Greenwich Republicans Regain Board of Ed Control

Finally! More than a month after the Nov. 5 elections, the Greenwich Board of Education has voted on its leadership for the coming year and has elected a Republican to lead the eight-member board.

The new board took office Nov. 21 and had 30 days to select its leadership. At three meetings, there wasn't a consensus ... there were dual Republican candidates, tied votes between the Republican and Democratic chair nominees, and even more tied votes as the equally split board voted along party lines. The inability to elect a chairman set off a 30-day clock that would end with the Republican-dominated Board of Selectmen deciding on the chairmanship if the Board of Education couldn't do it themselves.

At its Thursday night meeting at Cos Cob School, it took two rounds of ballots to decide that Republican Barbara O'Neill would ascend from her vice chairmanship — and acting chairmanship — to become the new chair. She edged out fellow Republican Peter Sherr by a vote of 6-2, earning support from the four Democratic board members. Sherr and fellow Republican Peter vonBraun voted for Sherr.

Democrat Adriana Ospina withdrew herself for contention for the post, previously held for two years by Democrat Leslie Moriarty, who did not see reelection. 

Sherr made a last-minute pitch before the deciding vote saying he would bring "a new approach that is much more inclusive, collaborative, consensus-oriented and much more transparent" if he were elected board chair. Sherr fell out of favor with the Republican Town Committee two years ago when he voted for Moriarty as chairman, breaking a decades-old Republican hold on the chairmanship.

Sherr became a petition candidate for reelection in November and received the highest vote total of all the candidates.

Following the vote, O'Neill said, "I want to put behind us ... the differences. We need to make this a better school system for the students, the community and we need to work very hard to be inclusive and work with the administration. We’re a team ... thank you for your vote of confidence."

Ospina nominated fellow Democrat Jennifer Dayton for vice chair and von Braun nominated Sherr. Dayton won that vote 6-1-1, with Sherr abstaining.

The election of the board secretary saw a crossing of party lines.

Democrat Laura Erickson nominated Republican Peter Berstein while Republican von Braun nominated newly-elected Democrat Debbie Appelbaum. She won against Republican Peter Bernstein by a vote of 5-3. Voting for Bernstein were himself, Erickson and O'Neill. Electing Appelbaum were herself, vonBraun, Ospina, Sherr and Dayton.

Republican First Selectman Peter Tesei said, "I congratulate Barbara on becoming chair and now the Board of Education can get down to the business it was elected to do."

*Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the votes tally for board secretary Debbie Appelbaum.