Norwalk Public Schools elections (2015)

← 2013
2015 Norwalk Public Schools Elections
Primary Election date:
September 16, 2015
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections What was at stake? Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Connecticut Norwalk Public Schools Fairfield County, Connecticut ballot measures Local ballot measures, Connecticut

The five district representative seats on the Norwalk Public Schools Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015. A Democratic primary election was held September 16, 2015, for Districts A and B. Three incumbents retained their seats, and two newcomers joined the board. The partisan divide of the board—six Democrats and three Republicans—was not affected by this election beyond the addition of a Democratic member who was cross-nominated by the Working Families Party.

Yvel Crevecoeur (D/WFP) won the District A seat after petitioning for and winning a Democratic primary and defeating Joe Perella (I) for the open seat in the general election. While Perella ran as an unaffiliated candidate, he was endorsed by the Republican Town Committee (RTC).

District A incumbent Rosa Murray (D) did not seek her party's nomination to run for another term. Instead, the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee (DTC) nominated Nicol Ayers to run for the seat. Due to a controversy over Ayers' nomination, she faced a primary challenge from Yvel Crevecoeur. Crevecoeur won a narrow primary victory with a margin of just 14 votes. The tight margin automatically necessitated a recount, which held the same totals. Crevecoeur received the endorsement of the Connecticut Working Families Party after petitioning to run as a Democratic candidate. This ensured that he would appear on the general election ballot regardless of the primary outcome.

Erik Anderson (D) won the District B seat after defeating incumbent Migdalia Rivas (D) in a primary. The two had tied for the Democratic nomination at the party convention. This left the party without an official nominee in the race. Both Rivas and Anderson successfully petitioned to hold a party primary to determine a Democratic candidate for District B. Anderson won the primary and successfully removed Rivas from the race. Anderson was set to face Republican nominee Harold Bonet in the general election, but Bonet withdrew from the race, leaving Anderson without any official opponents.

No primaries were necessary for the other three seats. District C incumbent Michael Lyons (R) won re-election after his party nominated him to run for re-election; he defeated Democratic nominee Lisa Nuzzo. District D incumbent Bryan Meek (R) won his first full term on the board. Meek was appointed to the board in March 2015 and received his party's nomination to run for the remainder of the seat's term. He defeated Democratic nominee Haroldo Williams on the general election ballot. In District E, Michael Barbis (D) won re-election without opposition. He was nominated to retain his seat by the Democratic Town Committee, and no Republican candidate was nominated to challenge him.

About the district

See also: Norwalk Public Schools, Connecticut

Norwalk Public Schools is located in Fairfield County, Conn.

Norwalk Public Schools is located in southwestern Connecticut in Fairfield County. The county was home to 945,438 residents in 2014, according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau. Norwalk Public Schools was the sixth-largest school district in Connecticut and served 11,071 students in the 2012–2013 school year.

Demographics

Fairfield County outperformed Connecticut as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2009 to 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 44.8 percent of county residents aged 25 and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.5 of state residents. The median household income for Fairfield County was $82,283, compared to $69,461 for Connecticut. The percentage of county residents below poverty level was 9.1 percent, while it was 10.2 percent for the state residents.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Fairfield County(%)	Connecticut (%)
White	80.2	81.6
Black or African American	12.0	11.3
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.5	0.5
Asian	5.3	4.3
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	1.9	2.1
Hispanic or Latino	18.2	14.7

Presidential Voting Pattern, Norwalk
Year	Democratic Vote (%)	Republican Vote (%)
2012	63	36
2008	65.5	33.8
2004	58.2	40
2000	59.9	35.8

Voter and candidate information

The Norwalk Board of Education is composed of nine partisan members who are elected to four-year terms in staggered, odd-numbered years. Four members are elected at large in one election cycle, and five are elected by district in the other. A Democratic primary election was held September 16, 2015, for Districts A and B. The general election for the districted seats was November 3, 2015.

