Put a Teacher on the Board!

Connecticut is one of 40 states with a part-time, citizen legislature.  As such, members have real jobs and careers.  Serving in the Connecticut Legislature are doctors, lawyers, real estate folks, business owners, maybe a couple of UBER drivers, and of course, educators or those with ties to education.

These legislators sit on committees where laws are introduced, where policy is created, all which may directly benefit them in their private pursuits, creating a garden of potential conflicts of interest.  While they may often disclose these conflicts, they do not always abstain from voting on issues which create the appearance of a conflict.

However, they are not, by statute, forbidden to serve.  Rep. Farley Santos is a Vice Chair on the Banking Committee despite his role as Vice President, Community Development Manager, and Bank Ambassador with the Savings Bank of Danbury.  Sen. Norm Needleman serves on the Commerce Committee and the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee, despite owning a major pharmaceutical company with 3 locations in Connecticut. 

Rep. Rachel Chaleski serves on the Education Committee while also serving on the Danbury Board of Education.  Sen. Eric Berthel is on the legislature’s Education Committee, despite his deep involvement with the Watertown and Oakville school boards.  Sen. Doug McCrory, current Co-Chair of the Education Committee was Vice Principal at CREC while serving in the legislature in 2017.  Rep. Kevin Brown serves on the Education Committee while his wife serves as a school administrator.

Despite their links to their hometown school districts, these folks are not forbidden to assist in crafting legislation and policies that affect their hometown school districts.

Yet Connecticut, under the guise of conflict-of-interest arguments, forbids teachers from serving on local school boards.  Apparently at the state level, folks, including teachers, are able to maintain their objectivity and separate their responsibilities.  At the local level, apparently, teachers are unable to do so.  

State statutes 10-156e and 10-232, explicitly state that no employee of a school district may serve on the board of education for that district.  While Hartford has no explicit policy, their Code of Ethics strongly advises against it.  Hartford Board of Education Bylaws (9270) forbid teachers serving on the board, but as we know, these bylaws, like red lights in Hartford - even for some bus drivers - are mere suggestions rather than hard and fast rules.

Former Connecticut Rep. Joe Aresimowicz worked for the powerful union influencer, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council, earning a salary of $107,000 in 2018.  When he was elected to become House Speaker, suddenly his employment with the union became a conflict-of-interest issue.  The State Board of Ethics said there was not an issue because ol’ Joe didn’t negotiate directly with the union and he played no part in how the union paid employees, “so he couldn’t directly benefit.”

The Hartford Board does not negotiate with teachers or the Hartford Federation of Teachers on teacher contract details.  The Board does not assist in the preparation of school budgets.  The Board does not initiate or recommend school or district policies.  The Board does not select, interview, or negotiate with central office staff.  The Board does not recommend, interview, negotiate with, or monitor school vendors or third-party educational contractors.  Much of this is less by design and more by defect.

Outside of Hartford, there may be boards of education which play a larger, active role in school policy, budgeting, and decision making, but in Hartford, that role, and therefor the risk of conflict, is negligible.  In Hartford, the role of the board is to be a rubber stamp, period, end of story.  If it wasn’t a state mandate, the Hartford Board would not exist and no one would be the wiser. On the Hartford Board of education there is more disinterest than there are conflicts of interest.

Conflict of interest concerns are mitigated by effective board or committee policing of itself, transparency, disclosure rules and forms, and ethic and codes of conduct rules.  And by a watchful, engaged community. 

Allowing at least one teacher within the board of education’s district to be an elected or appointed member of the board appears to be a no-brainer.  With their professional insight and experience they would be able to report on the true and current needs of students and staff, provide truthful, accurate, and current assessments of policies and practices, and present an honest depiction of current school climate and culture.  This could actually save the district money and increase educational achievement.

If democracy is strengthened when legislative bodies reflect the community on which they are forcing policy and law, then the legislative body of the school district, the school board, ought to reflect the school community, which includes teachers.