Though candidates for four-year terms on the New Canaan Board of Education agree that reading materials in school should be age-appropriate—and that no single group of parents should override the decisions of the district’s professionals—they have different ideas on the degree to which such decisions should be overseen by the elected body.
Republican Matt Wexler during a debate (watch it here) held Monday night at Town Hall said that he opposes book banning and the filtering of any information “except when it comes to age appropriateness.”
“I think that anything that might be of question should be brought to the town, and we should have discussion on it,” Wexler told a standing-room-only crowd packed into the Town Hall Meeting Room for the candidates’ approximately 70-minute debate, hosted by the League of Women Voters of New Canaan.
“The parents should be allowed to weigh in, and we should hear all sides,” Wexler continued. “Because ultimately, we’re all parents, we all want what’s best for our children. There are some parents that may want certain exposure, some parents that may not. And ultimately we need to, one, provide the transparency for parents to make their own decision, but two, provide the option for parents to perhaps pull their kids out for that lesson.”
Responding to the same question from the League—regarding a single group of parents within a district prompting “book bans in libraries and classrooms” as per national headlines—Democratic candidate Lauren Connolly Nussbaum said that it’s not an issue in New Canaan because “our teachers and librarians are doing an exceptional job picking age-appropriate texts”
“In addition to that, they’re sharing their syllabi at the beginning of every year and I’m sure many of us in this room have inboxes full of emails from our teachers telling us what books our students will be reading in that semester or year,” Connolly Nussbaum continued. “If any parent in our community feels uncomfortable with a book, there’s a process in place. You can ring the teacher, email the teacher, let them know that your student won’t be reading that book. Additionally, in the school library, and I know it’s specifically at Saxe because my 13-year-old wanted to check out ‘The Hunger Games.’ I had to sign a permission form to agree to that, and that was a great process. I was glad to know what she was reading, and I would be glad for every parent in this community to know what their students are reading.”
Laura Smits of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut moderated the debate, while students from the New Canaan High School debate team (Ankita Kuttichirayil, Thomas Crehan and Drew Bench) read out questions to the candidates—Wexler and Nussbaum as well as Brendan Hayes, an incumbent Democrat, Republicans Matt Campbell and Lara Kelly, and unaffiliated candidate Giacomo Landi. On Nov. 7, there are four four-year Board of Ed seats up for election—currently, one of them is held by a Democrat and three by Republicans on the nine-member school board. There also is a contested race for a two-year Board of Ed term.
Here’s how the rest of the candidates weighed in on the following question regarding decisions on reading materials: “Book bans in classrooms and libraries are making national news. Since individual parental preferences vary on this topic, should any single group of parents override choices made by professional educators in classrooms and school libraries in New Canaan, and if so, why?”
- Campbell: “Any single group of parents? No. I do think that we should focus on what’s age-appropriate. I don’t think that—whether it’s Dr. Seuss or ‘Huckleberry Finn’ or ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’—should be banned. No, I don’t agree with that. I think that those are classics and I think that those are discussion points, they’re things that we can discuss at the appropriate age with our students. Again, we can teach students objective truths in science and humanities, not listening to any single group of parents to ban a book, but also using common sense as to what’s age-appropriate. And that varies from kindergarten, obviously, to twelfth grade. It varies dramatically.”
- Kelly: “I believe the books and curriculum should always be age-appropriate and I think that alongside that there has to be transparency. This is an area where you can’t over-communicate with parents what is going on. I have found it a bit frustrating that, as a parent, there is not a mechanism on the district website that I’m aware of where you can search the library catalogs. You can go into the school …, but you can’t actually look up the catalog… And I just think that things don’t ever need to be hidden. I think that transparency is the winning strategy when our administration works with parents and in an honest, transparent way, I think the whole town wins.”
