But nobody cheered, either.
What about 200 people gathered in the Ansonia High School auditorium did do Thursday night was give Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s education reform proposals a critical look during a sometime-lively back-and-forth, town hall discussion.
Malloy was introduced by Mayor James Della Volpe about 20 minutes late — even the governor can’t order traffic on the Merritt Parkway to clear, he quipped — and took the podium as about half the crowd stood up and applauded.
Many of those who did, in the auditorium’s front rows, were politicians and school officials, including superintendents Carol Merlone, Stephen Tracy, and MaryAnne Mascolo, of Ansonia, Derby, and Seymour, respectively.
It was Malloy’s 10th such recent stop in his tour to discuss his plans for school reform. Click here to read a story from the New Haven Independent about Malloy receiving a raucous reception in New Haven last month.
Click here to read about his second stop in New Haven.
Of the 200 gathered Thursday in Ansonia, nine asked questions of Malloy. Some were more pointed than others.
Sarah LoGiudice, for example, a former science teacher at Ansonia High School, asked Malloy how his package of proposed education reforms would help prevent new teachers from burning out.
Malloy responded by emphasizing the fact that his plan would add 45 more pre-kindergarten seats to Ansonia’s school district alone, among other things, and said he hoped LoGiudice would return to teaching.
LoGiudice, now a Prospect resident pursuing a career in academic advising at the college level, pressed the governor on the issue, noting that a high school teacher in Ansonia may never see any of the 45 children getting such benefits.
During the ensuing back-and-forth, Malloy held up a proposal he said was put out by the Connecticut Education Association which he said planned on “ending tenure as we know it.”
“How is their proposal different than mine?” he said.
Jennifer Drury, a teacher at Career High School in New Haven with 14 years experience, interrupted from the audience to point out that the union’s proposal wouldn’t tie teacher evaluations to pay.
She also criticized remarks Malloy made in his state of the state address and asked for an apology for his statement that all teachers needed to do to receive tenure was “show up for four years” — Drury has regularly attended Malloy’s town halls with a sign saying “Governor, I showed up. Now what?”
Malloy responded to Drury by pointing out that he knows many great teachers, and apologized to anyone he offended. Story continues after the video.
During his remarks Thursday Malloy time and again pointed out that much of what he proposed had been endorsed in other proposals offered by the Connecticut Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
“We’re not that far apart,” he said. “I am calling for celebrating excellence in the classroom. I’m also calling for paying for excellence in the classroom.”
Malloy tried his best to deflect other criticisms of his reform proposals while discussing the plan with questioners.
Kathleen O’Brien, a Shelton High School senior who works for the school’s Gael Winds newspaper, criticized the governor’s plan for putting too much money into charter schools.
Malloy responded by saying charter schools aren’t funded more than other public schools.
Damien Kellogg, a statistics teacher from Shelton High School, noted that in a recent Quinnipiac Poll, most people in the state were happy with the quality of education.
“We’re not doing too bad of a job,” Kellogg said, saying Malloy’s promise of “soup to nuts” reform wasn’t necessary.
Malloy then pointed out that in 1993 the state had the highest high school graduation rate in the country, and that Connecticut now ranks seventh.
“You can’t find statistics … that say we’re moving in the right direction,” Malloy said, followed by a refrain he seemed practiced in: “We’ve got to make some changes.”
Malloy ended the night saying he would listen to people’s views at more town hall meetings and “try to move a package forward” through the legislature by May 9.
