Communication flap causes school board chairman to lose caucus vote

FALLS VILLAGE — An uproar caused by a planned change in grade configurations has derailed the re-election bid of the school board chair.

Andrea Downs, a longtime member of the Lee H. Kellogg Board of Education and a former chair of the Republican Town Committee, was denied her party’s endorsement at a sparsely attended GOP caucus July 17. By a margin of 14-7, she was replaced by former Planning and Zoning Commission member Ross Grannan.

Downs said she plans to run as a petitioning candidate, however. In an interview, Downs said she was unable to attend the caucus because of a previously scheduled vacation. She added that “there were only 21 people at the caucus, so I don’t think that’s a very good representation.�

Downs acknowledged that a controversy earlier this year on a restructuring of the multi-age classroom groupings in the 100-student school likely contributed to her failure to win her party’s nomination.

“Based on the parents’ displeasure, I was not surprised [at the outcome],� Downs said.

Grannan ‘approached’

Grannan said he was approached by “a few people� who asked him to consider running against Downs, in part because of a perceived “lack of communication between the Board of Education, the parents and the teachers.�

“I felt the present school board wasn’t addressing the concerns of parents,� said Grannan, who was nominated at the caucus by his wife, Linda. “Openness is completely lacking.�

A North Canaan native, Grannan is a real estate appraiser who moved to Falls Village about 10 years ago, when he also changed his affiliation to Republican from independent.

The multi-age classroom controversy was the key issue that prompted Grannan to run. He emphasized that he is not necessarily against the concept as presented by Principal Maria Bulson but that he objected to the lack of consultation with parents before she made the decision to increase the number of multi-age classroom groupings from two to four starting this fall.

The revised plan

The original proposed groupings were:  kindergarten and grade one; grades two and three; grades four and five; and grades six and seven. Grade eight was slated to remain the only stand-alone class. After a March Board of Education meeting attended by almost 40 parents, most attendees were surprised to learn that Bulson’s new groupings did not require board approval.

After hearing a list of concerns, Bulson eventually worked out a compromise that reduced the numbers of groupings to three: grades one and two; grades three and four; and grades six and seven. Kindergarten (which will now be offered for the full day), grade five and grade eight will now remain stand-alone classes.

“The problem was in the delivery and the process,� Grannan added. “A lot of parents felt railroaded.�

Letter signed by 82

Indeed, after the March meeting, 82 people — most of them Kellogg parents — signed a two-and-a-half-page letter summarizing concerns expressed at an April 12 meeting in the Falls Village Senior Center.

The letter cited “many inconsistencies in the rationales given� by officials about “why the change is necessary and how the children will benefit by it.� The letter also objected to a lack of input from faculty members, none of whom lost their jobs as a result of the restructuring but whom officials have conceded were not entirely supportive of the measure.

Finally, the letter stated that, “teachers, administration and the community must be behind this concept or it will fail. To date, only one third of the formula seems to be in place.� The signers of the letter have received no official response yet from the board.

“Our response was we went back to Maria and asked her to have a conversation with her staff,� Downs said. “People wanted the process slowed down.�

Bulson did not respond to phone and e-mail messages seeking comment for this story. Downs said the principal was on vacation until Aug. 13. She added that Bulson had apologized to her staff for making for “making the decision unilaterally.�

Plan not on agenda

One of the major complaints from the parents is that they felt shut out of the process in the formulation of Bulson’s restructuring plan. Downs said the plan was discussed at the March 6 Board of Education meeting, two weeks before the sometimes contentious meeting with the parents.

While a handout of Bulson’s proposal was made available at that meeting, there is no mention of it in either the agenda or in the minutes. That’s because, Downs said, items that require no action are not typically mentioned in the minutes. However, other items which did not require the board to act, including the superintendent’s and principal’s reports, were spelled out in some detail.

“If we’re wrong about the way we do the minutes, then we can certainly change that,� Downs said.

One parent who signed the April letter, Lisa Fallon, said in an interview that her feelings are essentially unchanged. Still, she thinks the compromise plan was preferable and she was pleased to finally have the opportunity to meet to clear the air with the faculty and other parents in May.

“The way [Bulson] handled it was totally unacceptable,� said Fallon, who has two children in the school. “It was as if there was some kind of emergency. It was just bam, bam, bam and no one had any say in it.�

Fallon questioned whether Bulson’s management style and administrative experience were a good fit for Kellogg. Before coming to Falls Village, Bulson, 59, was Title I coordinator for grades two and three at Lewin G. Joel Elementary School in Clinton, Conn., where she earned teacher-of-the-year honors in 2002.

But Downs said the board stands firmly behind its principal. In February, the board offered Bulson a new two-year contract with a 3.5 percent increase over her 2006-07 salary of $82,000.

Fallon said she also holds the board responsible for the flap — a notion with which Downs could not disagree.

“I feel terrible about it,� Downs admitted. “It’s been painful and has caused division. It’s our mistake... we didn’t see it as a big deal.�

Caucus news

In other caucus news, the Republicans renominated incumbent Selectman Peter Lawson, while the Democrats renominated First Selectman Pat Mechare and Selectman Chuck Lewis for another term. Since Lawson, Lewis and Mechare are the only candidates for the Board of Selectmen, their re-election Nov. 6 is assured, barring any last-minute surprises.

The Republicans also renominated incumbent Margaret “Maggie� Ruotolo for another term on the Region One Board of Education. The Democrats nominated journalist and writer Gale Toensing to run against Ruotolo, setting the stage for a rematch of their 2005 race.

Meanwhile, at their July 18 caucus, the Democrats also renominated Kellogg Board of Education member Beckey Seney for another term. So, there will likely be three candidates (Downs, Grannan and Seney) running for two available seats on the board.