By John Schwing
WESTPORT — The campaign clock is counting down the final hours before electioneering stops and balloting begins at 6 a.m. Tuesday in the 2023 municipal election.
The campaign was expected to be on the quieter side, lacking any of the usual “marquee” contests. No national, congressional or state offices are at stake, and the next race for Westport’s top elected job — first selectman — is not for two more years.
So what is on the ballot? Townwide, votes will be cast for five boards and commissions and, by district, for seats on the Representative Town Meeting.
And while campaigning for four of the five townwide panels has proven to be relatively low-key, the contest for seats on the Board of Education has, over the last several weeks, erupted into a fierce fight.
That battle reflects many of the arguments — and divisions — that have flared nationally over educational philosophy and parental vs. professional control of schools.
Allegations have flown back and forth over issues like the school district’s high standing vs. slipping achievement; calls to resist banning books vs. claims of pornographic content, and the value of “social emotional learning” and “diversity equity and inclusion” as beneficial elements for a child’s education or harmful indoctrination that obscures a focus on academic success.
Throw in, for good measure, charges and counter-charges of extremism (from the left and the right), child grooming, Marxism, Critical Race Theory, censorship, incivility and antisemitism … and voters have witnessed an election-season campaign that’s been anything but quiet.
The school board race, pitting Democratic incumbents Lee Goldstein and Neil Phillips against Republican newcomers Camilo Riano and Jamie Fitzgerald, also has the unusual dynamic of a write-in candidate, Jill Dillon, who in all but name is running in alliance with the Democrats.
Three of the five candidates will be elected.
Results in that contest, no doubt, will be the most closely watched outcome from Tuesday’s balloting.
Click here to read the five Board of Education candidates’ responses to a Westport Journal questionnaire.
Watch a video of the school board candidates at a forum hosted in October by the League of Women Voters by clicking here.
The rest of the townwide ballot
BOARD OF FINANCE: Candidates are Democrats Jeffrey Hammer, incumbent, and Danielle Dobin, currently the Planning and Zoning Commission chairwoman, and Republicans Perry Winter, an incumbent; Liz Heyer, currently the Board of Education vice chairwoman, and Rich Hightower.
Four of the five candidates will be elected. The term of office is four years.
Click here to read the candidates’ responses to the Westport Journal questionnaire. Watch a video of the candidates (following Board of Education candidates ) at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters by clicking here.
PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION: Candidates are Paul Lebowitz, an incumbent who has Democrats’ endorsement; Republicans Amie Tesler, Patrizia Zucaro and John Bolton, all incumbents, and Michael Calise, and for the Coalition for Westport, Joseph Strickland Jr.
Four of the six candidates will be elected. The term is for four years.
Click here to read the candidates’ responses to the Westport Journal questionnaire. Watch a video of the candidates at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters by clicking here.
ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS: Candidates are Democrat Jim Ezzes, and Republicans Michelle Hopson and Liz Wong. All three are incumbents.
Three candidates will be elected. The term is four years.
BOARD OF ASSESSMENT APPEALS: Republican Joseph Sledge is the lone candidate.
One candidate will be elected. The term is for four years.
REPRESENTATIVE TOWN MEETING: The town’s non-partisan legislative body has 36 members, with four representatives from each of the nine districts.
There are competitive races, with more than four candidates seeking election to the four allotted seats, in Districts 1, 2, 6 and 9.
The contests in Districts 6 and 9 — both with seven contenders for the four available seats — are in neighborhoods where two of the town’s most contentious issues have unfolded over the last several months.
In the District 6 neighborhood, bordering Long Lots Elementary School in District 7, a months-long controversy has erupted over plans to build a new school on the Hyde Lane property, which would displace the Westport Community Gardens.
In District 9, encompassing the downtown area, another lengthy and antagonistic debate has enveloped plans to redesign Parker Harding Plaza’s parking lot.
To check the candidate lineup for each of the RTM districts, view the sample ballots posted on the Town Clerk’s “Election Information” website.
John Schwing, the Westport Journal consulting editor, has held senior editorial and writing posts at southwestern Connecticut media outlets for four decades. Learn more about us here.
One of the aspects of this years Board of Education race that has been “interesting” is that it was these two Republican candidates that were selected by the RTC to run against incumbents Goldstein and Phillips.
The Board of Ed should have representatives with different viewpoints and different party affiliations. But it’s hard to think of another candidate that could be more divisive than Mr. Riano and more unknown than Ms. Fitzgerlad. The selection does a disservice to the inclusivity of different voices. Rationale discussions about complex subjects – materials in the library, social emotional learning, diversity initiatives can’t be heard over accusations of pornography, indoctrination, marxism, and grooming.