There were several routes by which candidates could get on the ballot, which varied depending on the political affiliation of the candidate seeking office. The timeline below outlines the entire election process. A full written description of these events can be read in the collapsed section below the timeline.

Click [show] on the right for the written description of Connecticut's method of school board member selection.

Convention nomination The first way major party candidates could get onto the ballot was to receive the nomination of their political party during the endorsement period, which ran from July 21, 2015, to July 28, 2015. These endorsements were made by convention of the local party members, and the candidates had to receive at least 15 percent of the votes cast by convention delegates to be nominated. Parties could endorse as many candidates as there were seats up for election. Major party endorsements were certified on July 29, 2015. Minor parties that were qualified for the board races were also able to endorse candidates. The deadline for minor parties to endorse candidates was September 2, 2015. Primary petition If a candidate who wished to run for a major political party did not receive the party's endorsement, he or she was required to file a primary petition to oppose the endorsed candidate by August 12, 2015. In order for the petition to be deemed sufficient and a primary election to be held, the petitioner was required to submit valid signatures totaling 1 percent of the votes cast for the same office at the previous election for that office or 7,500, whichever is smaller. Multiple candidates of a political party could petition for a primary together. Only as many candidates could advance from it for each party as there were seats up for election in the general election. Independent petitioning Candidates who wished to run without a party affiliation had to file in a similar manner to candidates with a partisan affiliation. Such independent candidates, however, could not file in groups like partisan petitioners and had to file individually. They had to meet the same signature requirements as partisan petitioning candidates but without the possibility of a primary election. Write-in candidates The deadline for write-in candidates to file for the general election was October 20, 2015. Write-in candidates could not designate an affiliation with a political party, and no candidate who was nominated by a major or minor party or by petition could run as a write-in candidate.

District A

General election

General election results

Norwalk Public Schools, District A, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/WFP	Yvel Crevecoeur	54.4%	1,030
	Republican	Joe Perella	45.6%	862
Total Votes				1,892
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

General election candidates

Yvel Crevecoeur		Joe Perella
	Petitioned for a Democratic primary Endorsed by Connecticut Working Families Party Assistant professor of special education, The City College of New York Ph.D., University of Connecticut C.A.S. (2), Fairfield University M.S., University of Bridgeport B.A., Central Connecticut State University		Unaffiliated candidates endorsed by the Norwalk Republican Town Committee

Democratic primary

Democratic primary results

Norwalk Public Schools, District A, Democratic Primary, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Yvel Crevecoeur	52.6%	142
Nicol Ayers	47.4%	128
Total Votes		270
Source: Nancy on Norwalk, "GOP candidate withdraws, Anderson will join BoE; vote recount changes nothing," September 21, 2015 These election results are not official and will be updated when certified results are available. You can submit certified results by contacting us.

Candidates defeated in the Democratic primary

Nicol Ayers
	Nominated by the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee

District B

General election

General election results

Norwalk Public Schools, District B, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Erik Anderson	100.0%	915
Total Votes				915
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

General election candidates

Erik Anderson		Harold Bonet—Withdrawn
	Tied for party nomination; successfully petitioned for a primary		Withdrew from the race in September 2015

Democratic primary

Democratic primary results

Norwalk Public Schools, District B, Democratic Primary, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Erik Anderson	60.0%	189
Migdalia Rivas Incumbent	40.0%	126
Total Votes		315
Source: Nancy on Norwalk, "GOP candidate withdraws, Anderson will join BoE; vote recount changes nothing," September 21, 2015 These election results are not official and will be updated when certified results are available. You can submit certified results by contacting us.