- Landi: “I think this ties in very well with the previous subject, which is basically some challenging issues [such as sex ed, mental health, diversity and inclusivity]. It sounds like we all agree here about the age-appropriate nature of things to be discussed, and my view is just tie those two issues together. And it’s not about book banning per se. My sense is that the librarians at our schools do a very good job at picking the right books for their schools and their students, and I haven’t gotten a sense that we have an issue on this. With regards to individual people or whatever, pulling books out of libraries: No. Libraries are by definition very expansive, and people should find their home in the library. If you’re talking about explicit content that’s not appropriate for a particular age group, I think the librarian hopefully has good guidance from the Board of Ed or their supervisor to make sure we’re picking the right books. But I don’t see this as an issue in New Canaan, and I certainly hope it’s not.”
- Hayes: “No individual group should override the decision, and the decision is ultimately the Board of Ed’s decision. It’s working with the administration, working with librarians and teachers as to what is the most appropriate and is the best material that can be there for kids to read or otherwise consume. And the Board of Ed has to do all that tough work. It doesn’t mean they can’t listen to teachers and make a different decision. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they can’t listen to parents and make a different decision. But that’s the work of the Board of Ed and it’s ultimately the Board of Ed’s decision.”
The debate featured tense as well as lighthearted moments, the latter delivered mainly by Landi. In starting his response to the books question, for example, Landi noted that, “just for transparency, my wife works for a very large book publisher,” drawing laughter from the room. Later, Landi added that he seeks to be “effective” and that if he were a book-banning person, “I don’t think highlighting particular books to ban is going to be effective at getting fewer people to read it,” drawing laughter again.
At the same time, Wexler in prefacing his own response to the question, said, “I find it interesting that my Democrat colleagues don’t believe that this is an issue, because they’re running a banner on New Canaanite that says ‘Book burning is so dark ages.’ ” (He referred to a Democratic Town Committee ad that reads ‘Banning books is so dark ages.’)
The degree to which the Board of Ed candidates said they planned to oversee and involve themselves in school decisions was a recurring theme throughout the debate.
For example, in response to this question— “When there are conflicting viewpoints between parents and professional educators and administrators, would one carry heavier weight in your decision making process, and if so, why?”—Connolly Nussbaum said that it’s “important that we also remember that the relationship between admin, teachers, parents, and students requires some level of trust.”
“No one can do their job and no one can send their child off to school without some level of trust,” she said. “So, I introduce that here to say we should trust our teachers and administrators that they have the best interests at heart. And we should trust our parents that they love their children and that they are seeking the best education possible.”
Kelly responded to the question by describing the Board of Ed’s role as serving as “a liaison between the parents and the administration.”
“So I think one thing that I would hope to do as a candidate is to work with my fellow Board members to ensure that we understand the concerns of parents in the community and then take that to the administration and in the executive sessions in the meetings, make sure that we’re working collaboratively with the administration to come to an outcome that parents are happy with for the town,” Kelly continued. “I think ultimately our schools are great because we have so much parent involvement. And our administration benefits greatly from how invested parents are in their schools and in their children and in their journey. I think because of that, it’s our responsibility as Board members to make sure that we’re effectively communicating with the administration and come up with a collaborative answer that both teachers and administrators are happy with but ultimately the parents are happy with.”
Campbell said that it’s important when there are conflicts between parents and educators to focus on “objective truth.”
“When we rely on objective truth and on data, there shouldn’t be a conflict,” he said. “I think when we delve outside the scope of what’s appropriate for the state, then parents may have objections and that can cause that conflict. I think as it relates to academic and objective truths, that’s why I always tell my kids, ‘You speak the truth and you don’t have to worry about the explanation.’ And I think that’s the approach that our schools should take. To work with parents, we should be transparent so they understand what we’re teaching, where we’re coming from, what our philosophy is, as far as dealing with some of the more subjective issues. But, sticking to facts, sticking to data, sticking to objective truth is the best way to resolve, or better yet, avoid any conflicts with parents.”
Landi said that there could be conflicts that arise that merit community discussion “about why are we doing something and why is this effective and why do we believe that this is the right change for the town or for the school district.”
