This commentary is by state Rep. William Notte, D-Rutland, who served 11 years on the Rutland City Board of Aldermen, including two terms as board president. He is the manager of Phoenix Books in Rutland and lives in Rutland City with his wife and three children.
As documented in recent Rutland Herald articles, here is a timeline of events from the Dec. 14 Rutland City School Board meeting.
After Commissioner Cathy Solsaa pointed out that the mascot issue on the agenda was improperly noticed, board President Hurley Cavacas went into a de-facto executive session that included the board clerk and school superintendent, but excluded the rest of the school board. When Cavacas came out of this meeting, he lied to the board about who he had just received legal advice from and attempted to move the meeting along.
Commissioner Alison Notte (my wife) called a point of order in regard to the full board being excluded from Cavacas’ private meeting and board members’ right to hear this legal advice directly (a concern that has proven extremely valid, as the Herald has reported President Cavacas was dishonest about who he had spoken to). While Alison still had the floor, President Cavacas violated meeting rules by calling for a recess. He then started to yell at Alison, who at that point stood up and forcefully insisted that President Cavacas not speak to her until the meeting was back on the record.
Despite the fact my wife was not the commissioner who initially questioned the meeting agenda and despite the fact that her point of order was in no way responsible for the complete cancellation of the meeting, Alison has been vilified by certain individuals for this exchange. While she can and will defend herself, I want to share my perspective on this.
Our household is unusual in that while Alison is currently serving her eighth year as an elected official on the school board, and I am serving my 15th year as an elected official first as a city alderman and now as a state representative. In all my time in office — which includes serving as board of aldermen president during refugee resettlement discussions — I have never been attacked in the manner that Alison has.
It has been documented that our family needed to buy a home security system because of the threats she has received — threats so vulgar and misogynistic the press could never share them in full. It has been very clear that much of the pushback Alison received last year that has carried over to this year is because she won a leadership position that a man expected to have handed to him.
So when the board president cuts off a woman who has the floor and then calls a recess to berate her off the record and she rises to defend herself and insist that he speak to her only on the record, and someone’s takeaway is that both people in this exchange are equally guilty, that needs to be noted and questioned.
Some individuals have watched this exchange and concluded that President Cavacas did nothing wrong and that Alison should have been forced from the room. Personally, I have to wonder if this conclusion stems from their being uncomfortable with a woman being in the room in the first place.
It should also be noted that Rutland City’s school superintendent spent thousands of taxpayer dollars to conduct a legal review of Alison’s time chairing the board (which found she conducted meetings fairly and did nothing wrong), but has acted as a willing accomplice during the tenure of Mr. Cavacas, whose time as chair has been described by the Rutland Herald as an “abject failure” with “a long list of procedural snafus.”
It is hard not to wonder why our school superintendent has protected a male president through every step, every unprofessional action, every procedural mistake of his term, while allowing the woman who preceded him to face challenge after challenge and attack after attack without support.
This isn’t just about Alison. Rutland and indeed all Vermont needs to do better at addressing the double standard women in politics are held to. Criticisms are rarely this direct, but there are many men who are simply uncomfortable, if not outright angry, with women in power. As long as this is the reality on the ground, it is up to all of us who hope to move Rutland and move Vermont forward to call out and question such instances when we encounter them.
Last week’s school board meeting, some of the reactions it has generated, and indeed the reaction of some in this community for the entire year a woman held a position of power they expected to go to a man, are all unfortunately good examples of this.
