Wilcox reappointed to city school board

Amid calls for more parent involvement

NEW HAVEN — Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox is back on the school board for a second three-year term, but several members of the Board of Alders opposed his reappointment, with one questioning reappointing existing members when there are no school parents on the board.

The voice vote at Tuesday’s regular Board of Alders meeting, at which Wilcox’s reappointment was approved, followed a “rally” on the City Hall steps organized by Democratic mayoral hopeful Tom Goldenberg.

About nine people attended the rally at which Goldenberg called on alders not to reappoint any school board members until parents are appointed to the search committee for a new superintendent of schools and the Board of Education announces plans to resume in-person meetings.

The board has met only virtually over Zoom since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some other bodies, including the Board of Alders, meet both in-person and virtually. Alders meetings are livestreamed on YouTube.

“There are currently over 19,000 students and not one of their parents are on the board,” said Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, D-14, a school parent herself.

The system “depends on persons who are personally invested,” said Miller, one of at least three alders who voted against Wilcox’s reappointment.

She criticized Wilcox, a Westville resident who works as director of Quinnipiac University’s Edward and Barbara Netter Library, for “his deference to the superintendent,” among other things, and said that on the school board, “families are mostly left out of the process.”

The vote followed an Aldermanic Affairs Committee meeting on Jan. 23 at which committee members unanimously supported Wilcox’s reappointment.

On Tuesday, several alders spoke in support of Wilcox’s reappointment, including Westville Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, who called Wilcox honest and hardworking, and East Rock Alder Anna Festa, D-10, who said the city’s schools “are in a crisis ... so let’s all work together to do what is right.”

Alder Eli Sabin, D-7, said he didn’t want to send a message “that I have full confidence” in the way the Board of Education currently is operating, but “Mr. Wilcox is honest and hardworking” and “he does a good job for our students.”

Goldenberg was joined by the the Rev. Steven Cousin, pastor of Bethel AME Church, among others.

“I am here tonight because I am deeply concerned about the direction that our school system is headed,” said Cousin. He rejected the notion that “‘good enough’ is good enough.

“I am here to tell you that ‘good enough’ is not good enough,” Cousin said. “...We really need to take a hard look at where we’re at . ... We need to strive for excellence.”

When the school system released the most recent reading scores, “quite honestly, I felt ashamed, that 84 percent of our third-graders cannot read at grade level” and the city “has the highest chronic absenteeism in Connecticut,” said Goldenberg.

Meanwhile, “the mayor, who sits on the Board of Education and appoints a majority of its members, has done nothing to address the concerns of parents,” he said. “... We need change . ... We need to hold our elected officials accountable.”

Matt Wilcox