Second Danbury school board member to run for state office
DANBURY — Michelle Coelho has become the second Danbury school board member vying for a spot in the state legislature following an announcement that she is running for state senator this November.
Coelho will run in Connecticut’s 24th District against incumbent Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, according to a press release. Kushner announced her intent to run for a third term in January. She unseated her predecessor, Republican Mike McLachlan, in 2018.
In attendance at Coelho’s campaign announcement event, which was held at the Portuguese Cultural Center on March 25, was McLachlan, Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito and state Rep. Pat Callahan, R-New Fairfield.
When asked what leadership qualities Coelho possessed that caught Republican Town Committee Chairman Mike Safranek’s eye, he said it was “her passion, her intellect, and her raw ability to want to bond with people.”
“It's just who she is, she’s a force of nature, she just comes through the room and you know her,” he added.
Earlier this month, school board chair Rachel Chaleski, also a Republican, announced her intention to run for state representative against Democrat Ken Gucker.
Coelho could not be reached for comment Monday morning.
At her campaign announcement, “each speaker spoke of Michelle’s commitment to the district, her passion, her intelligence, her qualifications and her family’s story,” according to a press release. She’s served as a project manager and developer in the construction planning industry, in addition to being bilingual, speakers said.
Coelho’s family emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba. She is a first generation Cuban-American.
“She has a great story, which is one of the contrasts in this race, her family fled communist Cuba to come to America for a better life,” said Safranek.
Coelho is a big proponent of a charter school in Danbury, an issue which has starkly divided Democrats and Republicans in Danbury and drove much of the debate during school board elections last November. The charter school hopes to relieve overcrowding issues in the school district by eventually placing 770 students in its program.
The school earned approval from the state Board of Education to open in Danbury in 2018, but lacks state funding and needs approval again after a new operator was named earlier this year.
Coelho received the most votes of any board member during the election and credited part of her victory to her support of the charter school.
Kushner opposes the charter school and instead has pushed for the Open Choice program, which has been stalled until 2023-2024, but would allow 50 students from Danbury to attend school in neighboring towns. Coelho does not support that program.
Kushner said that she “qualified really quickly” for public financing through the Connecticut Citizens’ Election Program in January with more than 400 contributions to her campaign, and has “worked really hard over the last almost four years now.”
“I think that during the course of the campaign, our views on a variety of issues will be made clear to the voters and people will once again make a decision on who will represent them the best in Hartford,” she said. “Folks have a pretty good idea of who I am and what I stand for.”