Parents slam lack of hearing on reopening

BRANFORD — The school board has denied a request to hold public hearing on the district’s reopening plan and the ongoing issues some parents have with district officials.

Instead, parents who filed a petition last month with the Town Clerk’s Office have been directed to the school board’s Communication Committee’s April 7 meeting, at which they have been promised an ongoing platform to work with the district.

What board members described as a solution to what they call an improperly collected petition, parents charge is a way to keep systemic problems in the district unresolved.

“This is not a win, this is a loss for our children and the entire town,” said Laura Green, one of several parents who vowed to continue their fight.

Signatures on the Change.org online petition, which the town clerk verified included at least 280 names from registered voters in the town, were electronically collected.

As such, a board attorney has reportedly advised the board that the document does not meet the letter of the law. The written opinion was discussed during a 90-minute executive session of the board at the start of its meeting this week that the public was not allowed to watch.

Citing attorney-client privilege, board Chairman John Prins would not release the letter containing the opinion.

After emerging from the private session, he told the public — both in person at the Walsh Intermediate School cafeteria and livestreamed for those watching remotely — that the length of the closed-door meeting showed how seriously the board considered the matter.

“This is better than a public hearing,” Prins said. “We want to get to solutions” in a proper forum.

“We want to work with you,” added board member Tim Raynor.

Raynor suggested that a standing committee, where minutes are kept and action can be taken, is better than a one-time hearing during which dozens of parents can vent many of the same concerns expressed over the course of the last two meetings of the school board.

As a result of those meetings, Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez — who until then had no definitive public plan to switch back to in-person learning — developed a reopening plan, then developed a quicker one that will put elementary students back into the classroom full time on March 22. High schools are to return to full in-person learning by April 4.

Several parents at the meeting complained that emails to Hernandez have gone unanswered. They say there is a lack of transparency and a resistance to including parents in the process.

“We are trying to get our voices heard,” Meaghan DeLucia said during the public comment portion of this week’s board meeting.

To DeLucia, having parent concerns shifted to a committee is a way to mute those concerns.

DeLucia and others referenced comments made earlier in the meeting by Patrice McCarthy, deputy director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, who shared that public comment during board meetings should remain oneway conversations.

The idea is that responses to public comments should not come during meetings, but after.

Jennifer Orlando, a parent who helped organize the petition, said she, too, was disappointed with the board decision.

“There is a serious trust issue,” Orlando said. “And a lack of leadership.”

Moving the matter to committee is a way to control what is said, Orlando added.

Orlando said Thursday she already is working on another petition that will be properly worded and include acceptable signatures.

Hernandez, in his 11th year as superintendent, said he does communicate with parents. So, too, he said, do other district officials, including principals.

He insisted his focus is on students and doing the right things for the right reasons.

“That will make some people unhappy,” Hernandez said.