Board of Education to Hold Special Meetings on Superintendent Search

The New Britain Board of Education is to hold two meetings today, Thursday, January 20, 2022, on a search for a new superintendent of schools.

The search is beginning after the recent announcement that current Superintendent Nancy Sarra will retire at the end of the school year after decades serving the city’s school district.

There are actually two Board of Education meetings planned for the evening.

In the first, starting at 5:30pm, the New Britain Board members are to hear a presentation by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education on superintendent searches.

Then, at 6:30pm, the Board is to have a voting meeting, with the one item on the agenda being appointment of an “Executive Search Committee.”

The reference to “Executive Search Committee” appears that it may activate an exception in the state’s Freedom of Information Law. That exception allows, “Any meeting of a personnel search committee for executive level employment candidates,” to be exempt from the definition of a public meeting, and therefore exempt from certain public access rules.

State law requires public meetings to have such things as publicly posted meeting notices, agendas and minutes and requires that the meetings be open to the public to attend, view or listen, including online. If an executive search committee takes advantage of that exception from Freedom of Information requirements, the law would allow the public to be denied access to meetings at which decisions are being made in the selection of the new superintendent.

Thursday’s Board of Education meetings are to be held at the Board of Education building, but, the school district says,“Due to current public health concerns and safety guidelines related to COVID-19, these meetings will not be open to the general public. Members of the public may view a live broadcast of the proceedings online via the livestream link: https://www.csdnb.org/board/.”