Lee Goldstein, Neil Phillips and Jill Dillon have the support of a broad population in town across party lines – former PTA leaders (current ones won’t comment), former BoE members and BoE chairs from both parties such as Ellen Lautenbach, Michael Gordon and Vik Muktavaram, former and current Selectwomen Melissa Kane and Candy Savin, State Representative Jonathan Steinberg, current BoE members Kevin Christie and Christina Torres and the list goes on and on. Too many to mention.
Camilo Riano and Jamie Fitzgerald do not have the support of one of the sitting Republican BoE members – Robert Harrington or current First Selectwomen Jen Tooker. I could have missed it but I have not seen ANY Republican official in town that supports them.
It is not just the opinion of of a few that Riano and Fitzgerald are too extreme – its their own party. Silence speaks volumes.
Vote tomorrow for Lee Goldstein, Neil Phillips and don’t forget to fill in the bubble AND write in for Jill Dillon !!
IMPORTANT RTM RELATED INFORMATION TO HAVE BEFORE YOU DECIDE WHOM TO VOTE FOR:
On October 3rd, these 29 RTM members were determined to infringe upon your ONLY guaranteed right to petition our Town government to be heard without first being subjected to censorship by the RTM moderator. This is chilling, and you should be infuriated by this assault upon your “freedom of expression” and “right to equal standing”.
RTM29 Bairakaris, Banks, Batteau, Bram, Braunstein, Briggs, Buckman, Church, Cohn, Colabella, Gold, Hammond, Izzo, Kail, Karpf, Keenan, Klinge, Kramer, Lowenstein, Mall, Milwe, O’Day, Perry, Purcell, Schneeman, Shackelford, Shaum, Tait, Wieser
If any of these “representatives” are in your district, think very carefully prior to casting your vote.
You rightly ask, WHY DID THEY DO THIS? I Explain:
TO BE CLEAR: The RTM was not obligated to assault the Town Charter provision in question. They did so intentionally in order to CENSOR specific “matters” sensitive to the current administration, and thereby avoid discussions that the administration does not want to have because they have inherent potential to derail the trains they have been conducting – some of which, via FOIA requests, we are learning were formulated outside public view.
The excuse given was a specious concern over POTENTIAL “inconvenience”, “frivolity”, “nonsense”, and “discomfort”: Inconvenience in having to potentially stay SEVERAL MINUTES longer at a meeting, perhaps being subjected to frivolous concerns (“popcorn”), matters beyond RTM jurisdiction (“declaration of war on Weston”), and discomfort in listening to hate speech (“Nazis”). These are the EXACT concerns expressed by the RTM29 and this mirror reflects how deep the RTM abyss has become. This is insulting to every resident’s intelligence.
FACT: NO SINGLE INDIVIDUAL IS GRANTED THIS PETITION AUTHORITY. The Charter requires “TWENTY OR MORE RESIDENTS” to simultaneously petition in order to obtain the required Town Clerk certification that grants the access to the RTM agenda.
FACT: The Charter DOES NOT empower the RTM Moderator, Town Attorney, or anyone else to “filter” the concern that TWENTY OR MORE residents wish to discuss. THAT is having the freedom of expression with a built in guardrail to minimize the potential that a handful of residents would “waste the RTM’s time”.
FACT: In the 74 years since our Charter was created, frivolousness has never occurred.
Their conviction was to violate the ONLY uninhibited resident guarantee to petition AND did so without having resident approval to do so. EVEN WORSE: WITHOUT CARING TO HAVE RESIDENT APPROVAL TO DO SO.
THAT is also at the heart of the matter. THAT is not democracy. THAT is not representative governance. THAT is bullying. THAT is oligarchy. THAT is shameful. AND THAT MUST END.
Fact: One of those RTM29 accosted me in the rear of the auditorium (witnessed), and summarily declared that: “In representative government he need not “survey his constituents” prior to casting a vote with significant importance and consequence to the constituents he represents! REALLY?
Unfortunately this is a sentiment stated too often by many of the RTM’s membership. I say this with great concern and sadness. The RTM must be better than this.
FACT: RTM representatives are elected to represent the interests of their constituents in matters that come before them, and in so doing are sworn to place the interests of those who elected them above their own. Simple to understand.
