OLD LYME — At the Dec. 7 Region 18 Regular Board of Education meeting, the usual election of officers was held, but this year, despite no election having been held in November and therefore no new members seated, it brought some changes.
After the confirmation of incumbent Steve Wilson (R) as chair, he asked for nominations for the position of Vice-Chair. Jennifer Miller (R) immediately nominated Lyme Republican member Dr. Mary Powell St. Louis while no nominations for incumbent Democrat Martha Shoemaker were offered. The subsequent vote saw Powell St. Louis, who had previously served as Treasurer, elected.
Powell St. Louis herself then nominated Republican Christopher Staab to fill the position of Treasurer that she was vacating and again the voting supported that nomination.
Finally, Staab rounded off the election by proposing that Republican Suzanne Thompson be nominated for the position of Secretary, which she has held for the prior year. That motion was similarly approved.
Thus Shoemaker, who also serves as a Selectwoman on the Town of Old Lyme’s Board of Selectmen and is one of the longest serving board of education members, found herself without a position as an Officer of the board.
The new slate of officers for the Region 18 Board of Education for the upcoming year is as follows:
Chair: Steve Wilson (R)
Vice-Chair: Mary Powell St. Louis (R)
Treasurer: Christopher Staab (R)
Secretary: Suzanne Thompson (R)
But sure – let’s keep talking about how our board of education is non-partisan.
I feel bad for kids and teachers in this district.
How political can this be? A right wave with our children’s’ education at stake. The board needs to mentor the subjugation of politics in favor of the best education possible as well as reflecting the community it represents.
Officers have absolutely no bearing on voting and everyone on the board is encouraged to voice their opinion on all matters discussed by the board. Personally, I encourage those who disagree with popular opinion to share their perspective because diversity of thought is essential to good governance.
As an elected official for the Town of Old Lyme as well as School District 18 can Martha Shoemaker make unbiased decisions or does her position as an elected town official give the appearance as being biased?
The BOE is correct to remove her from a leadership position thus removing any appearance of a conflict of interest.
Residents of the Town of Lyme should see this as a positive move.
When I joined in 2019, the 4 officers were all Dems. There has never been a partisan bend to the appointed officers as I can see- except for Chair perhaps- that role is generally held by the majority which makes sense. All it means for the other 3 is more work outside of BoE mtgs. Every member has one vote- so how is anything partisan? Any member could have nominated any other member- there were no restrictions on that. This is the most transparent BoE I have seen in 20 yrs. Let’s get the work done. Maybe you should interview some locals.
Just for reference, when I was on the board about 2011-2015 the BoE only had one republican and 8 democrats. We elected the republican because we believed he would be the best for our board. He was astounded. We had a great board those years.
The elected officer positions of Region 18 Board of Education are titular, at best. The BOE is required to elect officers every December. Any BOE member can seek to serve in one of the four officer positions: The chair conducts the meetings according to the published agenda; the vice chair conducts the meetings if the chair is not present. We have a treasurer but the District’s Business Manager Holly McCalla prepares the district’s financial reports; Jeanne DeLaura, Board Clerk, has done an excellent professional job of writing the BOE and committee meeting minutes for years, the secretary signs approved minutes. We are fortunate to have two electronic newspapers based in our communities, plus be covered by The Day. But election of Region 18 BOE officers is not significant news. We welcome public comment, in person or via Zoom, at our monthly meetings, see our agendas & minutes at http://www.region18.org, go to BOE page. Come watch our meetings in person or live on YouTube. We welcome your participation. Suzanne Thompson, BOE secretary