Kevin Christie: BOE Must Balance Public Input, Education Mission

As first reported by the Westport Journal this morning, the Westport Board of Education ended last night’s meeting when several speakers continued beyond the 15-minute public period.

As they’ve done at meetings since February — when a Westport couple described racially based incidents directed at their Staples High and Bedford Middle School daughters — parents, students and others have used the public comment time to talk about the treatment of minority students in the district.

This time, when they continued after being asked to finish their comments, chair Lee Goldstein left the meeting. Other board members, and school officials, followed.

Board member Kevin Christie stayed, and listened as the speakers continued.

When members returned, the Board voted 4-1 to adjourn.

This afternoon, Christie told “06880”: “I believe we have to create space for our community to be heard, while also ensuring the Board of Education can live up to its mission of preparing every student to reach their potential as lifelong learners and socially responsible contributors to our global community.

“We have to be able to balance these things, and when that didn’t happen in last night’s BOE meeting, the board recessed and ultimately voted to adjourn.

“It is understandable why our community was and is upset. When members of our community are in pain and speaking up on issues that are important to them, and our bylaws put time limits on comments and prevent us from responding and reacting, it can feel like a lack of human decency, interest or care.

“We do care. We also want to ensure that we can make space for the challenging work of the BOE. Last night’s agenda included things like restorative practices (generally, and in the context of hate-based incidents), ensuring productive public comment, and student research projects, which we know are important to our community.

“Public input is important. The work of the board is important. Let’s find a way to do both.”