School board candidates discuss racism, inclusion in online forum
UPDATE: Organizers had more questions from viewers than there was time for in the forum so they sent them to the candidates afterward. Candidate answers have been posted to the group’s webpage under “events” where the video can also be found.
In the first of two online candidate forums hosted by the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition this week, candidates for the Harwood Unified Union School Board discussed how they would tackle issues of race and social justice within the public schools.
The session was held Tuesday, Feb. 16, over Zoom video conference, and the recording is posted online on the coalition’s Facebook page and on its website. Candidates in attendance included Michael Frank, Marlena Tucker-Fishman, Scott Culver, and Caitlin Hollister of Waterbury, Sam Rosenburg of Moretown, Jonathan Young of Warren, and Theresa Membrino of Fayston. Kristen Rodgers of Moretown and Brian Dalla Mura from Duxbury were unable to attend.
Waterbury activist Maroni Minter served as moderator and guided the conversation towards questions regarding inclusivity within the school system, specifically regarding students of color.
“The district vision uses the words ‘welcoming,’ ‘inclusive,’ and ‘equity,’ all of which have a connection to students with differences, including students of color. How will you influence the board to measure and improve in these areas?” Minter asked.
Jonathan Young, who is running for an open seat to represent Warren, acknowledged the district’s lack of diversity and offered a solution to challenge the uniformity of the area’s demographics.
“In a community such as ours that doesn’t have a great deal of diversity born into it, it’s incumbent upon us as a school board to try to find creative ways to bring that diversity to us. Maybe that means finding a sister-community that is more diverse,” Young said. “We want to do our best to improve our students’ opportunities to engage with diverse people from diverse backgrounds which might not exist in the towns we’re representing.”
Young said he has two daughters and although he has no previous political experience, he said he hasn’t been pleased with some of the district’s decisions and that’s motivated him to run.
One of three candidates running for two three-year seats to represent Waterbury, Marlena Tucker-Fishman challenged Young’s point about seeking more diversity. She asserted that the school board should recognize and support existing diversity in the community.
“I would encourage the community to dig deeper into the diversity that we actually do have that may not be apparent. One thing I’ve realized living in Vermont for 13 years is that visually there isn’t a lot of diversity, but culturally there is,” she said.
As co-owner of Zenbarn Farms, Tucker-Fishman described herself as an entrepreneur, an educator, and the mother of two children in the Waterbury school district. She said she is passionate about community engagement and is running to bring a voice of diversity to the school board.
In terms of the words, “inclusion” and “equity,” Sam Rosenburg of Moretown stressed the importance of action. “It’s very easy for these discussions to remain theoretical. But for these children, every day that goes by without action is a day where they are learning that other issues are a higher priority,” he said.
Rosenburg is challenging incumbent Kristen Rodgers in the upcoming election. He moved to Moretown in September and said he is running for the school board so he can help ensure that his preschool-aged son’s education in the district is the best it can be.
Rosenburg said the school board should act quickly to take action to make the district more welcoming such as flying the Black Lives Matter flag at schools and changing the name of the Thatcher Brook Primary School.
“I understand that both of these actions are controversial, but the board needs members who are willing to take the morally correct stand even if that stand is not something everyone agrees with or may make people a little uncomfortable,” Rosenberg said.
The board just last week voted unanimously to move ahead with renaming Thatcher Brook Primary School, a step urged by students and community members after information came to light about the school’s namesake being an 18th-century slaveholder.
A newcomer to office, Scott Culver is seeking one of the two three-year Waterbury seats on the board. He also addressed the importance of rooting out prejudice within the community. “Racism is not only a public battle, it also hides in the shadows. So let’s turn on the lights to these issues,” he said.
Culver noted that he is a lifelong Waterbury resident whose family consists completely of Harwood alumni. Retired from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, Culver works as a health and safety officer with Engelberth Construction now and also is on the March 2 ballot as a candidate for a three-year term on the Waterbury Selectboard.