“And I think that can be supported through data, through analysis, so people can come on board, and that’s a dialogue process,” Landi said. “And I think parents will respond to seeing this information, seeing this data, and will come on board. If you’re talking about a teacher’s views on [inaudible], that’s a different kind of discussion and probably merits maybe getting a second opinion and being able to have an open dialogue on those kinds of issues. But I always believe, we need to understand there are many different experts in the field and to see the data and allow people to understand why people are coming to a certain viewpoint.”
Hayes said his guiding principle when there’s division between parents and educators is to do what is best for New Canaan students.
“You have to go through all the various issues, inputs, both parents, educators/ administration, and figure out what’s the best path forward,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s an easy decision, a lot of times it’s not,” Hayes continued. “In the case of just one example, school start times, the community did not want school start times to change. There were people who really wanted it to change, people who really didn’t want it to change. And we as a Board had to chart a path forward, consider all the issues and options and make a call as to how to move forward. By the way, at the end of the day, we weren’t all completely aligned. But we had to take everything into account. Some people were disappointed still at the end of the day that we changed school start times. There are teachers who are not so happy that we changed school start times. But we did what we thought was best for New Canaan kids to be able to move things forward. What’s important, as well, is that we don’t just listen to some subset of the community.”
Wexler said the question of which side would weigh heavier is “completely situationally dependent.”
“How many parents are bringing up this issue?” Wexler said. “How many teachers are bringing up this issue? Is it a small vocal group that is making demands on the community? And at the end of the day, what the real question is, is what is the role of the Board in its relationship with the schools and its relationship with the parents? And my view is that the Board is the fiduciary of the parents within the town. They vote us in. They want us to act as their voting voices. And so it’s broad strokes, but I’d have to say I would lean on the side of the parents. They can tell us what they would like out of their schools, what values they want communicated, how they want their children to talk. And we have to listen to them and ultimately prioritize those parents’ needs. Perhaps at times, when appropriate, when the data suggests, above the needs of the teachers. That being said, there are going to be times when teachers should be listened to more when it comes to how to educate kids in the classroom. So, it’s very situational.”
Here are responses from the four-year Board of Ed candidates on other topics:
Preparing for increased enrollment
- Hayes: “First off, something that we’re already doing is looking at it more deeply. So looking at it class-by-class. I believe we’ve already started to engage another consultant to look at it, again, a little bit more deeply as to when we think that classes might actually increase in size. And then make sure that we understand where in town that increase may occur. We need to make sure that we plan from a building standpoint. So make sure that we do have space. If we don’t have space, we need to talk about capital spending to create that. The thing that’s interesting about it is it could be temporary. Obviously you have this big cohort of people that moved into town a couple of years ago. That may or may not occur in the future. So we could have a situation where there’s a big bump of students coming up through the elementary schools and then numbers start to decline again. So we really need to understand not only the near-term forecast and long-term forecast, but also make sure we’re planning from a space standpoint and from a personnel standpoint.”
- Wexler: “Obviously looking at our current capacity is very important, but teacher recruitment, I think, is going to be a big concern for us. If we are to not only continue to see the cohort that’s coming in, but continue to need additional teachers to cover all of these larger classrooms, we know that teachers—good teachers, at least—are in low supply. And so that’s going to have an impact not only on budget, but also the school’s ability to fill substitute teacher spots, which we know has been a concern of late. So I think that there’s going to be a lot of impact in terms of what we need to consider regarding budgets, regarding recruitment and making sure that our kids are still being driven to excel.”
- Kelly: “I think one of the most important parts when we consider this is the budget, and how we communicate that to parents and how we use the budget effectively for a change like this. I think our town is very good at taking parent feedback and so something, when we know about an increasing cohort coming in, I would love to do a community survey and see how parents feel about it. And then I think that this is a great example of how the Board needs to communicate with the administration effectively to make sure all the teacher input is also registered, and that we can find a balance between what parents are looking for for their students and the kind of environment that they want with a larger cohort, and what the teachers need to be successful in the classroom with a larger cohort.”
