By Linda Conner Lambeck

 WESTPORT­ — A motion to create a special committee to oversee the school district’s strategic planning failed this week, despite the best efforts of one Board of Education member who considered it the best way to bridge a divided community.

“A special committee can be about problem solving,” freshman board member Robert Harrington said. “A calculated risk that pays off. It is about not leaving people behind. Isn’t that what we are striving to do?”

By a 5-1 vote, with one abstention, the school board Monday rejected the motion to set up the oversight panel, and for the time being will let a strategic plan focused on social emotional learning and problem solving proceed with school administrators at the helm.

Other board members, even those sympathetic to Harrington’s efforts, said a townwide advisory committee with no powers would not ease growing tensions over the strategic plan and other issues.

“It is okay to not support the special committee, but to support the cry for it,” Board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer said.

Heyer agreed something is needed to bring down the high temperature in the community generated by heated debate over the strategic plan. 

Planning for social emotional learning and design thinking

The school board, a week ago, gave its backing for Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice to continue developing the strategic plan that seeks to make social emotional learning, and something called “design thinking” more systemic elements of the district’s overarching focus on academic excellence.

Scarice said he will return to the board at the end of the school year for its approval on some tangible steps guided by the plan. Professional educators, he added, need to be part of that planning.

While many embrace the ideas as something the school district needs, others do not.

Harrington said the impetus for establishing an oversight committee was to have a two-way conversation with the community. Those who oppose or fear the plan, he said, would have to show up with a constructive mindset.

“They can’t just come in … and say it’s Marxist, it’s left wing, it’s indoctrination,” he said.

Instead, the public would have to raise specific issues and concerns regarding the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, or CASEL framework, the school district is using.

Harrington said the committee would not make decisions on the curriculum or replace the Board of Education, but would give a voice to a segment of the community that feels left behind.

“The division I see is only getting wider … certainly nationally,” Harrington said. “We can try and bring the community together.”

Scarice acknowledged the division, noting that a couple of years ago a proposal to infuse the district with more social and emotional learning likely would not have been as polarizing. 

But he defended the planning process thus far as open and participatory. He said he devoted “eight whole days” to engaging the community during the plan’s development process.

“I think if you are fundamentally opposed to the work we are doing I don’t think anything we can do can change that,” the superintendent said.

Heyer said Scarice’s stance was concerning.

“To say we just have fundamental differences and have to plow ahead is hard for me to swallow,” she said.

Heyer said she doesn’t want Westport to be another school district in the news because of extreme divisiveness.

“It breaks my heart, frankly, that it feels like we are headed in that direction,” Heyer said. “I think we should be role models. I want to be in the news as the one district that did this right.”

Board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein said it was unclear how big the special committee would be, when it would start its work and what it would be doing. Instead of a committee, she suggested the district reinstitute brown bag conversations to engage the public and answer questions.

Board member Neil Phillips said he opposed formation of a special committee because it is the school board’s job to oversee the strategic planning process.

Board member Dorie Hordon, who abstained on the vote, said although she didn’t support a special committee with no teeth, she understands the mistrust from some in the community who fear the district will insert an ideology into SEL instruction because of the CASEL focus not only on social wellness but on social justice.

“And I am going to bring up TEAM Westport,” Hordon said.

Controversy has arisen over whether TEAM, the town’s multicultural committee, has undue influence over school district programs. Its role is to promote anti-racism in the community. One example cited by critics of TEAM’s outsized influence is its annual Teen Diversity Essay Contest for local high school students. This year’s contest and others before it — co-sponsored by the Westport Library, not the school district — have come under fire from critics who contend it promotes anti-American values.

“There are parents who don’t want this,” Hordon said. 

She counts herself among them. “For me … it is very personal. I view anti-racism as dealing with systemic racism with more systematic racism,” she added. “It doesn’t sit right with me.”

Hordon called for the school board to develop a policy for how all committees interact with the schools.

A divided public weighs in

Before the vote, the board heard from the public on both sides of the issue.

Dave Kirshner said he disagreed that an oversight committee would be cumbersome. He is concerned how student data on social emotional wellness would be collected and stored.

Lindsay Weiner, a teacher and parent who said she was a member of a planning committee the district pulled together last summer, said she appreciates Harrington’s effort to bridge the community divide, but questioned whether a new committee could provide a balanced view.

“It is too nebulous,” she said.

Parent Scott Weiner said he worried what the future of Westport could look like if a small group is successful in painting the concept of equity as a racist philosophy.

“I urge this board to stick to the mission, support SEL and vote down the special committee tonight,” Weiner said.

Parent Camilo Riano said a board consensus is not necessarily a green light for strategic planning to move forward.

“The community is divided about this,” Riano said.

Parent Becky Martin said a special committee could be like “putting out a fire with gasoline.”

“The goal would be to encumber the strategic plan with a layer of bureaucracy,” she said.

Harrington said it is clear the board did not support the creation of the committee and there are sufficient votes to ensure the strategic planning will continue.

“I disagree with the views of some people who are asking for a special committee, but I think the elephant in the room is there are people who broadly feel uneasy about some people sitting around a table and having opinion,” he said.

He said he supports SEL and design thinking, but without a greater drive to bring the public along, the school board’s backing for strategic planning is no longer unanimous.

 “I withdraw my support,” Harrington said.