Board of Ed to Meet Behind Closed Doors to Discuss 'Interpersonal Relationships'

Apparently, a closed-door meeting of the Board of Education last November to hash out conflicts among board members didn't do the trick.

The school board on Tuesday plans to hold another closed-door meeting, this time with an attorney, "for the purpose of discussing interpersonal relationships," according to its agenda. The closed-door meeting is at 7 p.m. in the Education Center, 501 Kings Highway East, and is followed by an open meeting scheduled at 7:30 p.m.

"Yes, I think the meeting is warranted. Other than that, I can't comment further," Pam Iacono, the board's vice chairman, said Monday afternoon.

School board member Perry Liu said part of the problem is the majority on the board doesn't seem to respect the minority's opinion. "I don't think there is any one issue, but I think there is a general issue about how to go about things and move forward as a board," he said. "Unfortunately, we are split, and I find it difficult to get the majority to listen."

"I think you can definitely sense there are differences on the board," Liu said.

Asked if the split was due to process rather than an issue, Liu said, "There are many issues and process is one of them."

Board of Education Chairman John Mitola didn't return a call for comment, nor did board member Sue Brand, who had questioned the legality of last November's closed-door meeting.

Stephen Sedor is the attorney meeting Tuesday night with the board. On Nov. 30, the board hashed out its internal problems with Nick Caruso, a moderator with the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.

A divide on the school board isn't unusual. About 10 years ago, the nine-member elected board was deeply divided, on a 5-4 split, over whether the town should open a second high school. The majority, who wanted to maintain a single high school, eventually caved after town boards refused to approve a funding request to expand what was then Fairfield High School (on the campus of the current Fairfield Warde High School.)

An issue that major hasn't confronted the current board in public, though they did split on a middle school feeder plan designed to fill Fairfield Woods Middle School after its upcoming expansion and a breathalyzer policy for school dances and other school-sponsored activities.

Last November, Iacono and board member Sue Dow called the board "dysfunctional" before board member Tim Kery arrived at the meeting and objected to the public being present. The board then voted 6-3 to toss the public out of the meeting.

Before that meeting, Liu had objected in public to the process used by the board to adopt a middle school feeder plan, saying the board should review all options and not just the option recommended by a three-member subcommittee he was on. Liu was the only member of the subcommittee who didn't favor the option recommended by the subcommittee and adopted by the board in September. Brand said in November's meeting, before the public was barred, that e-mails among board members sometimes get too personal.

Tom Hennick, public education officer at the state Freedom of Information Commission in Hartford, said in December that a school board can meet behind closed doors to evaluate each other's performance on an individual basis or comment on a faction of several board members. But if board members talk about how to conduct business as a board or set goals, the closed-door meeting would not be legal, according to Hennick.

The problem for the public, Hennick added in December, is that it's not possible to determine what is discussed in a closed-door meeting.

The board's open meeting Tuesday night has its share of potentially controversial issues. The agenda includes votes on asking First Selectman Ken Flatto to establish a building committee for the expansion of Riverfield School; agreeing to put $450,000 in the board's medical reserve account if the town removes and bonds that expense, which is for technology, from the board's budget; and a long-range facilities plan that sets the timetable for school renovations and expansions.

Dow and Kery weren't available to comment early Monday evening.