Here are the only 6 RTM members brave enough to defend your rights of freedom of expression, and uphold your ONLY Town Charter guarantee to petition your representatives in a forum where it matters: Milwe; Harris Falk, District 2; Ross Burkhardt, District 3; Matthew Mandell, District 1; Ellen Lautenberg, District 7, and Sal Liccione, District 9
When you lose your ability to petition, you relinquish ALL control of the agenda the Town wishes to discuss. This is called CENSORSHIP. It is immoral, unjust, unethical, and directly violates the Town Charter that premeditatedly granted you your freedom of expression at our RTM forum.
Camilo Raino has called:
Westport- the seat of Communism and Marxism
Our superintendent- a groomer
Our teachers- indoctrinators
Our library- the Taliban
Voting- not Democratic
For lawsuits against our town and schools
Said The Greatest Showman was inappropriate bc it had a woman with floppy boobs and a beard.
Watch the recordings of his comments at school board meetings.
You decide.. are these extremist comments? Does he really support our town and schools?
Camillo writes for an extremist right wing conspiracy theory publication: Creative Destructive Media – CT Centinal. Decide for yourself if this is extremist. I would assign a class of high school students the same assignment. Our kids lean what sources are reliable and which are extremist. Go ahead., read their headlines!
As far as DEI, SEL, and Banned books:
Let the PARENTS decide if these things are extremist or not. Camilo and Jamie do NOT get to decide FOR the parents or children. In fact, I bet that Jamie and Camilo have NEVER even had conversations with the kids about these things! I have! Camilo and Jamie are simply parroting right wing extremist politicians and Moms For Liberty, Ron DeSantis and Doanld J Trump. Do your due diligence and look it all up yourself! They are the omes being political.
I am voting for the best, most successful, experienced, level- headed, kind, and supportive champions of Westport Public Schools :
Lee Goldstein
Neil Phillips
Jill Dillon – fill in 5e
One more thing: a Jew like me is not going to be used as a pawn for votes, nor will I allow the Hamas attacks on Israel be hijacked by two non- Jewish Republican extremists for school board.
I assume the hyperbole in which you describe Jamie and Camilo’s positions is to excite emotion and thereby eliminate thinking, a strategy of leftists and socialists world wide. They have outlined their concerns clearly; school is not the place for progressive idealogy to be promoted via DEI and SEL. If that’s not what it is there for then the case has not been made as to why it is beneficial and why they are so adamant that it be part of the school curriculum. Providing lists of people who also subscribe to these leftist ideologies should not be assumed to be a big selling point. Commonsensical parents and others concerned about future generations need only look up what DEI and SEL are and how they have played out so far (spoiler alert…not well). Vote row B tomorrow.
Sharon, You are simply not knowledgeable about what DEI and SEL mean in the Westport school systems and in clearly not interested in the facts. You want to stick to your conservative national agenda.
It’s not IN the curriculum. Our kids don’t take classes in SEL and DEI. These are to a great extent concepts and parameters that we’ve always had but as we move along in the world and in time we understand more and we can always try to ensure we do better. A good teacher has always deployed SEL. Our elementary schools help kids with a mood meter to help them verbalize how they are feeling – so that they can then get down to learning. If students are disruptive its going to impact their learning as well as others. These are the sorts of things we address with SEL and with DEI. It’s hard to imagine how any group can speak so vehemently against words like diversity, inclusion and equity. These are good things. If you need more explanation about why those are good things we don’t have enough time.
Further, NYU metro study didn’t bring us DEI. We are not NYU Metro center, we hired them to do a study. We did not hire them to create our principles and we certainly didn’t hire them to create a curriculum. We don’t teach CRT and we absolutely do not teach our students in Westport that they are oppressors and they are bad. We teach history – factual history. And the way that we incorporate DEI in our school system does not cause radicals to side with Hamas.
If you’re not impressed with the list of officials – across party lines – who are in support of Goldstein, Phillips and Dillon, Can you share the town officials that have endorsed your ticket ?
It’s not “in” the curriculum, The word curriculum meaning the courses taught at an educational institution. But anything taught during a course would be part of the curriculum. So for instance, if during history class I am presented with drivel from CRT type authors,that would be part as well and mist certainly DEI type material. Likewise, in health class if pro homosexual / transgender theories are covered that would be part of what is being taught.No one us saying that there is a course labeled Pronouns 101 but maybe next year, Wait for it.
Last but not least, Sharon….
The rise in school shootings since your kids have been in school is the #1 reason for SEL and DEI.
