School board chairman under fire for email will ‘absolutely not’ quit
NORWALK — Amid calls for his resignation following the leak of an email that some have deemed racist and offensive, the city’s Board of Education chairman says he will “absolutely not” step down.
The local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will hold a meeting Thursday night to call for the resignation of Board of Education Chairman Mike Barbis.
But Barbis said Wednesday he has no plans to resign and that he heard from residents in his district on election day who supported him and praised the work he has done.
Barbis, who ran unopposed for the District E seat, questioned the timing of the email being leaked just days before the election. Barbis, a Democrat, pointed to his support of unaffiliated, Republicanendorsed mayoral candidate Lisa Brinton in the race against incumbent Harry Rilling as a possible reason for the email getting released.
Barbis, who received 2,345 votes on Tuesday, said he used profane, but not racist, language in the email.
The email was sent on June 5 to Rilling, the mayor’s chief of staff, Laoise King, Democratic Town Committee Chairman Ed Camacho, and DTC Vice Chairwoman Eloisa Melendez. In the profanityriddled email, Barbis claimed South Norwalk’s black elected officials did not “represent their residents.” The email was related to resistance from District B Democrats on a plan to build a new Columbus School.
“The fact is one of those four people forwarded that email,” Barbis said Wednesday. “They were supporting a mayoral candidate different from the one I was working with. They can say what they want, but anyone with half a brain can add that together.”
Norwalk NAACP President Brenda PennWilliams released the email, including forwarding it to the media, when she received it on Saturday. Barbis confirmed the authenticity of the email, saying he sent it in “frustration” and issued an apology about it to NancyOnNorwalk.
The email was directed at Common Council members Darlene Young, Ernie Dumas and Tom Livingston, former state Rep. Bruce Morris, current state Rep. Travis Simms, D140, and District B Democrats David Westmoreland and Mike Mushak as barriers to the proposed Columbus School project.
“They don’t even represent their residents — don’t forget 15% of our students are black. 50% are Latino. Where is the Latino voice. Who is fighting for those children ???? ” Barbis wrote in the email. “They are all SCUM and I am going to tell the press — Nancy won’t care but the Hour just might. Blacks f*** Latinos. That’s the headline.”
Dumas expressed concern on Wednesday that it took so long for this information to come to light.
“Barbis should not be on the Board of Ed at all with those comments,” Dumas said.
The NAACP meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Open Door Shelter. PennWilliams said the NAACP plans to pressure Barbis to resign from the board.
PennWilliams, who has called for Barbis to resign in the past, had suggested this week that a board policy allows for the removal of a member with a twothirds majority vote.
However, Patrice McCarthy, deputy director and general counsel of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said there is no provision in the state law for a board to remove a member, or for constituents to recall a member.
It does appear, however, that Barbis will no longer be the board’s chairman. Bruce Kimmel, who has served on the board since 2017, plans to seek the chairman position.
PennWilliams said she is grateful for voters “making the BOE diverse” following Tuesday’s election and said the executive board “must reflect the diversity of the city.”
“I feel that Mike Barbis is a racist and he should not be a member of the BOE,” PennWilliams said. “I want to put enough pressure and embarrassment...that will force him to resign. The chairman of the BOE should not behave in the manner that he has displayed in the last few years.”
PennWilliams said she attended the meeting Barbis referenced in the email and said she remembers him being pleased with the ideas presented.
“We left that meeting feeling really great and felt as if progress had been (made) and that someone from the BOE was listening,” she said. “A frustrated man would not have kissed me on my cheeks as I walked out the door.”
When asked about the email, Morris referred to a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.”
“It is unfortunate Mr. Barbis will not ever resign, regardless of anything offensive he ever does toward people of color, blacks, in particular,” Morris said. “Most sadly, the people in District E will continue to remain silent: consenting, agreeing, nominating, and voting for a man with his values. Their silence affirms he represents their views. The deafening silence of all Norwalkers, regardless of party affiliation, elected status, faith tradition,or otherwise, speaks volumes. I concur with Dr. King and say to Mr. Barbis and others like minded: nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”