- Campbell: “I think that the first step is understanding what our true capacity is. I think a lot of us, we see the wall of enrollments coming, but understanding where can we flex up and down, and maybe it’s in different schools, with different elementary schools there’s excess capacity in some versus others. That’s one thing that we need to address to really understand where that excess capacity is. I think that, again, it is a budget issue. We should budget for not only the short term, but the long term. I think that’s one of the important things about our budgeting process. It needs to consider hypotheticals. It can’t just be a rubber stamp, but to think about how we flex up and down in our budget based on several different factors. Obviously, one of the most immediate concerns is the growing capacity and how that’s expected to flow throughout the schools.”
- Landi: “This is one of the benefits of living in New Canaan. A lot of people want to be here, a lot of people want to go through the school system, and this is a byproduct of it. I think we need to break it down a couple different ways…. Is this a blip or is this not a blip? I think that’s a key issue. Some of you may be aware that I live next to a place where they want to put a large building. Some of those buildings actually are driving some of these enrollment numbers. If you talk about the first selectman debate that just came before us, we need to understand how much what I would call ‘dense housing’ is coming. How much is that driving student enrollment? What’s the timeline for that? Is that going to hit at the same time? Are those kids going to come in ‘staggered,’ if you will? Another thing that’s probably not popular with people, but my oldest son went to kindergarten in the city, in a city school. Great education, kindergarten education. He has 24 kids in his kindergarten class. So we’re going to have to have a discussion about how many kids we want in different classes. He also had multiple teachers in that class. So that gets to the recruitment issue. We’re going to have to be creative here to make sure that we don’t build another school or build something that we then basically have to pay for forever, so we’re flexing permanent space for a temporary situation.”
- Connolly Nussbaum: “This is a challenge that I’ve been following for the last year or so in attending Board of Ed meetings, and I think candidate Hayes made a great point. Is this a long-term growth in population, or is this kind of a shorter-term challenge. The current Board of Ed, is planning to hear updated numbers from the consultant company at their next Board of Ed meeting on November 6th. So, hopefully we’ll have some more information then for the community to start thinking about this issue. This issue for me would be, if I were elected to the Board of Ed, be my day one priority. Because we can’t have an ad hoc solution. We can’t back into this. We need to be forward facing, and thinking about teacher hiring and retaining, but also teacher coaching and support. How do our teachers handle a classroom that might have a larger student population? And I think that this is a big challenge for our community, but also an opportunity for New Canaan Public Schools to show how they embrace challenges, rise to the occasion, and solve problems creatively and collaboratively.”
Budget
- Landi: “Tying in with the start time discussion, that is an interesting one because basically, the costs were driven by a few things, but primarily with busing and that’s sort of a uniquely American thing with the school bus. And I think what I found when I looked at the school busing costs, which are quite substantial, is actually we’re seeing a ton of seats that are not being utilized around our town three times a day, times two. And the question is: Is there any sort of efficiency when it comes to our busing setup and that could be consolidating routes, that could also be encouraging more kids to walk? There could be other issues like that. So that’s one area. The reality is most of these costs in our school system are driven by the labor contracts and the only way you basically make progress on labor contracts is through efficiency and I think that’s a tough one to look at with regards to the classrooms.”
- Connolly Nussbaum: “I think it would be difficult to justify reducing spending if our student population grows. That said, one area where we might be able to find ways to bring students back into our district is to increase spending on a pilot program like the Literacy Academy, which is teaching dyslexic learners how to read and write and communicate effectively in-district. And that means that we don’t have to fund an out-of-district tuition. And that is a really exciting initiative that’s happening right now. It’s growing. It’s something that the Board of Ed has done beautifully in supporting and advocating for. And I applaud them in that. So that is one area that I would advocate for increasing spending, would be these types of pilot programs that might then decrease our spend in out-placements.”
