BOE Vote to Ratify Earlier Vote on New Member, Jen Behette

It seems the Greenwich Board of Education Democrats and the Republican-controlled Board of Selectmen, led by Fred Camillo, are engaged in a battle of the wills over the selection of a replacement for the vacancy created by Republican, Karen Kowalski, who left town this summer and resigned in late July.

The remaining board members – 4 Democrats and 3 Republicans – interviewed six candidates.

The Democrats were prepared to vote last Thursday’s board retreat, but one member had to depart mid meeting for an emergency and another Republican asked for a delay.

The group agreed to reconvene on Wednesday, Oct 23 to take a vote.

“We’d like to welcome our new board member, Jen Behette.” – Acting BOE chair, Karen Hirsh

In the meantime the BOE Democrats learned the Selectmen scheduled a meeting for Tuesday with one agenda item: Discussion and vote on Board of Education vacancy.

The BOE scheduled an emergency meeting on Monday. Four Democrats and one Republican attended. Republican Jen Behette was elected to replace Ms Kowalski. The vote was 4-1, with Republican Dr. Mercanti-Anthony voting no after saying he had had private conversations with all 6 Republican candidates and that “any of the other candidates was acceptable.”

On Tuesday the Selectmen, led by Camillo, held their special meeting. Camillo noted the BOE had retained counsel and were in an adversarial position against the town. He said the emergency meeting held by the BOE on Monday was “illegal.”  Ms Rabin nominated Paul Cappiali. She and Camillo voted to appoint Cappiali. The lone Democrat, Janet Stone McGuigan, abstained, questioning the Board of Selectmen’s authority to fill the BOE vacancy.

The vote was 2-0-1 for Cappiali.

The Wednesday BOE meeting that had been scheduled a week earlier took place on Zoom at 7:00pm.

The four Democratic members of the board appeared on the Zoom screen and waited until about 7:15pm for Ms Vizzo to log on before starting without her. Acting chair Hirsh said Mr. Kittle and Dr. Mercanti-Anthony were unable to attend.

Ms Hirsh said there was quorum and the meeting proceeded.

Ms Hirsh said, “We’d like to welcome our new board member, Jen Behette.”

Ms Behette had already been sworn in by Lin Lavery, who is a Justice of the Peace and previously served as a Greenwich Selectman.

Ms Behette shared a screen with Laura Kostin.

Sophie Koven made a motion to ratify the BOE vote on Ms Behette taken during the Monday emergency meeting.

“The rationale for ratifying this vote is there has been some confusion from the public in the past days,” Koven said. “We followed all board procedure and this is the policy of the board. And this is also the legal obligation of the board that this is how we fill the vacancy. We wanted to confirm that for the public to avoid any confusion.”

Ms Hirsh said, “It is only appropriate for the members seated on the board as of Monday when this vote first took place to ratify said vote.”

The four Democrats voted in favor of ratifying the earlier vote.

Ms Behette abstained.

“That concludes our business for this evening,” Hirsh said.

Ms Hirsh urged the public to attend Thursday’s BOE meeting where they plan to vote on the school district’s capital budget.

The five members, including Ms Behette, voted to adjourn.

 

Note this article was updated to reflect that Ms Behette had been sworn in by Justice of the Peace Lin Lavery prior to Wednesday night’s BOE meeting.