Despite encouragement to engage in debate, Board of Education candidates kept their gloves on Tuesday evening when the Wilton League of Women Voters held an election forum at the Wilton Library, cosponsored by GOOD Morning Wilton.
Six of the seven candidates were in attendance, touting their qualifications and sharing beliefs about what they feel is needed on the BOE and how they intend to supplement it.
“Our goal is to encourage debate,” said Pam Klem, president of the Wilton LWV.
Despite several hot-topic issues relating to candidates, however — including questions about conflicts of interest for two freshmen candidates, and concerns about transparency and political rifts on the sitting board — there were no inquiries or criticisms directly exchanged.
Instead, led by Moderator Kay Maxwell, a past president of both the state and national LWVs, candidates in the 90-minute debate fielded questions and presented their truths.
Four-Year Term Candidates
“I am a proud graduate of Wilton High School,” declared Republican Lori Bufano, a former Board of Selectmen member and the only BOE candidate without children in the school system.
She said that with imminent and costly problems facing the district with regards to infrastructure, her experience would be “invaluable.”
“Collaboration will be extremely important,” she said of the coming term, noting her professional background in supply-side logistics.
“Pressure for expanding costs will require respectful, thoughtful leaders,” Bufano said.
Republican candidate Annie Chochos, who served as co-president of the Miller-Driscoll School PTA, said she hoped to be a “voice for the community.”
“This experience was strengthened by skills as a leader and a team player,” she said of her PTA work, noting the importance of collaboration on a board.
Despite some party rumblings about transparency issues in particular, she made positive statements about the district and teachers especially.
“I have a lot of faith in our teachers …” she said. “Teachers are very perceptive. Teachers are very smart. I have a lot of faith in all of them.”
Current BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca, a Democrat, shared about the board’s accomplishments and praised its work.
“The work is hard,” she said. “It’s harder than it looks … I think we operate openly and transparently … I think all of us are well-intentioned, all want to do what is best for the kids, and we all have a different approach to doing it.”
She also praised the board regarding community engagement, noting it was at the forefront of all it did.
“I think we provide ample pathways to public participation,” DeLuca said, noting it recently formed a communication task force to look closer at the issue.
Mark Shaner, an unaffiliated candidate running on the Republican ticket, said more public communication and transparency, and less partisanship, were key.
“I’m not beholden to any party machine,” he said.
While Shaner, a finance professional whose wife teaches at Middlebrook School, conceded that the BOE operated by the state laws in terms of communication and transparency, he said more needed to be done, such as posting more documents in a timely manner.
Shaner also questioned what he said is a singular focus on achieving “benchmarks,” which removes the incentive for teachers and the district to focus on students who are either way above or way below benchmarks.
“I think it’s important that the programs, by design, create incentives to lift all students,” he said.
The fifth candidate running for a four-year term, Democrat Patrick Pearson, was unable to attend the forum because of a work commitment, but a two-minute closing remark was read by Maxwell.
“I believe young families like ours … should get involved,” he wrote, having moved to town two years ago with his wife and two young children.
“We should have a say in how we move our schools forward,” Maxwell read on behalf of Pearson, a sales and finance professional.
Two-Year Term Candidates
The two other candidates are running for the two-year seat that was vacated earlier this year.
Heather Priest, an unaffiliated candidate also running on the Republican ticket, is a former teacher at Middlebrook School, whose husband still teaches there.
“I feel I can provide insight into how the system functions,” she said, noting her situation was unique.
She spoke about empowering teachers, which she said were an exceptionally highly educated group in Wilton. “Having been a teacher, are we really utilizing the instructors in this district?” she said.
Priest called for more robust conversations with the community, touching on items that included outsourced curriculum packages and limited standardized assessments.
Sara Sclafani, an unaffiliated candidate running independently of either the Wilton Democratic or Republican town committee, is a lawyer, and also a former co-president of Miller-Driscoll PTA. She stressed her intention to work cooperatively on the BOE without political party interests.
“I’m committed to keeping politics out of education,” she said, stressing transparency and accountability.
“Being an independent candidate also allows me to be more flexible in my decision-making,” she said.
“I am dedicated solely to what is best for our children,” Sclafani said.
Other questions posed to candidates included ones about the parents’ appropriate role and involvement within the district, balancing civics instruction with politics, and whether the district needs to do a survey about how many parents might be hiring outside tutors for their children.
GMW has video from Tuesday’s forum available here, with both the full video of Tuesday night’s forum, as well as video clips of each question to allow voters to compare how candidates answered each topic.
On Friday, Nov. 3, GOOD Morning Wilton will be posting one-on-one video interviews with each of the Board of Education candidates.
Shaner touting “less partisanship” is hard to swallow – I’m also unaffiliated and nobody would accuse me of not being partisan, and he’s also running on the dang Republican ticket; he might be able to make that case at least a little bit more convincingly if he’d run as a petition candidate instead. Of course he also has a totally disqualifying conflict of interest, as does Ms. Priest, but even if he didn’t his ‘independence’ would be questionable at best.
And the “focus on students who are either way above or way below benchmarks” echoes Ms. Christ’s talk about gifted programs from 2 years ago, which are a lovely idea that I think most people of both parties would get behind, but are stymied not by a lack of support on the BOE (or by liberal politics or whatever – Westport is way to the left of us and they have a gifted program, Norwalk even more so and they do too) but by the fact that in this very wealthy town the Board of Finance refuses to give the school district enough money for stuff like gifted programs or middle school theater or Japanese classes or Enough Buses So You Don’t Have To Have One School Start At 7:40 AM.
So if you want a gifted program, the vote that should impact is your vote for BOF, not BOE.
Mike,
Your comments regarding gifted programs and school buses are simply inaccurate. Wilton spends more per student than either New Canaan or Darien, who have gifted programs. In past discussions between the BOE and BOF, we asked the BOE why we don’t have gifted programs and Dr. Smith stated that he was not in favor of gifted programs. The BOF has NO LINE ITEM AUTHORITY, thus these decisions are entirely up to the BOE. The argument that it is due to lack of funding verses lack of prioritization is obviously flawed when Wilton spending levels are compared to other towns who have such programs.
As far as issues with school bus schedules, also completely under BOE control, perhaps you should read the TAS consulting study performed July 2023 for Wilton School Transportation. In a thorough 23 page document, it is clear that significant cost and operational improvements should be made. The fact that the elementary school buses are less than 20% utilized and others are only 31% utilized, and a litany of other management and cost improvement recommendations are available, can, if addressed, provide significantly better options for the school transportation system, at lower costs.