's belief that every child - regardless of their race - should be able to attend their neighborhood school. To treat one child differently than another (i.e. one can attend their neighborhood school but the other cannot) based on their race is not only inherently racist, but a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Have any of these folks heard of the 14th amendment??

Pgs.3-4: Discusses the possibility of constructing a new facility that would allow for the significant expansion of the number of magnet seats available. Goes on to cite two possibilities: One where magnet students would come from other school attendance zones within the district. The other where a new Charter Oak facility would operate as an inter-district host magnet school (with other towns outside of West Hartford.)

I don't know where to begin pointing out the problems with these theories, but I will try: (1) The district has tried theme after theme at Charter Oak in the hopes of attracting significant numbers of students (non-minority) to leave their neighborhood schools and come to Charter Oak. Those multiple attempts have failed - due to the fact that the vast majority of parents are happy with the neighborhood school their children attend. (2) If I am not mistaken, Mayor Slifka is on record as saying that the town cannot afford to build a new facility at Charter Oak. (3) If the board has been unable to attract / "convince" students to leave their neighborhood schools to attend Charter Oak magnet school, what makes them think that there will be a compelling case for parents/families who live south or west of West Hartford to leave their towns to come to Charter Oak magnet school?

Pg.6 - Makes statements like "encouraging neighborhood students at Smith and Charter Oak to attend schools in other parts of the district," "providing both "free" (someone is going to be paying for this) preschool and wraparound care", and "once we get the students away from the neighborhood..." Enough said.

Pg. 6 - States that "the administration will explore and report to the Board of Education..." As noted earlier in this post, who is directing the administration to do so, and what vehicle / process was used to provide that direction?

Pg. 7 - Outlines planned timeline for board to finally publicly address this issue in detail - in December 2009. For those of you keeping score, that just coincidentally is one month after the municipal elections. Nice.

Pg. 7 - Ends with the following statement: "We are optimistic that these steps will ultimately be the first of several stages that will result in the elimination of racial imbalance at Charter Oak and Smith over the long term through the use of primarily voluntary measures....." Again, I have to ask the question: When did the board make a decision to take this direction, and what process did they use to do so? Also, citing "primarily" voluntary measures more than implies there will be involuntary measures as well. Naturally, these involuntary measures will grow in scope when voluntary measures fail. And naturally, neither the Board nor Karen List has uttered one word in a public setting about what these involuntary measures (major redistricting ) that would reflect a "comprehensive plan" to eliminate racial imbalance.

What does CQE believe our school board should be doing in response to the racial imbalance mandate being enforced by the state? That will be addressed in a future post entitled "What should the board be doing about the racial imbalance law?" on this website.

In the meantime, to see the May 2009 letter from the West Hartford Public Schools to the State Department of Education re: racial imbalance in West Hartford Schools in its entirety, please click on the attached link:
http://www.medpartners.net/whpsltr.pdf

History of CQE

Citizens for Quality Education ("CQE") was founded in 1994 in response to the then Board of Education's "K-2/3-5" plan. This ill-advised and controversial plan would have completely dismantled West Hartford's neighborhood school system. It would have redistricted every elementary school student in town by busing them out of their neighborhood school and to another school across town for half of their elementary school years, separated siblings, and disrupted families -- all for no educational benefit (and at an increased cost to tax payers to pay for the forced busing.) This disaster of a plan kept families with school aged children away from West Hartford in droves, negatively impacted property values, and seriously eroded public confidence in those who held public office - and a public trust - at that time. It was only after a nearly a year of pitting neighbor against neighbor, and driving the town to the brink of the abyss that the Democrat controlled board of education reverse it's vote on the K-2/3-5 plan and then seek other more reasoned and appropriate alternatives.

The board's K-2/3-5 plan was in response to the State of Connecticut's Racial Imbalance Law. This statute mandates that no school in a given school district (town) can have a minority population that is 25 percentage points higher or lower than the town wide average of minority students.

Now, more than a decade later we once again have a board of education with a super majority (5-2) of Democrats - and the State of Connecticut is once again attempting to enforce the racial imbalance law (a statute which we believe to be inherently racist as it would have us treat children differently based on their race.) It is this very real potential for history to repeat itself that has CQE reaching out to West Hartford parents and taxpayers to shine full light on this issue that the current Board of Education has largely operated in the shadows on in recent years. For more information on what has recently transpired (and more importantly, where the Board of Education appears to be heading with this issue) please read the post entitled "What's Happening Now?" on this website.