A staff report
TBE reports on public comments at last Tuesday’s city council meeting about a controversial choice of a Republican candidate for the school board has rolled over to Facebook where people on either side of the issue have joined the conversation, either touting the candidate or voicing strong opposition to her endorsement.
Due to the decision of the local Republican Town Committee and the resulting controversy, a parents group at Greene-Hills School, where the candidate has been active, has requested a meeting with the mayor and the chair of the Board of Education this evening. It is a closed meeting, and is considered such, as long as there is not a quorum of either the City Council or Board of Education present.
The comments on the TBE stories include several threads that spun off the major one, including one that discusses the nature of dissent and local control of issues germane to that locality as the result of an exchange between a local Families for Freedom group based in Southington.
To see the comments, scroll down The Bristol Edition Facebook page to “City Council gets earful about recent RTC endorsement, welcomes student to dais, hears from Bristol PD about a program that it is considering.” A second article, “Council meeting bristles with dissatisfaction over RTC decision to back Van Gorder for the Board in November,” covers the public participation portion of Tuesday’s meeting in greater detail.
The controversy began late last month on endorsement night for the Republican Town Committee when the RTC voted to endorse Jennifer Van Gorder, over Rob Parenti, a special education teacher with administrative experience.
Van Gorder. who lost her bid for state representative in the 79 District in 2022, appears to be lining up another run in 2024.
Parenti is a special education teacher with administrative experience. In a pre-endorsement interview, which is part of the process, Parenti outscored Van Gorder, 23 to 15.5 points on a rubric created for the purpose of rating candidates, raising concerns about qualifications for the position. The point totals were not released before the vote.
The point process, to be fair, is only one part of the endorsement process.
Van Gorder’s appointment came up again during the public participation portion of Tuesday’s City Council meeting. The Board of Education chair, a board member and a former member of the Republican Party and Van Gorder’s former campaign manager all raised issues with the process and the general overall message that Van Gorder’s endorsement sends to school families and the community.
Over the past few days, the controversy has spread to Facebook, where, initially, commenters on both sides reacted to a TBE story about the city council meeting and then took to addressing each other.
At a critical juncture in the exchanges, a parent whose child was confronted by Van Gorder over wearing a mask stood up to accusations that the confrontation was simply a lie.
“I can 100% verify that it DID happen. Because it was my child. A 10 year old. I can give you the exact date and a photo from the event if you so require it. But I will NOT let you call my child a liar. I was in that elevator with her,” writes the mother.
The post was initiated by comment from City Council member Susan Tyler, who had questioned the veracity of the accusation.
In addition to the controversy surrounding her endorsement, Van Gorder is also tied to a YouTube video directed at her former campaign manager, Logan Williams, who was at the time a 19-year-old college student and volunteer, and one of the speakers at the city council meeting.
The video appeared on Facebook after Williams corrected an RTC post that characterized the endorsements, including Van Gorder’s, as unanimous, when they were not.
After voters chose to term limit Board of Education members with a charter change, the city moved to stagger the elections to smooth the transition. A number of resignations resulted in appointments by the mayor, the most recent one being Lori Osenkowski at Tuesday’s meeting to complete the term of Todd Sturgeon who resigned earlier this summer, complicating the issue.
Because of a compromise, one Democrat and one Republican will run unopposed in the upcoming election. The possibility is that the mayor and RTC might have chosen Van Gorder to run unopposed, guaranteeing her a spot on the Board of Education.
The possibility has received a negative response, especially by parents at Greene-Hills School, where Van Gorder has been active as a parent, and who was also banned from commenting on the parent group’s Facebook page.
The parents’ group has requested the meeting with the mayor and board of education chair at Greene-Hills this evening at 6 p.m.
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