Election 2023: Meet the Candidate — Ruth DeLuca (D), DTC Endorsed Candidate for Bd. of Education/4 Yr. Seat

Candidate Submitted Bio

As a member of the Board of Education since 2019 and current chair, Ruth is proud to be a part of the Wilton school system’s rich legacy of excellence. She is committed to keeping Wilton’s schools among the strongest in our area and state. For her, there is no greater work than enabling every child to pursue their passions and dreams. Ruth believes in collaboration, cooperation, and communication. She has a masters in philosophy and social policy from George Washington University and a JD from Brooklyn Law School. She has helped biotech companies and individuals navigate the regulatory and healthcare system.  

Wilton residents since 2016, Ruth and her husband are proud products of public schools and have three children, all in the Wilton Public Schools. 

Video Interview

Candidate Submitted Op-Ed

SPONSORED CONTENT

DISCLOSURE: GMW received the candidate’s op-ed submission after the deadline set in our election guidelines. The Democratic Town Committee has paid for this op-ed to appear as sponsored content, an advertising option available to the campaigns that both parties have utilized in past elections.

Four years ago I ran for the Board of Education and resolved to do my part to continue Wilton’s tradition of education excellence. As a member of the Board since 2019 and current chair, I am proud to be a part of the Wilton school system’s rich legacy. I believe in public education and public service. My husband and I are proud products of public education and chose Wilton seven years ago for its excellent schools and welcoming, caring community. We have three children, all in Wilton schools. Serving on the Board over the last four years has been both an honor and privilege.

I am proud of how we worked through an unprecedented global pandemic. I am proud of four years of bi-partisan, unanimously approved school budgets. I am proud of our recently created task forces on mental health and communications. Our programs are working, our teachers are dedicated and committed, and our students are thriving.

I am especially proud that Wilton is first on the Connecticut Accountability Index, a measure of the whole child, ranking how well districts prepare all learners for life, college and career. Growth and achievement across the district is remarkable. Our achievement scores are stronger than ever, and the achievement gap between special education and general education continues to narrow. At the same time we are working to ensure a welcoming, inclusive, and safe school climate for all our kids. There is so much great work going on across the district from STEM, to purposeful play, and the Portrait of a Graduate.

Over the last four years, I have come to learn and appreciate what it takes to make a good school system great. Great school systems are more than the sum of their parts; people, positions, programs, infrastructure, and investments must be balanced and integrated in service of each learner. Education is dynamic and great school systems work to understand and meet the challenges of our times. Wilton is a great school system. Great school systems require leadership with vision, world class teachers and staff, family partnerships, diligence, and strategic investment. Great school systems need thoughtful, diligent, and dedicated board members to advance the district’s mission and values, and community expectations of excellence.

We continue to lean on the vision and expertise of our leaders, hire the best and brightest, and support and develop our teachers. We actively encourage and rely on input from our PTAs and parents, and we operate openly and with transparency. We strategically invest in new programs and courses. We advocate for the necessary resources and infrastructure to do the work the Wilton way.

I am committed and dedicated to the hard work of keeping our school system great. After four years, I can tell you being on the board is a lot of work and it’s harder than it looks. I can also tell you that I love the work and there is still more to do. Schooling today is not the schooling of yesterday, and it will be different tomorrow. We need to understand and meet the challenges of our times. We need to be prepared to respond to rapid shifts in technology and how kids experience the world, their environment, and relationships. Our mission — for a better world — is necessary more than ever. I am proud of what we have accomplished over the last four years and I’m ready and excited for four more years.

I would love the opportunity to continue this work . Every vote counts and I’m asking for yours. Together, we can move Wilton education forward!

Paid for by the Wilton Democratic Town Committee, Peter Squitieri, Treasurer

Video Clips

What’s motivating you to run for the Board of Education?

What are the skills you bring to the BOE?

You unexpectedly assumed the role of Chair of the Board of Education when the former chair moved out of town, and you were serving as Vice Chair. It was your first term and wasn’t something that you had sought out, but it’s how it played out. If elected again are you going to seek board chair again? There were issues and conflict on the board around how that election of chair happened. How are things going to change this year and be different? How will the process change if other people want to seek it?

