Outgoing school board Prez Rivera (pictured) wanted another term; Mayor Elicker wanted "new energy and a new perspective." Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera was interested in serving another four-year term on the school board — but the mayor decided otherwise, so now she’s getting ready to leave.Rivera, a state Department of Housing project manager and the program director of a childcare program based at Edgewood School, has spent the past five years serving on the Board of Education. She’s been the school board’s elected president for the past four.During the most recent Board of Education meeting on Dec. 9, Rivera informed her colleagues and the public that she would not be returning to the school board after her current four-year term expires at the end of December. (She added that she’d stick around until her mayoral-appointed successor is sworn in.)What Rivera didn’t say on Dec. 9 — and what she told the Independent in an interview this week — was that it was not her decision to leave the board.She wanted to stay, and was interested in serving another four-year term, as taxing as the volunteer Board of Education work can be. But Mayor Justin Elicker chose not to reappoint her — picking as her replacement Beaver Hills resident, Yale fundraiser, and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) parent Daniel Juárez. Juárez’s appointment now heads to the Board of Alders for review and a potential final vote.Rivera told the Independent that she informed the mayor earlier this month that she had interest in remaining on the school board. She said she was not given an explanation for why she was not reappointed.She noted that her work at the state housing department and with a childcare program over years has always helped her stay close to the families she serves, and keeps her grounded in her goal of supporting vulnerable New Haven public school parents and students.Reached for comment for this article, Mayor Elicker said, ​“Yesenia has been a strong board member and leader over the past five years. We are grateful for her service to our New Haven Public School children. As her term comes to an end, I felt it was an opportunity to bring some new energy and a new perspective to the board. I’m excited to welcome Daniel, who, as an NHPS parent and community member, will be a great addition to the board.”If confirmed by alders, Juárez would become be one of four mayoral appointees on the Board of Education, alongside Abie Benitez, Matt Wilcox, and OrLando Yarborough. The other voting members on the school board are the mayor himself, and publicly elected members Ed Joyner and Andrea Downer. (There are also two elected, but non-voting, student representatives.)Rivera described her coming departure from the Board of Education as bittersweet. During her interview with the Independent, she reflected not just on being bypassed for reappointment, but also on defining moments of her tenure, including selecting two superintendents, navigating the Covid pandemic, and trying to restore a sense of calm and collaboration to previously fractious school board meetings.Calming The StormDuring a Tuesday interview, Rivera recalled joining the board — an all-volunteer appointment — in early 2019 when she was first tapped by then-Mayor Toni Harp to fill the last year of former board member Frank Redente’s term. She was elected by her peers on the board to be its president in January 2020. She was then reappointed by Mayor Elicker in December 2020 to her own full four-year term. After Rivera’s departure, Wilcox will be the last remaining Harp appointed Board member. When she first joined the board, she remembered, she was struck by how chaotic school board meetings were. How members were always lobbing personal attacks at one another and staffers publicly testifying. She saw some school staff leaving the district due to the school board’s disarray. She recalled Elicker campaigning for mayor in 2019 in part on a message of alleviating the chaos on the Board of Ed. She agreed, and decided to try and make a change to that school board culture when she agreed to become president.Her approach appears to have worked, as board meetings are no longer wracked by such in-fighting. She prides herself in maintaining a consistent, calm demeanor so other board members do not feel the need to issue personal attacks at each other or the public.“We don’t do that now,” she said with pride. ​“And I hope while I’m gone, it continues that way. The chaos brought about a lot of distractions and did not help with moving things along that needed to be the focus.” Reached for comment Friday Board Vice President Matt Wilcox told the Independent, ​“In the time that Yesenia and I have worked on the board, the board has had to deal with many changes in key leadership positions (such as 3 superintendents) and the challenges that come from things like per-pupil funding lower than the state average and a global pandemic. I appreciate Yesenia’s leadership through all this. In her work on the board, much of which is behind the scenes, she is a calming presence and always has a focus on helping the district be better. I will greatly miss working with her.”At