Clock is Ticking on East Haven Finding New Schools Superintendent

Originally written by Jack Kramer

EAST HAVEN, CT – The Board of Education knows the clock is ticking on its deadline to find a new schools’ boss to lead the town’s system. At the school board’s March personnel subcommittee meeting, the committee went into executive session for more than an hour, to receive an update on how the search for a new school chief was going.

There is less than five months before the start of the next school year. Dr. Portia Bonner only has a few months left on the final year of her three-year contact with the East Haven public schools.

Her tenure has been a rocky one. Last year the board voted 4-3 to not offer her a contract extension. (To sign up for East Haven breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

Bonner’s reign has been plagued with questions about school finances and, what some believe, is not high enough test scores from the school students.

Before the school board voted not to renew her contact, a petition with more than 600 signatures from parents was submitted – asking she not be reappointed.

The questions about the East Haven school system’s finances have persisted into this year. Recently, the Town Council asked that an audit of how the Board of Education pay its bills are done concerned that the school system consistently runs over it allotted budget amount.

At one point earlier this year, the Council even considered asking for “formal investigation by the State Attorney’s Office or Attorney General’s Office” of the school system’s books.

But the board eventually backed off that decision.

(Editor's Note: This story first ran previously but here it is again in case you missed it.)