That is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. The best way to make children feel safe in schools is to have sufficient
security who are well trained to defend the kids and the staff. Another way is to stop blaming inanimate objects and start looking at the individuals using those objects to shoot people. If you look into the back story on many of these young male shooters they are on anti depressant and other drugs. Also the marijuana used these days has a THC level that seems, at least by empirical evidence, to be connected to violent behavior. Columbine happened when my kids were in school and they didn’t need lefty SEL policies to be in place to know that school staff and parents should talk to and counsel kids. Probably get rid of stupid privacy laws preventing therapists from alerting the police unless a specific threat with a time and date are shared with them. That’s just for starters. Must go apply a facial mask since, as we know, I’m quite old.
Your party is all for giving kids AR-15’s and taking away mental helathcare!
How brilliant!
As a resident of the downtown area, I am keenly aware of the imperative for RTM District #9 voters to cast their ballots to re-elect Sal Liccione and the three candidates who were inspired to run for office by Sal’s singular model of excellence in representing his constituency.
Candidates Jennifer Johnson and John Suggs have broad experience in Westport government while Candidate Doug Enslin will bring a welcome transfusion of new blood to the RTM.
If you are a District #9 voter who appreciates Sal Liccione’s commitment to the residents and businesses in District #9, then please vote for Enslin, Johnson and Suggs and rest assured of the finest representation for the next two years.
Most important of all – get out and VOTE!
Sharon,
Since you are well beyond the age of having children in Westport Schools, I am going to assume that you get your lack of information and facts about SEL and DEI from Moms for Liberty, since their tactic is to use people who do not have kids in the school district. If not Moms for Liberty, their echo chambers that you so voiciferously adhere to, lock, step, and order.
I have kids in the district. I have asked many kids throughout the district about DEI and SEL. I know how the kids feel about it. I know what they both are and are not. I know that both help the classroom environment and classroom management. I know that kids come to school with issues that have to be delt with inside of school walls.
Your perepective as a person without school aged children is way off. You are listening to politicians, not children!
Sharon,
Here is why SEL is beneficial:
Children come to school as whole human beings, not bits and pieces of robots. They come to school multi- faceted with issues stemming from home, from friendships, and from the outer world, that affect their concentration and performance in academics. The emotional states of children have impacts on the classroom enviornment and interactions between students. In some cases, the psychological well being and state of children can result in bullying in school. All of this has to be addressed in a classroom. If a child comes to school depressed and unable to concentrate, social emotional learning allows the child to express their feelings and the teacher capable of addressing their needs. If bullying or misbehavior occurs in the classroom, social- emotional learning gives the teacher the tools to address it in order to increase an optimal and positive learning environment. It is part of good classroom management.
DEI benefits my children because we live in a predominately white suburb without too much diveristy. It helps them to understand minority groups and their lived experiences that affect them. DEI helps to make minority groups feel included. For instance, my kids are Jewish, and are therefore a minority. DEI helps to protect my kids as Jewish minorities and give them a voice to feel included. Right now is the time my kids need DEI the most bc of the Hamas attack on Israel and they are feeling unsettled and scared as Jews! Weatport and Tom have been GREAT about using DEI tenents to protect the Jews here! In addition, I want my kids to learn the perspective of the minority of black kids who live here and their lived experiences they bring to the table. I do not want my kids graduatinf thinking the whole world out there is just like Westport, which it is not! DEI also is a bog part of Special Education services!
Don’t worry Westport will be like the whole world pretty soon. Your (maybe well meaning) psychobabble has been used all too often as a smoke screen to cover leftist, Marxist propaganda. Maybe some will fall for it, they certainly have been frequently. Unfortunately it is at our peril now as we need to preoare to defend ourselves and face reality. Yes, as you point out I am ” well past the age” of having school age children and that makes me old enough to know B.S. when I see it. By the way that sounded rather ageist to me and I might be offended. But don’t worry, I’m offended every day but I get over it. You lefties should try that sometime.
Sharon,as always you took the higher ground responding intellectually,diplomatically and unpologetically. As a taxpayer,you have a right to voice an opinion on the state of this educational system. You are paying for the teachers, the buildings,the administrators and the buses bringing kids to our schools. As such, if you disagree with how your taxes are being spent, you have a constitutional right to speak your truth. Just because you don’t have school age children that does not eliminate your right to speak out .In fact, those of us who are no longer sucking off the public teat in public education, have the right to challenge a failing educational system which will inevitably cause a rise in taxes and a further decline in property values. Diversity is not a buying feature for many thirty somethings looking to build a nest.In cases where diversity is first on the bucket list, the prospective buyers are not members of a diverse group. And as for bringing greater diversity to Westport in order for our children to be exposed to the “real” world, let’s be real. The really rich in Manhattan, are paying $450 to reserve a table at Carbone on Tuesday nights. They’re paying $200,000 in membership fees to sit at a bar at the end of the day with someone who mirrors their success.