As someone who has observed the Board of Education for a very long time, we reported there was conflict and disagreements and sometimes angry words exchanged at the board table this past year. More so, partisanship and politics came into the boardroom, much more so than in years past. What should the board do differently? How do you think that the board moves forward? It may be unavoidable that sometimes the politics come from outside. Also as part of the Board of Finance and Board of Education process in the budget setting, there were people who laid some of the responsibility for conflict or disagreements, whether it was within the board or with others on the BOF, at your feet as chair. How do you answer that?

At the May Town Meeting, some Board of Finance members said they were afraid after the meeting ended based on the way people in the town meeting audience spoke to them, talked about the $1.4 million reduction, that they were even afraid to vote afterwards. And some of them pointed at you as the origin for that feeling. What do you think about what happened at the meeting?

The discussion and debate during this campaign around conflict of interest, for two Board of Education candidates who are married to employees of the school district. Hypothetically they get elected, you’re the chair. What does that mean for board operations? In your experience serving on the board for the last four years, where do their relationships impact where they can serve or would have to recuse themselves? And then for the larger board operation to go from six members to four members at certain times, how does that impact things?

Will the onus fall to you if you’re chair to monitor and make sure they’re recusing themselves?

One of those candidates estimated that based on the list of responsibilities that the Council on Ethics listed out as conflict areas, they estimated they’d have to recuse themselves maybe 6% of the time. Does that sound right? What’s your reaction to that number?

The DTC put a statement out calling on the candidates with conflicts to withdraw. That’s been countered by the RTC calling the DTC statement ‘partisan smearing.’ Do you support the DTC statement? What’s your reaction to it?

Different people, including running opponents of yours, have called the board out on not being transparent. What’s your reaction to that?

The BOF starts out with a sense of trust for the Board of Education to create a reasonable budget. What’s the responsibility for a Board of Education member in pushing back or questioning the superintendent’s proposed budget? Have you done enough to question costs or or generally push back against budget assumptions or what’s presented by administrators?

The Board of Finance has not set budget guidance in the last few years, but they will likely provide guidance this year. Where do you hope they come in? Where would you encourage them to think about coming in with guidance? What do you think needs to be your point of view in that conversation that you hope they pay attention to?

One things you didn’t include in that assessment is something that the Board of Finance does weigh, which is the town’s willingness and ability to take on increases in taxes. How does that factor into your thinking?

Lynne Vanderslice recently announced the draft needs assessment report pointing at $100 million or likely more over the next 10 years that’s needed for maintaining and upgrading Wilton schools. Should the board or the town have been more proactive or vocal on some of the deferred maintenance needs? What approach will the next BOE have to have when it comes to looking at operating budgets because some of that $100 million can’t be bonded, it’s going to have to come out of operational budgets.

If we have to make dramatic changes, or cuts in the operating budget, maybe we should be satisfied being number two and just try a little harder. What would happen if you increased class size two or three students and potentially save FTE costs?

Instructional coaching — some people continue to say it’s not direct student facing and needs to be considered if talking about savings, if everything else has been cut down to bare bones. Is there a way to prove that there’s a direct correlation between the coaching program and positive student outcomes? At the last meeting when the great test score report was presented, no one made that direct correlation between coaching and test score improvements. Do you think it’s because of coaching?

Test scores, testing, and standardized tests and assessments, what are your thoughts? It’s a balance between wanting assessments, but instructional time is taken away with a lot of assessments, how much is really needed? You know, what’s your thought on that?

There’s been talk nationally and here in Wilton about more parental involvement in areas like curriculum, what’s taught in the classroom, how things are phrased or framed, the textbooks and other resources available to students in the classroom or library. How much should parents be involved in those kinds of discussions? What about parents who may not be happy about a particular text or resource, and want something removed from the classroom, where do parents voices matter in that conversation? Or the board? What’s the board’s responsibility in those situations? And who decides what’s ‘age appropriate’? Is it a parent, a group of parents, the superintendent or teachers who decides?

What do you think about the Board’s policy on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?

Are there other issues facing the district that are major or pressing and need to get addressed by the board in the next term?

Why should you be the voters’ choice, what difference will you make if re-elected to the board?