by Robert Lynch; May 13, 2024
Expecting a food fight? It didn’t happen. Anticipating a packed York Lecture Hall full on onlookers to see what happened next? Nope, there were plenty of seats. Only about 20 visitors showed up for what took place Monday night, a number still smaller if you subtracted reporters and other School Board members in the stands.
After the disastrous fiasco of four nights earlier, when an online debate among the seven candidates running for the Ithaca Board of Education reached a sudden, abortive halt after a heckler interrupted Board member Eldred Harris’ opening statement and a looped pornographic video began to play, sponsors took no chances when organizers Monday convened the debate again.
This time, the Ithaca Teachers Association, the forum’s sponsor, held the session in-person at Ithaca High School. Moderators took no questions from the audience. And the ITA promised to play the debate’s video stream only at a later hour, not in real time.
So those expecting a repeat of the previous Thursday night’s drama didn’t find it. The hour-long, tightly-choreographed exchange among the seven competing candidates found itself subdued; perhaps even underwhelming. And if you were craving to see streaks of sunlight shining between those who seek the three positions open in the May 21st School Board election, you had to look real hard to find them.
“Something disruptive happened,” School Board Vice-President and candidate Moira Lang—stating the obvious—said at the forum’s outset, reading from a joint statement that we were told all the candidates had approved. “We are shocked and dismayed,” Lang described members’ reaction to Thursday’s Zoom-bombed disaster. She called what happened “particularly egregious.”
Candidates Monday night may have attempted to lay Thursday’s heckling and X-rated surprises behind them. But they couldn’t. Or, perhaps equally as likely this more recent night, the wrong questions got asked.
Board aspirants were never queried—nor did they truly differentiate themselves—on the Ithaca City School District’s proposed nearly $169 Million 2024-25 budget, the ICSD’s most controversial spending plan in years. Neither did candidates address head-on a companion $125 Million capital bonding initiative, the District’s largest ever. It, too, carries controversy.
What moderators did pose to candidates were questions decidedly on the softball side. Examples: Why are you running? What are your priorities? How will you enhance diversity? Why should voters choose you?
So given the mood of the moment, what resulted was that each candidate attempted to carve out a niche for himself or herself.
Todd Fox, who in past remarks has stated his firm opposition to the budget, talked of his skill as a construction manager. Former Newfield High School Principal Barry Derfel referenced his ability as an educator. Harris, the candidate field’s most vocal supporter of the budget, stressed his support for Ithaca School’s students.
“The only thing I have to offer is my experience in putting kids first and foremost,” Harris said.
But that wasn’t all Harris, the only African-American candidate in this year’s contest, had to say. Media reports indicate Thursday’s online heckling commenced only when Harris began to speak. Whether the online harassment was racially-tinged, or simply political in its motive, has yet to be sorted out. But Harris acknowledged Monday that what was done to him stung.
“I came very close to saying some very angry words,” Harris told this more recent candidates’ forum. Yet then, he added, “I will retreat to my values and make this about kids.”
Candidate Steve Cullen, a business manager at Cornell, said he’s running because of kids as well; first among them, his own. He has three in the Ithaca Schools.
“My daughter was subjected to physical assault at Enfield Elementary,” Cullen alleged when asked why he’s running. I want all students “to reach their highest potential,” he added.
Cullen did not comment further about the alleged Enfield Elementary incident. And later during the evening, he tossed a compliment Enfield’s way.
“As I walk through Enfield School, I see joy,” Cullen said. “And I will carry that torch forward” if elected to the Board.
“I bring folks together to have uncomfortable conversations,” former principal Barry Derfel stated. Derfel may be the only candidate of the seven with his own campaign website. He took pains to reference it not once, but twice.
About the closest anyone got to the hot topic of the budget came when Todd Fox wedged it amidst his touting his own construction management ability as potentially providing the Ithaca Board of Education a new skillset.
“When it’s not your money, it’s always easy to spend it,” Fox said.
Incumbents Moira Lang and Adam Krantweiss—but not Harris—proceed to the District’s election with the Ithaca Teachers Association endorsement. So does newcomer Emily Workman, the Northeast Elementary School PTA President and Vice-President of the PTA Council.
“No policy is going to be effective if it’s not going to be implemented well,” Workman said. And if culture warriors were in search of a target—which they may or may not be—this Workman remark might have raised eyebrows.
“We have banned books all over the bookshelves in the library,” Workman stated with presumed pride, when asked what she’d do to combat racism. “I think that’s very cool,” she opined.
“I am not very comfortable trying to sell myself,” Board Vice-President Lang admitted at one point. But then she made the attempt to do so. Lang talked of her past Ithaca teaching experienced, her “commitment to education,” and the “set of values” she brings amidst the “tremendous amount of work to get done.”
Lang acknowledged the vulnerability placed on her when her educational vision runs headlong into controversy. The solution? “Well, then, don’t run for public office,” friends counseled her.
That’s not possible, Lang said as she now seeks her fourth consecutive term. “I can’t quit to what I’m committed to,” she said.
But the hour-long candidates’ forum, refreshingly civil to the point of near-boredom, circled back to end where it began, namely with the admission that what happened the prior Thursday night in its blue-tinted Zoom room may not have been an isolated incident assigned to one brazen provocateur who spewed anger and disrespect.
“My fear is that we are coming apart as a community, and the crazy is coming back in,” Eldred Harris, prime target of Thursday’s disruptive moment, said as he closed his final turn at Monday’s mic.
“I agree with Eldred,” Emily Workman concurred. “I fear the community is coming apart at the seams.” Yet the PTA leader faulted not just those who might criticize the Ithaca School District from a distance, but also what might be emanating these days from those at the District’s Lake Street headquarters itself.
That seam-stretching, Workman remarked, includes “some of the present communication I have seen coming from the District.”
A few in York Lecture Hall might have wanted this newest, teachers’ union-endorsed candidate to say more of what she meant and to whom she referenced. But Workman saved those observations for another day. The Ithaca District has had quite a lot to digest lately.
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