Candidates defeated in the Democratic primary

Migdalia Rivas
	Incumbent Tied for Democratic nomination; successfully petitioned for a primary

District C

General election

General election results

Norwalk Public Schools, District C, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Michael Lyons Incumbent	51.2%	1,484
	Democratic	Lisa Nuzzo	48.8%	1,417
Total Votes				2,901
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

General election candidates

Lisa Nuzzo		Michael Lyons
	Nominated by the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee		Incumbent Nominated by the Norwalk Republican Town Committee

District D

General election

General election results

Norwalk Public Schools, District D, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Bryan Meek Incumbent	55.6%	1,743
	Democratic	Haroldo Williams	44.4%	1,391
Total Votes				3,134
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

General election candidates

Haroldo Williams		Bryan Meek
	Nominated by the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee 2013 candidate for at-large board seat		Incumbent Member from March 2015–November 2015 Nominated by the Norwalk Republican Town Committee

District E

General election

General election results

Norwalk Public Schools, District E, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Michael Barbis Incumbent	100.0%	2,149
Total Votes				2,149
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

General election candidates

Michael Barbis
	Incumbent Nominated by the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2013 See also: Norwalk Public Schools elections (2013) Election results Norwalk Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Heidi Keyes Incumbent 12.2% 6,985      Republican Artie Kassimis Incumbent 12.1% 6,917      Democratic Shirley Mosby 11.8% 6,734      Democratic Sherelle Harris 11.5% 6,574      Republican Sue Haynie Incumbent 11.4% 6,500      Democratic Haroldo Williams 10.9% 6,234      Republican John Bazzano 10.7% 6,130      Republican Lauren Rosato 10.7% 6,109      Norwalk Community Values Steve Colarossi Incumbent 3.6% 2,073      Norwalk Community Values Andres Roman 3.1% 1,795      Working Families Shirley Mosby 1.1% 610      Working Families Heidi Keyes 0.9% 532 Total Votes 57,193 Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Municipal Elections - November 5, 2013," accessed December 17, 2013

What was at stake?

2015

Issues in the election

District A Democratic nominations divided between district and town committee

Nancy Chapman, "District A Democrats -- Yvel Crevecoeur," July 22, 2015

Nancy Chapman, "District A Democrats -- Nicol Ayers," July 22, 2015

Nancy Chapman, "District A Democrats -- Watts Announces Voting Results," July 22, 2015

Nancy Chapman, "Democratic Convention -- Interview of David Watts," July 23, 2015

The Norwalk Democratic Town Committee's nomination process for District A candidates for the board of education and the common council drew complaints of partisanship and led one candidate hopeful to switch parties to contest the official nominee.

On July 22, 2015, the Norwalk District A Democrats gathered and chose Yvel Crevecoeur as their recommended candidate for board of education to the town's Democratic committee. Crevecoeur was considered alongside Nicol Ayers, who was endorsed by outgoing District A incumbent Rosa Murray (D). The District A meeting recommended Crevecoeur with 15 of the 21 votes cast. Two other candidates, Joe Perella and Sarah Lemieux, had expressed interest in the party's nomination but withdrew from consideration prior to the District A meeting. The district also recommended Eloisa Melendez and Steve Serasis to the town committee for the District A seat on the Norwalk Common Council.

The district, however, only had the power to recommend candidates to the town committee. The district's delegate to the town committee and common council representative, David Watts, refused to state at the recommendation meeting whether or not he would vote in line with the district's suggestions. Watts had previously stressed the purely recommendatory power of the district meeting. Crevecoeur temporarily withdrew from the race over the perception that the town committee had decided its nominations prior to hearing from the candidates. He later rejoined the race following encouragement from former Town Clerk Andy Garfunkel. Watts' statements, however, led recommended council candidate Serasis to state at the district meeting, “It just sounds like we wasted our time here for 2½ hours, the way you said that – slap in the face."

Ultimately, Watts and the town council did not follow any of the recommendations from the District A meeting. The town committee nominated Nicol Ayers for the school board seat in a 5-2 roll call vote. Similarly, the common council recommendations for Melendez and Serasis lost in a 5-2 roll call vote in favor of Jalin Sead and Rhonda Teel, who were nominated by Watts and Murray, respectively.

Prior to the voting for the final party nominations, Serasis had stated, "Eloisa and I were endorsed by a landslide last night. I hope this voting will be done in a democratic way tonight." Following the vote, he stated to Watts, "Remember it's a democracy here David, you have embarrassed the whole room tonight."

