The Politics of School Board Elections

The two most important boards in Greenwich, the Board of Education and the Board of Estimate and Taxation, are elected under rules that provides for boards that are evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. In other towns "Majority rules" and the minority party is relegated to a third of the seats provided under the minority representation statute. The majority makes policy, the minority function is to complain about the majority. In Greenwich the balanced boards have generally kept partisan politics out of the policy making and both boards generally work on consensus. 

The turmoil surrounding the resignation of the Greenwich Schools Superintendent, Sidney Freund, is not a partisan squabble, both members he cited as the reason for his resignation are Republicans,  but it has brought into focus a problem with how school board candidates are vetted and nominated by the political parties.

Both parties may nominate up to four candidates for the two slots they can elect to the BOE. On election day the two highest Republicans and the two highest Democrats will be elected to the school board, unless a third party or unaffiliated candidate prevails. The problem is that the parties generally do not nominate four candidates; they only nominate the two candidates they can elect.

Predictably, this elicits  newspaper editorials about denying voters choice and snide remarks about the BOE candidates being appointed not elected, but the parties go on nominating the minimum number of candidates.

This year may be different. The Democrats, who nominated three candidates last time and who in the past have engaged in soul-wrenching debates about how many candidates to nominate, have voted to nominate only two candidates for the  BOE at the nominating convention in July, Jennifer Dayton and Adriana Ospina. The Democrats are gun-shy because when they have nominated more than they can elect in the past they feel that Republicans with four BOE votes but only two Republican candidates to vote for have used their extra votes at the polls to defeat Democratic incumbents twice.

The Republicans have always nominated the minimum number of BOE candidates since long ago when Bob Brady, former Republican and present Democratic candidate for BET, was nominated as a third Republican BOE candidate. But this year the Republican Town Committee is contemplating nominating four BOE candidates in July to give voters a choice of which Republicans to seat on the school board. This has been floated as a possibility by none other than the RTC Chair, Jim Campbell in a recent GT interview. You see, the Republicans have a little problem this year in that one of their putative candidates, Mariana Ponns-Cohen, has become very controversial lately since Sidney Freund cited her as a reason he is leaving. She has a strong following among prominent local Republicans lead by former RTC Chair (and former Democrat) John Raben and other local party luminaries. There is an equally strong cadre of RTC members more inclined to support public education who oppose her and fear that anti-Ponns Cohen voters might bring down Peter Tesei's re-election chances. If you think that is far-fetched, remember the swift turn around by Republicans on the BET about MISA funding when John Blankley, the Democratic candidate for First Selectman, strongly supported MISA at the BET public hearing. 

The RTC can either stick to its guns and only nominate two candidates and let the various factions fight it out at the RTC nominating convention as to whether Pons-Cohen is a nominee or they can nominate four candidates including the incumbent Pons-Cohen and let the voters decide. If they nominate two candidates not including the incumbent, my guess is Pons-Cohen would primary and see whether the tea party or the public school parents faction is stronger in a Republican primary. If they nominate four to the BOE the RTC runs the risk of a higher than average turnout of public schools parent voters in November who just might be the type of cross-over voters needed to elect John Blankley as First Selectman.

Some fun, eh?