Local Officials Blast Panel for Preventing Votes on Hot-Button Issues
A coalition of elected officials representing Lower Manhattan has written to Melissa Avilés-Ramos, Chancellor of the City’s Department of Education (DOE), urging her to intervene in what they call “the ongoing dysfunction” within the Community Education Council (CEC) for District 2.
The CEC is a panel of 12 elected members who are responsible for advising on educational policies and providing input to the DOE on matters of concern to District 2, which includes Lower Manhattan, as well as the East Side south of 97th Street (with the exception of the Lower East Side) and the West Side south of 59th Street. District 2 is the geographic home of one of the DOE’s eight specialized high schools, Stuyvesant High School, and also the residential catchment for a large number of students from local, high-performing middle schools who are admitted to the specialized high schools.
This panel has been the forum for – and focus of – controversy for more than a year, owing to hotly disputed resolutions related to subjects like the participation of transgender students in school sports, offering the admissions test for specialized high schools in languages other than English, disavowing links to alleged extremist groups, and even the position of CEC members on the Israel-Gaza War.
Recently, several members of the CEC for District 2 have taken to leaving meetings in advance of debates on contentious issues, thus depriving the panel of the quorum legally required to hold a vote.
The letter to Ms. Avilés-Ramos, which was signed by (among others) Congressman Dan Goldman, State Assembly member Deborah Glick, and City Council member Christopher Marte, states, “over the past several months, certain members of CECD2 have engaged in behavior that undermines the Council’s ability to conduct its business, violates the public trust, and disregards the basic principles of good governance and transparency.”
“Most troubling is the recurring manipulation of quorum to obstruct votes on key resolutions,” the letter continues. “A pattern has emerged in which members attend meetings just long enough to be marked as present and then leave before votes can be held – thereby stripping the Council of quorum and bringing its business to a halt. This tactic has been used repeatedly and appears to be coordinated to prevent the passage of resolutions some members oppose.”
The elected officials also charge that the CEC is violating the Open Meetings Law by adding new items to agendas without sufficient public notice, attempting to change its own bylaws, and retroactively altering the minutes of past meetings to create a record of CEC members having been present, in spite of departing before votes could be taken.
They conclude by asking Ms. Avilés-Ramos to “launch an immediate investigation into CEC-D2 governance practices, including quorum manipulation, retroactive attendance changes, and compliance with [the] Open Meetings Law.” They urge that the DOE clarify what constitutes ‘presence’ for quorum purposes, enforce bylaws regarding unexcused absences and vacated seats, and provide “a trained parliamentarian to ensure proper adherence to Robert’s Rules of Order.”
The current dispute surrounds an attempt to rescind the CEC’s Resolution 248, ratified last year, which urged the DOE to consider barring transgender female athletes from participating in sports programs for girls, particularly in the Public School Athletic League. The CEC’s enactment of this measure sparked widespread condemnation, and members of the panel who opposed it have repeatedly attempted to repeal Resolution 248. But no such vote has been possible, because CEC members who supported the original resolution have repeatedly departed from meetings before the roll could be called, thus negating the required quorum and keeping the measure in place.
One member of the CEC for District 2, Lower Manhattan resident and Stuyvesant High School parent Maud Maron, has emerged as a repeated target. When she publicly disparaged an anonymous essay published in Stuyvesant’s student newspaper that denounced Israel’s conduct in the Gaza War, then-DOE Chancellor David Banks announced that he was invoking his power under a set of DOE rules known as D-210 (which say that CEC members “shall not engage in any conduct that subjects any person or entity to discrimination or harassment”) to remove Ms. Maron from the Council. Ms. Maron (currently a candidate for Manhattan District Attorney) promptly sued in federal court, arguing (among other allegations) that she had been removed from office for engaging in constitutionally protected free speech. In September, District Court Judge Diane Gujarati found in Ms. Maron’s favor and ordered her reinstated.
In February 2024, the CEC voted against a resolution that aimed to “disavow affiliation with or support for Moms for Liberty.” Founded in Florida during the Covid pandemic to oppose masking, vaccine mandates, and school closures, Moms for Liberty has since been categorized as an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization is also described by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation as calling for “book bans, classroom censorship, and bans on teaching about slavery, race, racism and LGBTQ people and history.” This measure was defeated by a margin of five votes in support, versus six votes in opposition.