NORWALK, Conn. – Tonight’s (Tuesday, April 7) Norwalk Board of Education meeting will be held in the City Hall Community Room in anticipation of a larger-than-normal crowd.
A rally is planned for 7 p.m. at City Hall, before the 7:45 p.m. BoE meeting. “No more sleeping!” is part of the clarion call to prospective participants, according to a flyer distributed over the weekend.
Community activist Brenda Penn-Williams, who said she is not running for the Board of Education despite previous reports quoting her as saying she was considering it, said a group titled Concerned Norwalk Citizens is organizing the rally. The group of pastors will be diverse, she said, promising that the Rev. Lindsay Curtis would definitely be involved, and that the Rev. Ray Dancy and the Rev. Oscar Destruge are tentatively scheduled to take part in what she said will be a prayer for peace.
“In the last couple of weeks there’s been a lot of negativity in the paper,” Penn-Williams said. “I am asking it all stop… We need to come together as a city. All this craziness that is going on, we need to come together as a city. It’s about the children.”
Penn-Williams, who is first vice president of the Norwalk chapter of the NAACP, was the head of that group’s Legal Redress Committee that brought forward a complaint last summer from BoE members Shirley Mosby and Migdalia Rivas alleging disparate treatment for themselves and fellow member Rosa Murray by board leadership. Mosby and Murray are black, Rivas is Hispanic.
The complaint touched off a firestorm that continues to burn as the BoE tries to replace former superintendent Manny Rivera, who cited the controversy as part of his reason for taking a similar post in New London. Demands for proof of the allegations have gone unanswered.
Penn-Williams said recently that Mosby does have evidence to support her complaint. “My perception is she has a case, but you might have a different perception,” she said.
I just think this thing is getting out of hand, every day there is something negative in the paper I just think it needs to stop. It’s causing a big divide,” Penn-Williams said.
“I’m certain the division can be overcome as long as everyone agrees to come together and discuss their concerns,” Mayor Harry Rilling told NancyOnNorwalk in an email. “I’ve been attempting to get people to the table since last September or before, but unfortunately have not been successful. Unless that happens, I’m not confident there will be a resolution anytime soon.”
“This is not no political game, this is for our children,” Penn-Williams said of the rally. “We want to have a prayer for peace for the betterment for our children.”
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