Last night’s Bridgeport Board of Education’s regular meeting was canceled due to the anticipated snow storm; but had it taken place, it would have surely been interesting – especially considering the content of a recent email that’s been circulating around Bridgeport.
Former BOE member and current Parent Advisory Council Community Representative Maria Pereira emailed parents attempting to drum up support against an investigation into recent District PAC actions.
The email accuses the potential investigation of being “purely political.”
A rather ironic charge when you consider that Pereira applauds the PAC for their involvement in defeating Mayor “Finch’s education initiatives” in one of the five mentions of the mayor.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty political to me.
It gets even more “political” when you realize Pereira left out why parents have been seeking out this investigation in the first place.
As reported earlier, a bylaw rewrite has been used to kick certain parents who were caught “affiliating” with other “education advocacy groups out of leadership positions.
One such parent, Multicultural Magnet School’s PAC Vice President Cecile Lobo, came forward at last board meeting saying she was harassed and bullied by District PAC leadership.
I guess none of those details matter to Pereira, who instead of mentioning any of this in her email, admonishes “Mayor Finch’s BBOE” for using resources on investigating the PAC.
Somehow, In Pereira’s deluded mind, it’s unethical for the BOE to look into allegations of harassment, but it’s perfectly fine for a federally-funded parent advocacy group to use its resources—monetary or otherwise— to campaign against a mayoral candidate.
In case you’re curious, here’s a copy of the full email and attached flier:
From: Maria Pereira <************@yahoo.com>
Date: January 22, 2015 at 2:11:20 PM EST
Subject: Fw: Flier for BBOE Meeting
Reply-To: Maria Pereira <*************@yahoo.com>
I am asking each and every one of you to attend this meeting on Monday, January 26, 2015 at Harding High School. In an unprecedented attack on the Parent Advisory Council, which has existed for 45 years without interference from the BOE, Mayor Finch’s BBOE and Mayor Finch’s Superintendent, Fran Rabinowitz are utilizing the precious limited financial resources of the Bridgeport Public Schools to have their $300 an hour attorney “investigate” the PAC and determine if they can interfere with the governance of the parent organization.
All of these individuals represent the very parents they are now attacking for purely political reasons. Mayor Finch has been repeatedly defeated on his education initiatives and the PAC has contributed to those defeats. He will be battling for re-election this summer and we are confident this is an orchestrated attempt to dismantle and silence the PAC during his re-election bid.
This is absolutely outrageous and needless to say the same organization is behind this. None other than Ex$ell Bridgeport which was involved in the illegal takeover of our public schools, spent $100,000 in a failed attempt to take parents right to vote for their BBOE members and worked, orchestrated a failed coup of the PAC in 2013 and failed to elect three pro-charter school candidates to our BOE in 2013. Excel Bridgeport is 100% Mayor Finch’s organization.
Please review the attached flier.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Maria
PAC Flier Call to Action 0115-2 by MeganDeSombre
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