If we want change, start with the BOE
Apple, Hermes and Tiffany boarded over their stores’ huge display windows on Greenwich Avenue this week, protecting against the unlikely event that the destruction that has occurred in some places following the killing of a black man at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers might spill over to Greenwich.
Plywood instead of iPhones, high-end fashion, and luxe jewelry is an odd sight in the retail heart of
Greenwich, so odd that when I first saw the photographs I thought someone had altered them to make a political statement.
But the plywood is real; the merchandise protected out of an abundance of corporate caution. The boarded-up storefronts also served as a novel visual reminder that Greenwich is not immune to events taking place in the political and social forces at work in the nation and across world.
The same day that workers covered windows on the Avenue, about 100 people, some carrying Black Lives Matter signs, rallied at the Greenwich Public Safety Complex to protest George Floyd’s murder. At the urging of protesters, Police Chief James Heavey, Capt. Kraig Gray and other officers took a knee in support of their message. To me, that was another first for Greenwich.
My charge as a columnist is to write about Greenwich;
as such I rarely address national issues. But the prolonged and passionate protests against police brutality and hostility toward black Americans have generated worldwide attention and hope for real change “this” time. Forgive my skepticism, but I do not think we have the political leadership required for change, not yet anyway.
Black people in America have been treated as lesser humans for 400 years, since the first slave ship unloaded its cargo on North American shores. I am old enough to remember watching TV coverage of cities burning in 1968 after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. We thought change would come then, and for a while it seemed progress was made. Civil and voting rights legislation had passed, and black Americans developed strong political voices, one of which graced the White House for eight years.
But racism did not disappear. The eloquent Barack Obama was succeeded by an inarticulate Tweeter who rules by fear and divisiveness. President Trump’s hostility against even his mildest critics knows no bounds. And, his abuse this week of police and military power in service to his campaign should make all of us concerned about what he will do between now and the November election.
But I thought for this week I would go along with the optimists who see the current unrest and disillusion as forces that will generate a new era in race relations in America. I started thinking about political power in Greenwich, which inevitably led me to thinking about public education.
When it comes to education, Greenwich is a tale of two towns. Elementary and middle schools in the eastern/central part of town are rated among the top public schools in Connecticut. Those on the western, and less affluent side, primarily New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue, are far down that list.
Over the last 15 years or so the State of Connecticut has identified those Greenwich schools as having racially imbalanced school populations, which is supposed to get Greenwich to integrate its schools. But it is a toothless law; Greenwich has suffered no adverse consequences as a result of its rigid adherence to “separate but equal” neighborhood schools. As a result, several generations of children will suffer lifelong consequences.
There is no one fix that will suddenly improve these schools. But there is one fix that will at least give the western part of town a guaranteed seat at the public education table: end at-large elections for the Board of Education. Treating the whole town as one district has routinely led to a serious underweighting of representation from western Greenwich.
The current board includes four members from eastern Greenwich, three from central and one from Pemberwick/Glenville. Not one member lives in either the Hamilton Avenue or New Lebanon neighborhoods. And only one lives in the end of town served by Western Middle School. This lack of political power explains, at least in part, why school playing fields are allowed to be closed for five years because of the town’s unwillingness to spend millions to remove toxic soil, or why the Hamilton Avenue playing field was largely unused for many years. It also means that not one board member has had to face his or her neighbors on a daily basis and explain why the local school is failing.
There are other reforms needed as well, such as taking nominations for school board seats away from the Republican and Democratic town committees.
These are hardly radical ideas, nor are they guaranteed to result in any meaningful changes. But if we really want to see lasting change, the place to start is with local education.