Teachers’ union wants Barbis out
NORWALK — The union representing the teachers at the city’s public schools is the latest group calling for the resignation of Board of Education Chairman Mike Barbis over a controversial email that recently surfaced.
In the email, Barbis claimed South Norwalk’s black elected officials did not “represent their residents”
Mary Yordon, president of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers, released a letter Monday night, saying the union has “serious concerns about the impact of Mr. Barbis’ continued presence on the board.”
“He disparaged and dismissed respected leaders of our community. His email is offensive, vulgar, culturally insensitive, and perceived by many as racist,” Yordon wrote.
“At this time, our school community seeks a new superintendent, and we seek to attract an increasingly diverse workforce. At this time, our families need to trust in the school system’s innovative and experimental programs, and the taxpayers at large are being asked to divert an increasing portion of city funds to improve our school system.
“At this particular time, we are confronted by ugly, divisive, emotional responses to challenges by Mr. Barbis, who is supposed to be a standard bearer of our school system as a board member. We cannot keep our children at the focus of our efforts with the intolerance demonstrated in his words. Our teachers ask for better. Our children deserve better. Norwalk deserves better than this. Mr. Barbis should resign.”
Barbis, however, said last week he would “absolutely not” resign from the seat.
A representative for 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 an official. However, NAACP members say they will fight until Barbis is no longer on the board.
Norwalk NAACP President Brenda PennWilliams released the email, including forwarding it to the media, when she received it on Nov. 2.
“We want Mike Barbis out,” PennWilliams said.
The email referenced resistance from South Norwalk Democrats — naming state Rep. Travis Simms, D140, Common Council members Darlene Young, Ernie Dumas and Tom Livingston, former state
Rep. Bruce Morris, and District B Democrats David Westmoreland and Mike Mushak — as barriers to the proposed Columbus School project.
“They are all SCUM and I am going to tell the press,” Barbis wrote in an email sent from his public school account on June 5. “Blacks [expletive] Latinos. That’s the headline.”
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 in the Nov 5 election, said he used profane, but not racist, language in the email.
The email was sent to Rilling, the mayor’s chief of staff, Laoise King, Democratic Town Committee Chairman Ed Camacho and DTC Vice Chairwoman Eloisa Melendez.
During a forum organized last week by the NAACP, Rilling said he kept the message private because he wanted to “broker peace” between Penn-Williams and Barbis.
Rilling said in hindsight, he should have released the email after receiving it.
The mayor said Barbis is “toxic” and should no longer be a member of the city’s Board of Education.
“He has proven over and over and over again he does not have the temperament or sensitivity to be on the board. If he does not resign on the board… there’s very little we can do… and that needs to be changed,” Rilling said at the meeting. “When you have somebody that is toxic and can make these comments and is in position of power… that is something that needs to change drastically.”
State Sen. Majority Leader Bob Duff, DNorwalk also urged Barbis not to take the oath of office.
Yordon pointed out the city’s teachers are held to a code of professional conduct and school board members should be held to the same standards.
“Teachers are each required to ‘conduct himself or herself as a professional realizing that his or her actions reflect directly upon the status and substance of the profession,’” Yordon said, citing the teachers code of conduct. “The teacher, administrator code of ethics, and also the one that was recently signed by members of the Norwalk Board all adhere to a fundamental belief that the student is the foremost reason for our professional efforts.”