Editor’s note: This article is by Jordan Cuddemi, of the Valley News, in which it was first published April 10, 2015.
Hartford — The Hartford School Board voted this week to replace its chairman with another veteran board member.
Lori Dickerson defeated state Rep. Kevin Christie on a 3-2 vote with little discussion at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday night.
In an interview on Thursday, Dickerson said she has wanted to take charge of the board for a few years.
“The opportunity just never presented itself,” said Dickerson, a Hartford High School graduate who works as a financial manager at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.
But that changed Wednesday night, when school board member Paul Keane nominated Dickerson to be chairwoman of the five-member board.
Dickerson, who joined the panel in 2011, secured the most votes, with school board members Paula Nulty and Keane voting in her favor, as she did herself.
School board member Peter Merrill nominated and voted for Christie. The incumbent chairman also voted for himself.
Christie, a Democratic state representative and member of the House Education Committee, has served on the school board since 2007 and has held the title of chairman for five years.
Messages left for Christie on Thursday weren’t returned.
Keane, who retired after nearly 25 years as an English teacher at Hartford High, said he voted for Dickerson for two reasons.
“She tells it like it is,” he said, adding that he wanted another woman leader in the schools.
He also noted that almost all of the leaders and department chairs in the district’s six schools are male.
“What are we living in, 1950? Didn’t the last 40 years happen?” Keane said. “It is as if we are living in a time warp.”
Keane had sparred with Christie earlier this year over the 2015-16 $36.1 million school budget, which would have resulted in a 3.9 percent increase in school taxes. He had said it was too large for people living on a fixed income and questioned why Christie had set the 3.9 percent goal in meetings with Superintendent Tom DeBalsi.
The school budget was defeated on March 3 at the polls, 790-726, then approved at the subsequent March 28 floor meeting.
