Superintendent Expects, Does Not Receive, Council Apology

By John Voket

School Superintendent Janet Robinson dispatched an e-mail to Legislative Council Chairman Jeff Capeci May 2, chastising him for allowing his colleagues to express frustration and to call for her resignation at a meeting one week earlier. Several council members at the April 25 meeting, held to issue a revised budget request, had harsh words for the superintendent because she failed to attend the meeting.

During that meeting Council Vice Chair Mary Ann Jacob called for Dr Robinson’s resignation, while Councilman Mitch Bolinsky blamed an “arrogant and short-sighted school administration” for the lopsided failure of the April 24 referendum.

“I thought this was going to be a referendum about full-day kindergarten, but I don’t think that anymore,” he said, noting the absence of the school district’s leader. “I don’t see Superintendent Janet Robinson here. Shame on you. This isn’t important?”

In that townwide referendum, 2,569 No votes were cast and 1,962 Yes votes. The 607-vote difference presented the widest margin for defeating the budget since 2003.

“I think [the vote] was a reflection of how people feel about the school district in the past year,” Ms Jacob also stated April 25. “I don’t think it’s reversible. We need a new superintendent and someone our town has confidence in. We need leadership that can tell the taxpayers how and why” money is being spent, she added.

Dr Robinson and district business manager Ron Bienkowski were on hand for the council’s May 2 regular meeting, presumably to hear a presentation by representatives of Blum Shapiro, a regional consulting firm the town hired to examine the benefits of merging certain school and town functions.

But before that presentation, Mr Capeci greeted Dr Robinson, indicating he had received her letter and asking if she wanted to speak to it in person. The superintendent replied that the letter related everything she had to say on the matter.

The letter states that Dr Robinson could not attend the April 25 meeting because she was at Harvard University attending a seminar “to which I made a commitment six months ago.”

“The preceding Tuesday night [the night of the budget failure] I was informed of your LC meeting, but I already had the commitment,” Dr Robinson continued. “As I was out of town on professional business, I feel the comments made by a member of your council were highly inappropriate, especially since you are aware of how diligent I have been to attend town meetings related to education.”

Dr Robinson said in the letter that Mr Capeci, in his role as chair, “should have intervened at that time and stopped that inappropriate conversation.”

“Then Mary Ann Jacobs [sic] became even more inappropriate by calling for me to step down,” Dr Robinson wrote. “That is not the role of a LC member.

“Can you imagine the furor if the Board of Education called for a town employee to step down? The first selectman and I have devoted many hours and conversation to working collaboratively, but these remarks with no intervention to stop them indicate that the Legislative Council is not at a point of working collaboratively,” Dr Robinson continued. “This negativism is detrimental to this town moving forward and certainly is a roadblock to further willing collaboration. I would expect that a responsible council member would reflect on their transgression and apologize.”

Mr Capeci said there was a lot of concern about the direction the budget process went this year, and comments “got a little emotional.”

“I probably should have said something, I did not. I don’t expect this to happen in the future, however, I do think Ms Robinson that you should have been at our meeting,” Mr Capeci said. The council chairman noted that it is a regular practice for the council to meet on the Wednesday following any Tuesday budget vote failure to issue a revision to expedite the scheduling of the next referendum.

He also pointed out that while the superintendent said she made plans to be at the Harvard conference six months earlier, she should have noted the referendum date, which is mandated to be the final Tuesday in April by charter.

“So I don’t know that that excuses your absence from the meeting that night which sort of frustrated many of the members here,” Mr Capeci said.

Ms Jacob then told the superintendent that she hadn’t “behaved inappropriately, nor did I say anything inappropriate. I’m entitled to my opinion as an elected official and a member of this community and I stand by my comments.”