Of course she has the comstitutional right to vote! She should vote! I am FOR voting, not against it! I am FOR Democracy, NOT against it!
I am talking about her not having kids in the schools so she has no clue what DEI and SEL mean in Westport schools!
Please vote everybody! It is your duty as a citizen!
That trope has always made me laugh and it’s always said by virtue signaling lefties. If I want my candidate to win I want Stephanie, et al to stay home on voting day. Come on Democrats, be honest for a change. You don’t want conservatives voting or even having a say on the BOE , hence the sneaky Jill Dillon fill in ballot to ensure your creepy DEI and SEL will be the order
of the day in Westport
Caroline,
i want statistics and facts on how Westport Schools are failing!!!!!
Back it up!
Also, my kids will learn what a bubble Westport is when they get into the REAL world. I would rather them be prepared, rather than ignorant and insular!
Well, are you a product of Westport schools or another equally leftist school system? Because prior to the DEI and SEL policies being called by these acronyms the philosophy was already in place for decades. If parents were on board with it they raised their kids to be adults like you who then continue promoting it to their kids. So I have a feeling that you might be the poster child for why we need to stop this now. We are in way too much danger to indulge this anymore.
Thank you Caroline. We can only continue to speak from a place of logic, commonsense and a hope that the freest, fairest nation on Earth will survive these mental midgets who are holding the reins and running headlong towards the cliff. As for the benefits of diversity , I grew up in NYC where there was a plethora of diversity, the positives of which I must admit eluded me. I moved to CT. In 1977 when it had no state tax, low to virtually no crime and the ability to get across town in a couple of minutes. What a difference an influx of Democrats has made.
Yes Caroline, it kind of makes you wonder why they move to towns like Westport and then bemoan the fact that their kids are not being exposed to enough diversity. Why didn’t they move to a town like Norwalk or Bridgeport? Maybe even New Haven? Send their kid to public schools there. No, they move here, start promoting their leftist agendas from zoning changes to school indoctrination, etc. until this town becomes like the places they left. Democrat policies are repeating this pattern across the entire country and will not be satisfied until the “equal distribution of misery” is achieved.
It is not ageist, it is fact Sharon.
Did you have mass school shootings like there are now when you had kids?
Were there wars like we are having now when your kids were in school?
What about Covid when your kids were in school?
All based on FACTS!
If anyone is against taking care of the whole child in a school, they have no business being anywhere near a school, let alone try to be in charge of one!
Yes we are all in favor of taking care of the “whole child” as there would be no point in taking care of a dismembered child would there? You make it too easy Stephanie. Anyone with a brain can see through your platitudes.
We had Columbine, the Oklahoma City bombings, 911, the first and second Iraq wars and believe me 911 was a really impressive one for my kids since I was an American Airlines flight attendant then and after. Talk about needing reassurance. But guess what Stephanie, there was nothing I could say to allay their fears. It’s the same now because we have feckless, clueless leadership at every level of government. In a state like Ct. ws deal with it from local to the state and to the the federal level. We are being failed by our government and we continue to fail our children if we continue to tolerate this nonsense .You don’t think DEI has anything to do with antifa and BLM rioting and destroying? Nothing to do with their hatred of their own country? Have you heard any of the Nashville wacko’s manifesto where she expresses hatred of white people and rich people despite being white herself? Why does she hate white people, Is it because she was taught they they are white supremacists and the country is irredeemably racist? Is it not possible that she was a victim of SEL which includes “gender affirmation” leading to mutilating her own body? This is where this is taking our children and our country. There is so much evidence of the harm this causes and whether I still have children in school or not I don’t want the schools helping to produce these kinds of people.
Are you for real?
AR-15’s!!!! No mental healthcare! Yippie!!!!
Am I for real? You spew nonsense and ,by the way, overuse exclamation points which makes you look hysterical. So according to you the Republucan platform recommends handing out AR 15s to children and does not allow them to obtain mental health care? Please produce evidence. I think we both know where that quest will lead. When did the AR 15 program start? Was it like a Toys For Tots program? I’ll have to ask my kids if it had already started when they were teens. As for mental health try going to a mental health professional not the school nurse or the guidance counselor. You are a joke.
Today, I could not blacken my ballot ovals faster, harder, or with more enjoyment.
You need to look up the expression “hoist by your own petard”. I’m afraid it is going to prove to be quite apropos in the near future.
Somebody call for a safety check on Sharon!
Wow Chris, good one! Not really; actually quite lame.
Gosh, you really need to find some hobbies. What an empty pointless existence.