The recommended candidates sought to challenge the town committee's nominations in a Democratic primary. Meanwhile, Perella, who had withdrawn from the party's consideration, left the party to challenge the Democratic candidate. He succeeded in earning the Republican Town Committee's endorsement for the race. He commented on his switch, saying, “I knew early on that the voting majority of DTC members from District A would not be supporting the committee recommendation. I was not going to sit back and allow them to use the children of Norwalk as a pawn in their political game."

Republican Town Committee Chair Pete Torrano commented on the matter, saying, "He had been unaffiliated, he wasn’t aligned with either party, but he lived in District A and he thought he would have his best opportunity for getting on as a Democrat up there, if you look at the demographics. But after some careful consideration, we had conversation [sic], and he thought it would be an opportunity for him to run for the Board of Education and we’re pretty happy to have him."

Serasis stated at the beginning of August that he had formed a "super slate" with Melendez and Crevecoeur. The three forced Democratic primaries, which they won, in the District A common council and board of education races. Serasis stated the group would be submitting the necessary primary petitions on August 10, 2015. “Unofficially we’ve been individually contacted by a certain opponent, and we’ve all had the same statement...It’s too late to talk now, we’re a team, see you at the primary," stated Serasis.

Issues in the district

Dr. Steven Adamowski named superintendent

On June 16, 2015, the Norwalk Board of Education appointed Dr. Steven Adamowski to serve as the district's acting superintendent. Adamowski replaced interim Superintendent James Connelly, who had temporarily filled the role in the first half of 2015 following the departure of Manuel Rivera on January 31, 2015. Adamowski's approval, however, was a divisive matter for the board, which approved his appointment in a 5-4 vote.

Adamowski came to the district from Hartford Public Schools. He held the position of superintendent there with a waiver as he had not met the full requirements for the position at that time. While the waiver would have been accepted again in Norwalk, Adamowski chose to be appointed to the position of "acting" superintendent until he could complete the full requirements. His appointment was for a three-year term, running until June 30, 2018, unless his contract was renewed or terminated before that date.

Board member resigns over Facebook post

In March 2015, the Norwalk Republican Town Committee selected Bryan Meek to replace member Jack Chiaramonte, who resigned after controversy erupted around one of his Facebook posts. On March 15, 2015, Chiaramonte shared a post from another Facebook user that included a video described as "showing what appeared to be a white woman and child being pursued through a park by a group of black teenagers. A black female teenager jumped the woman, punched her, pulled her hair and kicked her, let her walk away, then jumped her again before taking down the child." It was reported that the pair in the video, filmed in Indianapolis, Ind., were actually a 14-year-old female and her 5-year-old brother.

Chiaramonte commented on the post, saying:

“	Where’s Sharpton? Where’s the race fueling media? Where’s our idiot President or that dimwit Eric Holder? Black racist pull this crap and no one says anything? Not anymore. The stank perp’s name and info is posted. I called the Indianapolis Police Dept. and as soon as I mention a video I saw on Face Book, they already said they are investigating it. I hope the media picks this up and shoves in Obama, Holder and Shatptons faces and ask these racist scum why they don’t have anything to say.	”
—Jack Chiaramonte, (March 15, 2015)

Nancy on Norwalk reported that responses to Chiaramonte's post included statements such as, "Put these animals back in the jungle," "another useless form of life" and "What an animal! Scum! Ignorant! Welfare scum I am sure!" The website also reported that Chiaramonte rejected commentators' suggestions of sending the video to President Barack Obama and Reverend Al Sharpton, saying, "It seems the White House’s job these days is to defend black racist thugs only!" and “Don’t hold your breath waiting from that racist scum baiting piece of turd, lying sack of sh– animal turd pr— waste of life a-hole sh–head sorry excuse thief bastard! Did I cover everything?"