- Hayes: “I’ve got two areas. So first I agree with Giacomo on busing. I would focus that, though, on Saxe. We’ve been spending some time, we’ll spend some more over the next year, looking at the school day schedule at Saxe. As people probably know, the upper division and the lower division start at different times. And so trying to find a way potentially through busing to improve that would be helpful. And the second is we have an excellent counseling department at New Canaan High School. They do a really, really good job with both academic counseling and then college counseling. But I think we could use probably two or three more, is my personal view. It’s something we’ve discussed over the years and they always say, ‘We’re good, we’re doing a fine job.’ But, I think they could use some more.”
- Wexler: “I would expand, continue to hire more teachers with the goal of helping children to continue to find their passion, what excites them. I think we need to focus on building students for the jobs of tomorrow, so digital entrepreneurialism is a big focus that we should be expanding. Business is a course that we should be offering. More civics classes so that we can raise responsible citizens. Even expanding our trades and making sure that we have the right jobs for a growing and diverse economy. There’s obviously a ton of ways that we can spend our money. Ensuring that kids are driven to excellence and can find what drives them to excellence I think is really one of the fundamental goals of the school.”
- Kelly: “The priorities of the budget are the priorities of the Board. That’s the relationship communicated there. And I think that that’s what you saw at the school start times when these parents organized. They came together, they expressed a concern. Our current Board paused from what they thought the rollout was going to be. They went to the budget, they looked for solutions, They increased busing, or buses, and they spent some more money to find parents a solution. I think we’re currently in the state, right now we’re in 52nd in student spending, which is below Darien and Westport. I have four very different learners. I have children who receive services and children who excel, and I don’t think that that’s uncommon. I think a lot of families are trying to navigate deeply different needs of their students, and I think the one place I would expand our budget is in our phonics and the achievement and Literaries Academy. My daughter was a wonderful recipient of the Achievement Academy this summer. It was a great, great experience for her. I would also love to see some resources put into finding teachers with certifications to help those plans and to reduce our student-teacher ratio.”
- Campbell: “I think that there are a few things that we can cut and examine in our budget more closely. One, I would argue that there are dues that we pay to participate in associations that aren’t really aligned with the mission of New Canaan and serve sometimes as political action groups or political interest groups. I think that’s spending that we don’t benefit from. I also agree that transportation is an area in which we need to tighten our belt, or at least think of more efficient ways for transportation. Just to give you an example, my backyard is literally close to the soccer fields at Saks Middle School. I have a couple neighbors who go to Saxe Middle School. There’s a bus that comes by. They cut through my yard, and we’re OK with it. But there’s a bus that goes by. And so we’re thinking about how we spend money on transportation. I also think that When we think about the budget, we need to spend more time thinking about scenarios as to where we could cut and where we could flex. I think that what we need to understand is that our budget is heavily dependent on property values. Obviously property values are heavily dependent on interest rates. Interest rates are rising. And so who’s thinking about the 10% budget cut or who’s thinking about the 5% budget cut, right? What would that look like? We need to get ahead of that so that we’re not scrambling at the last minute to figure out what we need to cut and risk jeopardizing or cutting special services that are really important to our students. So we need to really closely evaluate and pass a fine tooth comb through the budget.”
The candidates also each responded to this question— “In addition to rigorous academics, what, if anything, should the school system do to prepare students for life beyond New Canaan?” — and that discussion can be found starting here.
Here are excerpts from the candidates’ closing statements:
- Hayes: I’d love to continue to represent the town on the Board of Ed for the next four years, as I’ve been doing for the past eight. I’ve loved working with my fellow Board of Ed member, the broader community, working with the administration and the outstanding teachers that we have in our schools. I think we can continue to do the excellent work that we have been doing, and continue to improve in a bunch of different ways, some of which I’ve mentioned tonight.”
