On August 7 two Republican members of the Greenwich Board of Education – Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony and Wendy Vizzo Walsh – filed with the Town Clerk to make their previously announced resignations effective immediately.
Both Mike and Wendy have departed the BOE for personal reasons, and we thank them for their service.
The remaining six members of the BOE must now select two replacements to serve the approximately 15 months remaining in their terms.
The legal responsibility for filling these vacancies belongs to the BOE—not to the Superintendent of Schools or any other outside organization. The BOE bylaws provide that “any vacancy occurring on the Board…shall be filled by a vote of the remaining members of the Board, as soon as feasible, until the next regular Town election.” The Town Charter further requires that each replacement be a member of the same political party as the departing member.
That arrangement creates an unusual problem. Both the BOE and the BET are politically balanced boards, with equal representation from the two political parties. Whenever one member resigns, the opposing party temporarily holds the majority.
Greenwich has long addressed this problem through a sensible bipartisan custom: the party that lost a member through resignation has been permitted to designate—or at least effectively determine—the interim replacement. The logic is straightforward. If the Charter requires equal partisan representation, why should one political party choose who will represent the other?
That convention worked for generations.
It broke down in 2024, when a Republican vacancy on the BOE was filled by the remaining Democratic majority rather than through the traditional bipartisan process. The resulting dispute helped trigger nearly two years of litigation involving the BOE and the Board of Selectmen.
Greenwich should not repeat that experience.
The six remaining BOE members have an opportunity to resolve the present vacancies quickly, cooperatively and in keeping with the spirit of the Charter’s bipartisan structure. The two Republican vacancies should be filled by qualified Republicans selected through a process that gives appropriate deference to the Republican members of the Board.
As Republicans, we naturally hope two strong Republicans would fill the two positions. It would be unfortunate if their appointment required the intervention by the Board of Selectmen. A better outcome is for the BOE itself to act—and to restore the bipartisan convention that served Greenwich well for so many years.
Granit Balidemaj & Andy Duus
Vice Chairs, Republican Town Committee