the board’s Dec. 9 meeting, school board secretary Edward Joyner praised Rivera’s years of leading with a steady hand and as well as her selfless service and devotion. He said she would sometimes do 15 to 20 hours a week of volunteer work for the school board. He noted that she would even run meetings remotely while sick and postpone vacations and family matters in order to address district needs. ​“I think there’s something to be said about patriotism regarding one’s ability and willingness to serve in places,” Joyner said, ​“where the joy comes from doing the right thing. It’s not a financial award; it’s a spiritual award.”On The Losing Side Of A Covid VoteRiversa’s five years on the board, and four years as president, were defined in many ways by the Covid pandemic. She was elected school board president in January 2020. The pandemic upended life in New Haven, including and especially its schools, in March. On Tuesday, she described that time as stressful, reflecting that she had been on the school board for only a year, and had been its president for just a few months. The late nights and long discussions about how best to move forward with school during Covid were particularly challenging at that time, she remembered, as the board remained ​“polarized.”She thought back to the moment in August 2020, still seared in her memory, when the school board voted 4 to 3 to keep classes entirely remote instead of adopting a hybrid model that would allow for some in-person student learning. New Haven was the only school district in Connecticut to not start the 2020 – 21 school year with at least some in-person classes.Rivera was one of the three school board members who voted to return partly in-person. So was the mayor. A majority of their colleagues, concerned about the safety of in-person learning, ultimately disagreed. These four-plus years later, Rivera said she stands by her decision to try to bring students back in-person to class earlier rather than later. She said she couldn’t help but think, then and now, ​“those kids needed to be in schools.” She said she voted to return in person in a hybrid learning format because she wanted to avoid further learning loss, kickstarted by all-remote schools for the final few months of the 2019 – 2020 school year. She was also worried about parents missing work and losing their jobs due to not having child care, families struggling to keep students focused on academics at home, and students missing out on getting daily meals during the school day.History has been on Rivera’s side: The negative impacts of all-remote school during Covid will likely be with New Haven, and students across the country, for many years to come.Rivera said she spoke at the time with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, a former Meriden superintendent and state education commissioner. She remembered him constantly asking when New Haven would return back to schools. ​“It was a scary time. No one knew what was going to happen,” she said.2 Supes Who Met The MomentRivera also expressed pride in the school board’s selection of two superintendents over the course of her tenure.The first, she remembered, was the board’s decision to make Interim Supt. Iline Tracey’s appointment permanent during the pandemic.Rivera said that Tracy, a decades-long NHPS veteran who had worked at just about every level in the city’s school district, was the right pick for New Haven at a time of turbulence. ​“She was the stability we needed in that moment,” she said. She described Tracey as firm and fair — two qualities that the superintendent needed to have amid the uncertainty of Covid.Rivera also spoke about the school board’s more recent hiring of Madeline Negrón as New Haven’s new, and current, superintendent as a highlight of her journey on the board. She described the district’s need for an internal shift — hiring someone with experience in New Haven, but who was currently working in another district. Rivera remembered the hiring process as involving many late nights and lots of personnel committee meetings.Rivera added that when she joined the Board of Education back in 2019, Latinos made up roughly 47 percent of the district’s student population. She reminded the board during the 2023 hiring process that ended with Negrón that the district should have a superintendent who would consider growing student populations in their decision-making processes.From finalizing language for the job posting to not having ​“seasoned superintendents” as the three finalists, Rivera remembered the hiring process as critical, as challenging, and as one she’s ultimately proud of.She concluded her interview with the Independent by thanking her school board colleagues for the seemingly endless work, all volunteer, they put in to help students and teachers and parents and staff — and, ultimately, to support her as president as well.“There’s no way I could’ve done what we did without the commitment and help of the other board members, especially the executive team and committee chairs,” she said.Her parting advice to anyone who serves on the Board of Education, her successor included: ​“Come into it with your whole heart” and a desire to learn.