Catherine Burges
@cburges_courant
On Tuesday, November 2nd, the New Canaan Republicans maintained their 6-3 majority on the Board of Education, following a contested race that saw very strong voter turnout.
Republicans Dan Bennett, Phil Hogan and Julie Toal won election to four-year terms, with Hugo Alves winning the race for a two-year term. Democrat Penny Rashin has served on the Board of Education for 14 years and won re-election.
The race was contentious from the start. According to Ms. Rashin, “I think this all really started with a caucus where three incumbents on the republican side, who I had worked with, lost to a group of republicans running on a very partisan campaign.” This occurred over the summer. According to Mr. Hogan, “The other side decided to make this race contentious because we are four new candidates, we beat incumbents, and they saw an opportunity to get in there and potentially take a couple of the seats.”
While the race may be contentious, both sides agreed that maintaining the excellent school system. According to Ms. Rashin, the three key issues for this election were school start times, implementing more diversity and equity into the curriculum, and the innovation center, about which she said, “It involves K-12 immersive technology to make certain that our students are the best prepared they can be for college and their careers,” she said. “This would support each student, to meet them where they are and to help them succeed.”
With the stress of the election process, she found the collective community response to be important. “What has been incredibly heartwarming to me has been the support across the board, from republicans, democrats, and independents,” she said.
The district’s excellence was what motivated Mr. Alves to move to New Canaan in the first place. “My family came for the amazing school system and I want to keep it that way for my kids and for everyone else’s,” he said. “We can all agree that we have an incredible school system, an excellent superintendent, great administration, good teachers, and the process has worked extremely well so far.”
To the new board members, threats to the district come primarily from the outside.
According to Mr. Hogan, “With education and school systems in Connecticut, the threat comes from Hartford, and that this push of politicization in the schools has already been prominent before we even came about.”
Mr. Bennett agreed, mentioning that he wants to keep the Board’s focus on New Canaan rather than what’s happening in other districts. “We really hope to keep the Board of Education as a local control and decisions-making body, and it doesn’t need to be what the national government or Hartford thinks,” he said.
Mr. Alves spoke on the uniqueness of the New Canaan community, and said that parents are starting to ask for more transparency about the curriculum for their children.
“What’s right for Hartford isn’t necessarily what’s right for New Canaan,” he said. “Our values might not be the same values that they have in other places, we have different solutions and a different environment here. I think that is what differentiates us.”
Mr. Alves added, “ With a lot of pressure from Hartford for certain mandates and edicts, parents rightfully want to be aware of what some of those are, and if or how New Canaan implements a lot of these changes. It’s just a question of how much, ultimately, are politics influencing the curriculum.”
Mr. Bennett spoke on the final goals for the Board of Education this year, and what he wants to see happen. “We think it is really important that the BOE engages and reflects the community’s values and goals through the school system,” he said. “All we really want is to maintain this level and make sure we are representing parents, taxpayers, in the best way possible.”
