Date: Fri 08-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

charter-school-board

Full Text:

School Board Members See No Need For Charter Changes

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Members of the Board of Education warned the Charter Revision Commission last

week that allowing a political party to have a majority on the school board

would "politicize" the board.

"Partisan politics has never been a consideration, perhaps because we have

equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. My concern is when one party has a

majority, the issues and votes can be along party lines," said Board Chairman

Herb Rosenthal.

The board members and Dr John Reed, superintendent of schools, attended the

Charter Revision Commission meeting last Thursday evening at Edmond Town Hall

to discuss changes which other town officials have recommended for the makeup

of the school board.

"There is little evidence that the voters are unhappy with the board the way

it is," insisted Mr Rosenthal, a Democrat who has served on the board for 11«

years.

All of the school board members agreed that the board should continue to have

six members who are elected for four-year terms. Board members served six-year

terms until their terms were shortened to four years by a previous charter

revision commission. Some town officials had proposed that the school board

terms be shortened even more, to two years.

School board members disagreed. It takes more than a year just to begin to

learn about the complex policies and financial matters involved in planning

and operating a school district, they said.

Mr Rosenthal said that contrary to remarks by town officials and editorials in

The Bee, it is easy to run for a seat on the school board.

"Section 9-453d of the state statutes requires that you need a petition with

the signatures of only one percent of the number of voters who voted in the

last municipal election," he explained. "There were 4,525 votes cast which

means 45 signatures."

The fact that no one has petitioned to be on the ballot is due either to

satisfaction with the board or is due to a lack of understanding of the law,

he said.

Some of the people at the meeting commented that they were unaware of this

provision in the law. "I've been here 40 years and I've never heard of it,"

said Jack Rosenthal, Legislative Council member who served 12 years as first

selectman.

School Board member Amy Dent, a Democrat, said if a decision is made by the

Charter Revision Commission to change the school board to an uneven number of

members, "I would then urge you to have a non-partisan board with an open

nomination format, an open caucus format."

Mrs Dent also said she believes the charter impedes the budget process by

specifying too much time between deliberations and the referendum.

"There is no closure," she said, explaining that if the budget is defeated,

the process can drag into the summer months.

"It is extremely difficult to plan efficiently and effectively for the opening

of school if we are still spending a significant portion of our time on

dealing with the budget," she said.

Republican Isabelle Murray said she had strong feelings about the potential

risk of politicizing the board after the experience she had when her party

tried to unseat her by running Joe Borst in an election that she won by one

vote.

"I've seen what the Legislative Council has done, and I've seen what we've

done," she said. "I've been told that if we didn't go the way of the majority

party, the budget would be at risk to be cut - and it has been. Legislative

Council has the final say on the budget, we do not have the final say."

"It may be a trite saying, but power corrupts and absolute power corrupts

absolutely," Mrs Dent said. "If a party has a majority, there is the

opportunity to dictate through the political parties. We've seen that happen

on council."

Republican Susan Hills said she thinks each party should put up two candidates

for each position on the school board "so there will be a choice." If a board

member resigns, only the other two members of that party should vote on the

replacement, she said, to make the choice truely "non-political."

Ruby Johnson, a Charter Revision Commission member who served on the Board of

Education years ago, said that she had not been her party's "recommended

candidate" for the school board. Republican Charles Nanavaty, who had a

similar experience, described himself as "the candidate the board members felt

they could work with."

Peggy Ulrich-Nims, a Democrat who joined the board last year, said she was an

unaffiliated voter when she was approached to run for the position.

"In the other communities where I lived, the boards have all been

non-partisan," she said. "Here I had to go through a screening and assessment

of credentials by the town committee, a process you don't get with an open

caucus in which candidates may come with their own agendas."

Herb Rosenthal said six is the right size for the board because "it keeps the

board members from trying to micro-manage the school district."

Dr Reed said that if the budget is defeated in a referendum, Legislative

Council should have the power to set the budget rather than having another

referendum. "If the people don't agree, they can elect a different Legislative

Council the next time," he said.

"Perhaps Legislative Council also should have the power to put a capital item

to a referendum rather than going to a town meeting and have someone petition

it to a referendum afterwards," he suggested.

Dr Reed also said it is very difficult on the local level to differentiate

between members of the two political parties and he did not believe that the

board acts in a partisan manner.

Attorney William Denlinger, who served 10 years on the school board and two

years as its president, strongly recommended keeping the board as it is.

"Through the screening process each party tries to pick out the best people

they can find to serve. People tend to leave their party affiliations at the

door and do what is best for the children" he said.

"What we have in Newtown works. The machinery is there to have more than one

candidate run. If the community is happy and the parties are happy, why should

you legislate that the numbers of candidates must be increased?"