To the Editor:

On the night of July 23, though diagnosed earlier that day with Lyme disease, I nonetheless subjected myself to the ultimate exercise in futility: volunteering to fill a vacancy on the Board of Education. My own question during the interview: why am I speaking to a wall?

Board members offered a number of reasons for deeming me unsuitable to serve with their esteemed ranks. The first – that I’m not a parent. That was news to me! Especially since three of my five children attended Hampton Elementary School, and because most of the board members are not parents, including the two who raised the objection! They were also concerned with the number of educators on the board, though that wasn’t a problem with their last appointment, or with most of the candidates their political party endorsed, or with the person they appointed, who chastised the Board of Finance for questioning the Board of Education’s budget after taxpayers defeated it, because as “professional educators”, they are all “experts”. Like that was a good thing.

Board members repeatedly stated that they were far more impressed with the other candidate’s expertise, though none would divulge those qualifications publically. I can’t wait to see what they are. I relayed my credentials: recently retired after 38 years teaching kindergarten through grade 12 students in regular, bilingual, and special education inner city classrooms; adult education; with the Department of Corrections in a juvenile facility and on death row; a bachelor’s degree in speech, drama and secondary education; master’s in bilingual and special education and oral traditions; as a building rep and as a Vice President of the Hartford Federation of Teachers serving on negotiating teams so I’m very well versed in those procedures. I think that if all of this expertise pales in comparison to the selected candidate’s qualifications, perhaps she should consider replacing Betsy Devos.

Most distressing was that the board entirely ignored my point – the importance of a diverse board. There are minority students at their school, some who have had less than stellar experiences and others who have needed to be withdrawn to attend schools where diversity is a valued norm. It is unusual in 2018 America for an educational institution to not have a single leader with whom minority families can identify. With an all white staff, administration, and school board, those students and their parents need someone to advocate for them, someone who understands their experience. I don’t know whether or not these board members are aware of these students, but I am because their parents often come to me for advice.

Instead the board focused only on the “diversity of opinion”, assuming that I probably have that too, because they didn’t ask me a single question concerning issues residents have continuously identified as important to them, as if Hampton elects people without any consideration of their views. Their discussion focused on the importance of supporting the majority’s decisions and not letting the community know that you might have an alternate view. Though board members espouse the value of diversity, their voting record, the lack of discussion recorded in the Minutes, and their conduct provide ample evidence of their staunch opposition to differences of any sort.

The board discriminates in their practices. All other appointments have been candidates who have been on the ballot, except me. After 272 citizens voted for me in a municipal election, the board appointed someone who never expressed an interest in even attending a meeting until one of the seated members, after I submitted my name for consideration, convinced him to volunteer, appointing him during a meeting in which the board was found by the Freedom of Information Commission to have violated my rights under State law. And then there was the time that I was the only person who submitted my name for consideration after a vacancy was published, so they simply didn’t fill it at all, preferring to leave the seat empty rather than have me sit in it. I wonder why.

Juan Arriola

P.S. I observed that the other candidate waited for the board’s decision with the principal in her office for an entire hour. Ask yourself – do you think I would have been extended the same courtesy?