- Wexler: “New Canaan is truly a special place and its schools are no different. I’m running for school board to keep our schools focused on providing best-in-state academics, championship athletics, Broadway-worthy arts, combined support systems for all children to thrive. I don’t believe that our youngest learners should have the weight of divisive topics, and I think our schools should be free from political influence and social ideology. Mostly, I believe that parents should have a large say in the children’s education and the values that it espouses. I’d like to give your children the opportunity, and give them the environment, to pursue their passion, and to find what drives them to excel.”
- Kelly: “I just want to make it clear that there’s a difference between Row A and Row B in this election. We’re not the same. And on November 7th, you are making a choice. I will work hard to put New Canaan children first. I want our schools to be made free of political distractions and focused on academic excellence. Excellent schools require active stewardship, committed community leaders are needed to plan, guide, and protect New Canaan Public Schools tradition of exceptionalism. I will invest in phonics support for our K 3 children, advocate for a dedicated SRO in every school, maintain merit-based hiring and support innovative curriculums ensuring our high school students are equipped to enter an increasingly competitive world. I want our schools to remain the brightest example of public education in the country and in Connecticut.”
- Campbell: “I’d like to take this time to actually to address some of the racially charged attacks against me on the Democrats’ social media. The comments suggest that I’m just a prop, I’m not a serious candidate. It likened me to a black puppet, a character whose mind is controlled by white puppet masters. It claimed that I’ve subjugated myself to my white running mates as if I’m intellectually inferior. Diversity to them is people that look different, but think the same. If you agree, you’ll be included. Otherwise, anything goes, even racist comments. Their public words may be flattering, but they’re false prophets of diversity and inclusion, and by their fruits you shall know them. To those of you that really care about diversity, if you really want to make a difference, if you really want to change the world, start at home. Don’t let others use your good intentions and exploit them in order to push their agenda and their ideology on your kids. Your role as parents is the most important. I will work hard to make sure your kids have the best schools, but you have to work hard to make sure they’re good people. Don’t outsource your most sacred responsibility to those with ulterior motives.”
- Landi: “Thank you for a good debate and excellent questions. What a vote for me, for the New Canaan Board of Ed, what is it a vote for? It’s for a non partisan focus on addressing critical issues in front of our students, our families, and our school district. It means every child in New Canaan will be welcomed and encouraged to come to our public schools, where they’ll excel like no other place. It’s continuous and steady progress on improving both our in class learning and physical infrastructure. It’s learning from and exchanging ideas with the best in class school districts, no matter where those school districts may be located. It’s recruiting and retaining the best classroom teachers and staff. In short, you—like me—want a great school district to be even greater. I hope you’ll consider using one of your four votes for me. For those voting for only one party, be it Democrats or Republicans, you can still vote for all of them and vote for me. You can find me on Line C. I’m at the bottom, but I’ll keep you on top.”
- Connolly Nussbaum: “Congrats to my fellow candidates on a successful debate. When this election ends, those of us sitting at this table will no longer be candidates. I hope we will no longer be opponents. We will be New Canaanites, we’ll be fellow parents, and four of us up here will be Board of Education members. How the Board spends its time will deeply impact our kids and our community. If I am elected to the Board of Education, I will spend my time listening, learning, collaborating and putting our students first. It is their education, after all.”
Responding to a request after the debate for examples of the social media posts he’d referred to, Campbell pointed NewCanaanite.com to comments posted on Instagram.
Additional resources:
- Republican Matt Campbell: candidate bio, Q&A (July 2023), podcast interview (October 2023)
- Democrat Lauren Connolly Nussbaum: candidate bio, campaign kickoff coverage (September 2023), podcast interview (August 2023)
- Democrat Brendan Hayes: candidate bio, campaign kickoff coverage (September 2023), podcast interview (October 2023)
- Republican Lara Kelly: candidate bio, Q&A (July 2023), podcast interview (August 2023)
- Unaffiliated Giacomo Landi: Q&A (June 2023), podcast interview (September 2023)
- Republican Matt Wexler: candidate bio, Q&A (July 2023), podcast interview (September 2023)
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