Submitted by Jonathan Perloe, Cos Cob
At Thursday’s Board of Selectpersons meeting, they should select Karen Hirsh as the next Board of Education chair. She is by far more qualified than Karen Kowalski, who is more interested in fighting culture wars than promoting educational excellence in the Greenwich Public Schools.
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, First Selectman Camillo joined U.S. Representative Jim Himes in calling for “respect and civility” in our local political discourse. As the leader of our Town, he should apply that principle to selecting the next BOE chair.
Ms. Kowalski does not exhibit those qualities. On a segment on Newsmax, she agreed with the host that the GPS curriculum is characterized by “pornography, gender ideology, and woke garbage.” Newsmax is as far from a model of “respect and civility” as there is, and the host she voluntarily chose to appear with is known nationwide for his bigoted statements, so extreme that he resigned from the Trump administration, itself no model of “civility and respect.”
In another clear display of Ms. Kowalski’s lack of suitability, she was the lone dissenting member of the BoE when it voted to censure BoE member Peter Sherr for using “offensive, inappropriate language in uttering a disparaging comment about a fellow board member.” Before she voted against the censure, Ms. Kowalski tried to keep the vote from being taken at all.
By contrast, Ms. Hirsh is moderate, experienced and focuses on the well-being of the Greenwich Public School students and teachers. She has shown that she is willing and able to work with board members irrespective of party affiliation.
The Board of Selectpersons has a great opportunity to show Town residents what respect and civility in town administration should look like, if it selects Karen Hirsh as the next chair of the Board of Education.
Jonathan Perloe
Cos Cob