The Norwalk branch of the NAACP, the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee and Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling criticized Chiaramonte. Brenda Penn Williams, vice president of the Norwalk NAACP, called for him to resign at the next board meeting, saying:

“	As an elected official, I don't think he should engage in these types of racist rhetoric on social media. It's one thing to think it, but it's another thing to say it. He should be removed from the BOE, because obviously his view doesn't represent the makeup of this city. Shame on Jack Chiaramonte for living in the "Jack Crow era," oops, I mean the "Jim Crow era."	”
—Vice President of the Norwalk NAACP Brenda Penn Williams, (March 17, 2015)

Chiaramonte defended his post to The Hour, saying:

“	When I talk to people privately, that was my issue. Somebody took that information and tried to manipulate it. Now I'm not perfect. Nobody is. But the meat of what I said was dead-on. I wouldn't have said it that way in public but some people can't help themselves. They feel they have to blackmail other people to get some information in a negative way. The intent of what I said is 100 percent dead-on and I'll challenge anybody on that.	”
—Jack Chiaramonte, (March 17, 2015)

Chiaramonte resigned from the board on March 23, 2015, citing a new job that would require him to travel frequently. Norwalk Republican Town Committee Chair Peter Torrano commented on the decision:

“	Jack and I had conversations along with (BOE Chairman) Mike Lyons and a number of high-ranking Republicans. It was discussed at length. Obviously, because of the disruption this has caused on the Board of Education, it was generally agreed upon that it would probably be best if Jack resigned. But frankly, it was his decision.	”
—Norwalk Republican Town Committee Chair Peter Torrano, (March 24, 2015)

John Romano, the District D chair for the RTC, characterized Chiaramont's decision as having little to do with the Facebook posts:

“	We talked about him resigning months ago. Jack was hanging tough because he had a couple of things he wanted to accomplish. With his new position, it would've inhibited him. This is something that was inevitable but it's going to be perceived for the wrong reasons now. He would've stepped down on his own volition without any pressures whatsoever in a couple of weeks and it had nothing to do with the pushback and the statements he made. It’s unfortunate that this is going to perceived as Jack caving in. Jack is not the kind of guy that caves in to anyone or anything.	”
—Norwalk Republican Town Committee District D Chair John Romano, (March 24, 2015)

The public discourse about Chiaramonte's Facebook posts was not his first controversy while serving on the board. In 2011, he was criticized and apologized for using the word "shekel" to describe disputes with the teacher's union. In the summer of 2014, he was criticized for his response to board member Shirley Mosby's (D) allegations of racial discrimination on the board of education. Mosby, along with fellow members Rosa Murray and Migdalia Rivas (D), filed a complaint against Michael Lyons (R), claiming "continual intimidation, harassment, disrespect, exclusion, discrimination, lack of transparency and disparate treatment" from the board chair. While Lyons demanded proof of the allegations before he would sit down with his accusers, Chiaramonte described Mosby's complaint, saying, "This is the story of the girl who cried black."

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the 2015 Connecticut school board elections:

Deadline	Event
July 21-28, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsement period
July 29, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsements certified
August 12, 2015	Primary petitions for opposition candidates of a major party due
September 2, 2015	Last day that a minor party may endorse a candidate
September 16, 2015	Primary election day
October 20, 2015	Write-in candidate filing deadline
November 3, 2015	General Election Day
November 4, 2015	General election results certified
November 24, 2015	Runoff election, if a tie occurs

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Connecticut elections, 2015

Other municipal offices shared the primary and general election ballots with the school board election.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Norwalk Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Norwalk Public Schools elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Norwalk Public Schools	Connecticut	School Boards
Norwalk Public Schools elections (2013) List of school districts in Connecticut	Connecticut school board elections, 2015 Public education in Connecticut Local ballot measures, Connecticut	School board elections, 2015 School board elections, 2014 School board election data analysis, 2015 School board election data analysis, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Norwalk Public Schools
• City of Norwalk
• Connecticut Secretary of State
• Norwalk Democratic Town Committee
• Norwalk Republican Town Committee
• General election sample ballot