By Jack Krampitz
The public comment section of Tuesday’s City Council meeting had several Bristol residents representing both political parties stand to express their disappointment with the decision by the mayor and the Republican Town Committee to endorse Jennifer Van Gorder for the Board of Education in the upcoming election.
Current Board of Education Chair Jennifer Dube (R) and commissioner Shelby Pons (D) raised concerns regarding the process and the decision itself in their remarks.
Pons alluded to the fact that three candidates were seeking the RTC endorsement, and that an interview and grading system was used to vet and rank the three. The highest score (23 out of 25 points) for the interviews was given to Rob Parenti, who has experience in teaching, curriculum development, and administration.
The lowest score, 15.5 was given to Van Gorder.
Pons expressed her confusion as to how someone who scored so much lower on the rubric could be chosen over someone with such an excellent resume.
“Many concerned community members including teachers, administrators, parents and students have reached out to me to share their concerns,” she said, “and to ask questions about your decision.”
“I am very concerned about how the decision you made to deviate from the established process will impact the functioning of the Board responsible for the education system in Bristol.”
Dube said that Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano had served on the Board of Education and therefore knew that “collaboration, shared vision, as well as empathy and a desire to serve are all tantamount to a cohesive and functioning Board.”
Dube went on to say, “As board chair, I have received an overwhelming number of calls, texts and emails that have shared a variety of sentiments including confusion, shock, and (not my word), disgust, with the endorsed candidate.”
“These are people who aren’t considered political by any means,” said Dube. “They are concerned teachers, parent educators, union members and parents. All are constituents and most are Bristol voters.”
The people who expressed concerns cited the following about Van Gorder:
- Aggressive behavior and her need to have control.
- Bullying of parents, children, and teachers in the school community
- Van Gorder was removed from the school’s Facebook page for inappropriate posts.
- Inappropriate behavior at PTA meetings
Dube concluded by saying, “I could not be more opposed to this decision that was made on July 18th to endorse this candidate who was not the first choice to fill the vacancy.
“Anyone who has demonstrated the capacity to bully children and young adults is not fit to serve on the Board that is entrusted with educating and supporting our youth.”
Left: Shelby Pons. Right: Logan Williams. | Laura Bailey photos
Left: Jennifer Van Gorder on Election Day, 2022. Right: Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano at Tuesday’s City Council Meeting. | Laura Bailey photos
The final speaker, Logan Williams, expressed his disapproval of Van Gorder, but also his total denunciation of the local Republican Party in its present form.
Williams had been a longtime member of the Republican Party, serving as first vice-chair of the Republican Town Committee, the executive board of the statewide College Republicans and as president of the UConn chapter of the College Republicans among many other Republican groups.
Williams stated to the Council, “On the 24th of July in the late evening, I submitted my resignation to the Bristol Republican Town Committe. The next morning, I went down at the Registrars of Voters office to change my registration.”
Williams continued, “I have been dissatisfied with the direction of the Republican Party for some time.”
He went on to describe the party’s evolution into lunacy as well its tendency to take advantage of those who are already vulnerable. He also stated that its growing ‘populism’ has caused it to embrace, rather than admonish, bigotry.
Williams contended, “That is the case with this appointment to the Board of Education.”
He likened the Bristol Republican Party to the National GOP.
“Its membership is now infested with those members of the right who just a few years ago would have been considered the outermost fringes of the American society. Those members of the alt right have no tolerance for complexity and are terrified of diversity.
“Thus, they use language laced with homophobic and racist tropes to reassert some sense of the control over society that they feel has been taken from them. Out of that ignorance and fear has come our present situation.”
Williams gave specific examples.
“We have Republican elected officials who share articles and content from sources such as Breitbart News and Infowars, both of which are associated with conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial and Sandy Hook denial. We even have a Board of Education member who actually pushed for a public event showing the 2020 film perpetuating the nasty lie that the election was stolen from President Donald Trump in 2020.”
Finally, Williams warned that the extremism seen in other places has come home to town politics.
“To nominate yet another candidate of dubious qualifications and low moral standing is a crime against the people of Bristol.”
Editor’s note: TBE attempted to get a comment from Jen Van Gorder regarding this article, but have not gotten a reply. If we do get a reply from her, it will posted in a future article.
Correction and clarification: Logan Williams emailed to clarify in the last quote it was not “lone wolf standing” but “low moral standing.” In the same email, he asked for a clarification of the following: his is not a complete renunciation of the Republican Party as stated in the original, he writes, but a complete renunciation of the Republican Party in its present form.
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