In posing the next question, Minter shared a personal story about how he -- a Black man -- was called the N-word when he was a student at Harwood Union High School. The incident happened in the school cafeteria in front of many students. Afterward, the vice-principal informed Minter that the student who used the racial slur was suspended for four days.
“What are your thoughts about how that situation was handled and how would you have handled it differently?” Minter asked the candidates.
Caitlin Hollister of Waterbury said that this kind of discipline is problematic if it is the only discipline that occurs.
“It’s not necessarily if the suspension was right or wrong, but if that’s the only piece done and the person harmed has not been acknowledged, supported, and ultimately restored in some way, then we have a greater problem,” she said. “When harm is done, there also needs to be repair and there needs to be a skillful facilitator to do that.”
A parent of a first- and third-grader, Hollister has a background in elementary and special education and is an administrator of a teacher apprenticeship program at Champlain College. Hollister is the current school board chair whose three-year term is ending. She is running unopposed for the remaining one year for a Waterbury seat now held by Michael Frank who was appointed in 2020.
Also a parent of two primary school students, Frank works in information technology and is on the ballot seeking one of the two full three-year terms to represent Waterbury. He ran unsuccessfully last March but was appointed to fill the vacancy left when James Grace resigned. To Minter’s question, Frank answered by rejecting the decision to suspend the student.
“I don’t believe suspension was the answer there. No one learns from that. There needs to be a conversation so that person can understand why that’s not ok and how we can work to repair the damage done and learn from it so that everyone can move forward,” he said.
Tucker-Fishman agreed that this situation should have been a teaching moment.
“This is an opportunity to educate the student and the extended community around what that word is, the history of it, and how it makes people feel,” she said.
Incumbent Theresa Membrino of Fayston suggested that the school board implement district-wide protocols on how to respond in the event that a student is called the N-word.
“We do fire drills in schools and everyone knows how to react, everyone knows what the escalation path is; I would like to see our schools create similar rules, protocols, and procedures that are consistent so that when this situation happens we’ve got a really well-defined path documented,” she said. “That way teachers would know exactly what to do. Students would know what is acceptable and what is not and what the repercussions and consequences for those actions are.”
Membrino, who is running unopposed, has twins at Fayston Elementary School. With a background in finance and management, she said she oversees an $8 billion business unit at Adobe.
Minter’s last question for the candidates was, “What have you done as an individual to educate yourself about BIPOC experiences, racism, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice?”
Each candidate expressed a desire to listen and learn from the experiences of the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) community.
Hollister conveyed an effort to practice humility and listen to the BIPOC community without feeling the need to respond in defense.
“I’ve been reflecting on my reactions to things. How do I take in information, when do I feel uncomfortable, and what’s triggering that discomfort?” she said. “One of my big learnings has been trying not to just explain myself to BIPOC people and trying not to rely on them to do the teaching for me but to do the work myself.”
As a Black woman, Tucker-Fishman said she has shared her voice to broaden the community’s perspective while much of her focus is on her children, ages 8 and 13.
“I’ve allowed myself to be vulnerable and share my experiences with this community and with the students I have worked with,” she said. “I’ve also just been an advocate for my children in their daily activities and let them know who they are, not that they even initially looking at themselves as being a race, but from a culture of African-American-Jewish background.”
Culver pointed to relationships in his life through school, coaching basketball and little league baseball, and in the workplace.
Frank shared that although he grew up in Waterbury, he was raised in a bilingual home as his mother is from Puerto Rico. Having a Spanish-speaking parent was “different,” Frank said, and that experience impacts how he views racism in society today. “It’s been a struggle for me. I’ve learned how my experiences are different from others,” he said. “I am just constantly listening…. It’s a journey and to be honest, it’s been hard. So I’m continuing my education for myself.”
The full recording of the forum is on the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition website. Organizers say they hope to add to the website posting answers to follow-up questions that they ran out of time for during the forum, as well as answers from the candidates who were unable to participate live.
