9 Members Elected By District—

Charter Panel Moves To Enlarge School Bd

By John Voket

On Tuesday evening a quorum of four Charter Revision Commissioners unanimously endorsed increasing the Board of Education to nine members, and splitting the school board’s representation into three districts, mirroring the Legislative Council’s districting scheme. The charter panel at the same time voted to reduce the terms of school board members from four to two years, in part, to provide voters with more opportunities to potentially replace members if serious concerns about responsiveness or performance arise.

During the same meeting, the charter panel also voted to recommend the first selectman, the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, and Legislative Council remain serving two-year terms, and unanimously supported the council remaining split into three districts. The makeup of each council and school board district would incorporate a minimum party majority of one member, meaning no district could be exclusively represented by one political party.

The move might also encourage more unaffiliated residents to seek elected office according to CRC Chairman Al Cramer, because Democrats and Republicans would only be required to each hold a single seat in each district on either elected panel — a bare majority.

Charter commissioner Joseph Hemingway, who made the motion to increase the size of the school board and split its representation, said nine members was a “manageable number” for an elected body entrusted with administering more than 70 percent of the town’s annual budget.

“I think districts mean more to the Board of Ed than they do to the council because of the different school districts,” Mr Hemingway said. “They have so much [work] to handle, they go in so many different directions, [with nine members] they will be able to get a lot more accomplished.”

Mr Cramer observed that with the expertise of the superintendent and his staff consulting on internal matters, it may not be critical to have school board members serving for four years.

Commissioner LeReine Frampton added that no other leading elected boards served for four years.

“That makes the Board of Ed look like they have more power than the Legislative Council and the Board of Selectmen,” Ms Frampton said. “And if the people don’t like what they are doing they can switch them.”

Missing Commissioners ‘Disturbed’

Charter Commissioners Joan Plouffe and Guy Howard, who were not in attendance Tuesday filed a joint letter of complaint with Mr Cramer via email the next morning.

“Guy Howard and I are deeply disturbed and disappointed that the Charter Revision Commission voted on critical charter issues at last night’s meeting with only four of six members present,” Ms Plouffe wrote. “We are not suggesting work should stop, nor should votes be avoided if there has been full discussion of the item and the positions of all members are known.”

She noted that the charter commissioners were aware that she was going to miss the December 12 meeting, adding that Commissioner Howard had a last minute work emergency that kept him from attending.

“I had discussed with the CRC and [Mr Cramer] personally my concerns about important votes being taken in the absence of CRC members,” Ms Plouffe stated.

She said that the commissioners had been working well together recently with good discussions on important issues.

“Our concern is why you felt compelled to bring up a number of important topics for final discussion and vote when all members have not had a chance to participate in discussions, nor was there a timing requirement that they be voted on last night,” she wrote. “An example is the Board of Education composition, terms, and method of election, votes taken last night. The actions at last night’s meeting leads one to wonder why there was a need to take these votes in our absence.”

The letter suggested that the four members in attendance Tuesday were not participating honestly and openly in working through the issues and doing “the right thing by each of the charges.

“Some of the BOE issues voted on last night were neither on the agenda nor previously discussed. Thus, hearing about them today came as a complete surprise to us,” she wrote.

Ms Plouffe closed by requesting the items voted on at Tuesday night’s meeting be reopened at next week’s meeting. The subjects of Tuesday’s votes, however, cannot be reopened unless one of the CRC members who acted on the measures moves to reopen discussion on previously endorsed matters.

School Board Response

Shortly after The Bee received a copy of the charter commissioners’ memo, school board Chair Elaine McClure responded to a request for comment in writing, saying she was “surprised” by the Charter Revision Commission’s vote.

“I am surprised to learn that these decisions were made last night without advance notification and with only four of the six commissioners present,” Ms McClure wrote. “At this time, I am not privy to the rationale or thought that has gone into these decisions and hope that there will be opportunities for further discussion.”

The school board chair continued, posing several questions.

“Why would we divide the town by voting districts for educational purposes? If anything, it might make more sense to divide the board into the four elementary districts with additional at-large representation.

“How will members be elected? Will there continue to be party representation limits or will this be open to unaffiliated and independent citizens?” Ms McClure asked.

She added that, in her opinion, the six-member Board has an efficiency of operation, especially in the area of communication with one another.

“We deal with a myriad of complex issues on the Board of Education in many areas such as safety, finance, student expulsions, grievances, curriculum, personnel, residency, space needs, policy, contract negotiations, etc,” Ms McClure wrote. “This poses a steep learning curve for members.”

The school board chair said she was concerned that a two-year term may result in a greater turnover of membership and, hence, a continual need for bringing members up to speed.

“Furthermore, I worry that the shorter time span between election and the need to run for reelection could serve to politicize our board,” Ms McClure said, adding that she hoped, “in the best interests of the town…we will be able to have more dialog on these matters and that all commission members will have an opportunity to vote on any substantive changes that will be recommended to the Legislative Council.”

In other action, the CRC unanimously voted to increase the cap on appropriations the Legislative Council may authorize without a town meeting from $150,000 to $500,000, with a cumulative cap of one mill in any fiscal year.

Along with that recommendation the charter commissioners agreed that any special and/or emergency appropriation in excess of $10 million must automatically go to referendum vote.