Norwich ― Top issues among the 12 school board candidates are leadership issues, school climate and the need to improve communication and trust between teachers and parents and the school board.

The election comes as the board is in the throes of an investigation into the conduct of suspended Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow and Assistant Superintendent Tamara Gloster. Investigating attorney Kyle McClain is expected to report to the board by Nov. 1.

The election features six Democrats and six Republicans seeking the nine school board seats, with no more than six elected from one political party. Incumbent Democrats Carline Charmelus, Mark Kulos, Greg Perry and Kevin Saythany and Republicans Jim Paulsen, Christine DiStasio and Heather Fowler are seeking re-election. Newcomer candidates, Republicans Yamir Flores, Christina Milton and Brendon Mansaku and Democrats John Iovino and Ella Myles hope to win seats.

In interviews with The Day and during an hour-long debate Wednesday, all candidates stressed the need for more transparent communication with parents and school staff as lessons learned from the current crisis.

Democrat Perry, 43, a 20-year veteran teacher and now a union representative with the Connecticut Education Association, parent union to the Norwich Teachers League, is seeking his second term. Perry said the board did not have detailed information on staff complaints about Stringfellow, and Gloster, but should have consulted with staff leadership before initially approving a positive verbal evaluation for Stringfellow in May.

“That’s one of the reasons we need to make sure we have open lines of communication with all the stakeholders,” Perry said. “That could have helped us be more informed and take action. We need to take responsibility for what we didn’t know and could have done.”

Perry and other incumbent board candidates said they could not comment on the pending investigation, launched after teachers’ union leaders and parents voiced complaints about threats of retaliation, unfair treatment and failure to follow state education protocols.

Republican Fowler, 40, a waitress at Wahlburgers restaurant at Foxwoods Resort Casino, is completing her first term. Fowler was among the first to state publicly that the board needed to delay Stringfellow’s evaluation to consider anonymous staff complaints.

Fowler said the board must hold leadership accountable and ensure education plans for special education students are in place. The board needs to restore trust of Norwich educators to retain good staff.

“Day one, we must be ready for the long nights, the long phone calls, Fowler said of the new board term. “It’s going to take a lot of work.”

Republican DiStasio, 64, a retired Norwich Hospital employee, is finishing her second school board term. DiStasio also is vice chairwoman of the School Building Committee overseeing the $385 million construction of four new elementary schools.

She proposed forming a school board exit interview panel to address the sharp increase in staff departures. The board was working on logistics to set up the panel when complaints about Stringfellow became public.

DiStasio said the complaints came too late for the May evaluation: “But we hadn’t finished the written portion of the evaluation,” she said.

Saythany, 31, a life skills coach at ARC Eastern Connecticut, is finishing his fourth term on the board. Saythany said the board handled the superintendent controversy correctly, delaying the written evaluation and placing her on paid leave once serious allegations surfaced.

He said the critical next step will be when the board receives the investigator’s report.

Kulos, 64, a semi-retired attorney and local landlord, is completing his third term. As vice chairman, he headed the search for an outside investigator in August. Kulos agreed with Saythany that the board acted appropriately, given information available at the time.

Paulsen, who will turn 69 on Nov. 2, is a 20-year Navy veteran and retired technical writer at Electric Boat who joined the school board in July to fill a vacancy. Paulsen said once the board decides on the superintendent investigation, it must develop a better relationship with students, parents, staff and the public.

“We have had so many teachers who have left, and we need to really find out why,” Paulsen said. “Because when teachers want to come to work, then students will want to come to school to learn.”

Charmelus, 34, is the collective impact and equity director for the statewide organization, Partnership for Strong Communities. She is finishing her second school board term. She put school climate as a top priority and is very concerned about student absenteeism. Norwich is among school districts nationwide with chronic double-digit absenteeism.

“In order to educate our kids, they need to show up for school,” Charmelus said. “We’re going to need all of us, the community members, the parents, and our teachers working together to address absenteeism.”

Republican candidate Flores, 36, a pest control technician, traced the deteriorated school communication problem on the continuing restricted parental access to schools imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Before, we could walk around and see the classrooms and activities for us to be able to see how our tax dollars are being used properly and that these programs are actually working,” he said.

He said in addressing school climate, the board must push for full transparency in communications with teachers and parents.

Milton, who will turn 54 on Oct. 30, has been a teacher for 22 years, specializing in young children with autism. Milton said the school board must emerge from the superintendent investigation by rebuilding support among teachers and trust by the public.

Milton said “the final straw’ that made her run for election this fall was when New London and Groton school districts were asked to serve summer meals in Norwich. Norwich had drastically cut the summer program offerings in a controversial transition from in-house food services to a contracted service.

Democrat Iovino, who will turn 70 before the election, retired this year after 45 years as an educator at NFA. Iovino called for improved communication “across the spectrum between staff, faculty, administration, students, families, parents. That’s definitely one thing we need to work on,” he said.

Iovino said he has not been privy to the board’s Stringfellow investigation but said the next Board of Education will deal with the results of the investigation. Once the leadership issues are resolved, Iovino said the board’s top issues will again be budget and the need to stress to the City Council the need to fund education properly.

Myles, 53, a senior grants and contracts specialist at the University of Connecticut and a former one-term alderwoman, said she could bring years of leadership and grant experience to the new board as it handles the Stringfellow investigation, the aftermath and chronic budget issues.

“I’m looking forward to serving in a new capacity in the city,” Myles said. “I enjoy leadership roles. I should be graduating with my doctorate this fall, so I think I bring a new set of leadership skills to the board of education.”

Mansaku, 22, said he moved to Norwich two years ago after graduating with a finance degree at Eastern Connecticut State University. He said his main focus will be on parents’ rights and transparency in the school district.

“The way to safeguard our children’s outlook in education and their futures is by defending our teachers, supporting our students and most importantly respecting our parents,” Mansaku said during Wednesday’s debate. “I believe in full transparency, and I will settle for nothing but the truth. Our parents deserve to know exactly what’s happening in their children’s schools.”

Gender identity debated

A robust debate ensued at a candidate forum this past Wednesday, with questions posed by a student in the Norwich Free Academy Young Voters Society, over issues of parental involvement in education curriculum issues and the school district’s policies on gender identity.

DiStasio said when the policy, titled, “Regarding Protections and Support for Transgender and Gender-Minority Students,” accompanied by administrative regulations that allow students to choose their own pronouns, was adopted in April, Republicans voted against it, and Democrats voted in favor. Republican board member Aaron Daniels – not endorsed by the party for re-election – had joined Democrats in voting in favor.

“We have to protect our children,” DiStasio said. “They’re not ready for that conversation.”

Fowler said gender identity issues should be left to the parents and children and should not be “forced and pushed” into addressing the issue. She suggested teaching children to be kind to everyone.

“I feel some of it is just too young,” Fowler said, saving gender identity issues for middle school and high school. “… If you teach love, not hate, we’ll have no problems.”

Democratic candidates supported the policy, citing the district’s obligation to treat all students with equity.

“Learning doesn’t have an age to it,” Myles said. “It doesn’t have an age limit. This is the world that our children, our adults, our friends, our families, this is the world we live in. Allowing our students to have a positive interaction and positive knowledge of the world around them benefits them as children and as future adults.”

Perry said it bothers him that children are being used as pawns in a culture war.

“Every student needs to be treasured, and no one should ever be made to feel like less than what they are because of who they are or how they feel,” Perry said.

c.bessette@theday.com