During a drive around town last week, I tried to make some educated guesses about how the election would pan out based on the yard signs. It's impossible to keep an accurate mental count, but when I pulled back into my own driveway, it seemed like the Democrats had the advantage. Of course, I live close to town, and those East Main Street Victorians lean left, so I couldn't tell if my mental tally was skewed.
Then I headed out to run some errands on election day. On my way toward West Stafford, I saw Bill Morrison and James Greene waving to passers-by from the Sara Mart parking lot. On my way back across town to pick up my CSA share at Mon Soleil, I had to dodge slow-moving voters pulling into the community center as a big group of Republicans waved from across the road.
At some point, I became convinced at least one yard had switched affiliations, as it had a big Republican yard sign where I could have sworn there was once a big sign for the Democrats. The big sign, however, was now accompanied by a smaller Morrison/Hartenstein sign. Very confusing indeed, but I love to see it. We need more people who aren't just cheering on their favorite team like this is Red Sox vs. Yankees and more people who support candidates based on the individual and his or her ideas and experience.
In the end, my sign-based hunch turned out to be right, at least for the Board of Selectmen (BOS) races. Bill Morrison won the first selectman's race and Rick Hartenstein was re-elected as selectman. Kurt Vail will serve as the third selectman on the board in addition to his duties as State Representative.
Lawn signs aside, I've been to a lot of meetings over the past few months, and Morrison is perhaps the only person who has been to more of them. I'm on the Economic Development Commission, and for at least three months (if not four, I've lost count) we have been unable to muster a quorum, and Morrison knows this because he showed up to one of our non-meetings just as the rest of us were ready to head out. When the BOS would go out to executive session, and just about everyone else would leave as well, I'd end up chatting with Morrison in the room until he got called away to an emergency. He's spoken about knocking on doors and has been nearly omnipresent at town events, even Arts on Main. He even sat down for a Facebook Live Q&A event in one of our local Facebook groups.
It's hard to imagine someone running a more enthusiastic and involved campaign for local office, and it worked. Morrison won by 119 votes, meanwhile, Hartenstein scored more votes than any of the BOS candidates (including Morrison) with 1,859 votes.
One of the first major issues likely to face this new board is a need for upgrades to the water treatment facility, which is a limiting factor for commercial development in town. Hartenstein is the Superintendent of the Water Pollution Control Facility, and therefore has an inside track on the needed upgrades. Keep an eye out for town-wide discussions likely to happen in early 2024.
Board of Education results
Over at the Board of Education (BOE), things went a different way. Republicans Eileen Bartlett and Shana Boland were newly elected to the BOE and Mike Delano was re-elected. Democrat Jennifer Biedrzycki was also elected, however, James Greene lost his bid for the board.
In the run-up to the election, school budgets were on all the Stafford candidates' minds, but Boland and Bartlett also had different concerns. In a candidate profile with the Stafford-Willington Patch, Boland wrote, "Lack of strategy that the district has to improve the academic achievement of its students. The district needs to shift its focus away from politically charged agendas and focus its energy on making sure our students have the appropriate reading, writing and math skills for their grade level."
As we reported after the most recent BOE meeting, Stafford's scores are already on the rise. In the case of one assessment, all of Stafford's scores were above the state average when looking at all students and also when looking at just the high-needs population. At the previous meeting, Superintendent Steven A. Moccio presented the comprehensive School Improvement Plan. (Those BOE meetings are very data-dense, so be sure to dive into the articles and explore how Stafford's students are doing and the plans already in place to continue improving outcomes for students.)
Eileen Bartlett's profile with The Patch gives readers an idea of what those "politically charged agendas"Bolan mentioned might be. She wrote, "Beyond budget, I feel very strongly about monitoring age appropriate content for our students. I also feel our equity and inclusivity policy should be audited and reviewed on a regular basis."
If you regularly attend (in-person or virtually) BOE meetings, you know that "equity and inclusion" often come up, usually because of one or two public commenters who take issue with everything from policies to specific books. This led current BOE member, Aaron Hoffman, to suggest changing language to stop using the words equity and inclusivity, changing them to something like, "Educational policies and practices that forge an environment that promotes a sense of belonging for all members of the community.”
In her Q&A with Stafford Free Press (and during comment sessions at BOE meetings), Biedrzycki also addressed this recurring issue: "As a parent of a child who is in the special education program, I want to help people understand what equity and inclusion truly mean. Equity is receiving resources and support so all our children can be successful. It can include accommodations such as movement breaks, using audiobooks, modifying assignments, or having more time to complete a test. Inclusion is more than feeling valued and respected. To me, it means ensuring our children feel welcome and proud to be part of something bigger than themselves - part of their community, classroom, grade, club, sports team, or whatever it may be."
The term “equity” refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality: Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances. National Association of Colleges and Employers
"Equity" is a very precise term used in educational circles to ensure students with different backgrounds or special needs get what they need to succeed. The importance of equity can be especially evident in a town like Stafford, where so many students are economically disadvantaged. West Stafford and Stafford Elementary, are Community Eligible Provision (CEP) schools, where all students receive free breakfast and lunch due to the high level of need in the community. To qualify as a CEP school, 40% of students must qualify for free/reduced lunch in the previous school year. Much of the Borough is also part of an environmental justice community, defined by the Connecticut General Statutes as:
a distressed municipality, as designated by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development; OR
defined census block groups where 30% of the population is living below 200% of the federal poverty level.
For many students, receiving equitable resources (not just equal resources) can be the difference between success and failure. In addition to things like free lunch, students may get transportation fee waivers for sports or field trips, and other accommodations based on individual needs, such as those Biedrzycki mentioned. However, the idea of equity and inclusion has been politicized at a national level for a variety of reasons I won't get into here, but that you can read more about here, here, or here.
Only time will tell how the changes in the BOE line-up, and possibly in priorities, will impact the education students receive and their outcomes.
Wrapping up the Stafford election results
Karen Troiano, Stafford's long-time Town Clerk, also won re-election with more than 1,900 votes. Candidates Tony Pellegrino, Harold Blake Hatch, and Anthony Armelin were elected to the Board of Finance (BOF).
This BOF will tackle the big task of putting together next year's budget in conjunction with BOS and BOE. As we are all too aware, the town required three referendums to approve a budget in 2023. The process, however, starts months before at BOF meetings where concerned citizens have the opportunity to speak up about their priorities for the town.
It will be interesting to see if Stafford citizens show up to voice their opinions earlier on in the process and shape the budget before it comes time to vote.