Last week, Wayne Board of Education Trustee Catherine Kazan took advantage of the Trustee Comments portion of the BOE meeting to attack a colleague, voters and a parent who is running for the Board in the upcoming election.

BOE Trustee Catherine Kazan is seen here lecturing parents after a Board meeting last year.

Mrs. Kazan first set her sights on the board's Vice President Harry Prassakos with whom she disagreed on a proposed new mental health program. The program, offered by the state, would extend free mental health care to students and parents. Mr. Prassakos had questions about the initiative and ultimately abstained from approving the program until he could get more detailed information. 

At the opening of her Trustee Comment, Kazan stated: "I don't understand why any Board member sitting up here in the middle of a mental health crisis than we've ever had would abstain on free services for mental health."

Harry looked up, seemingly surprised at the gratuitous attack. Kazan continued. "But since Mr. Prassakos has chosen not to tell us why, we'll just have to wonder."

The mild-mannered Prassakos responded by saying: "The personal and surreptitious insults by Mrs. Kazan continue. I don't know why she chooses to continue to attack me, but I will avoid any ethical violations and won't really comment."

On the mental health proposal, Mr. Prassakos pointed out that as a board member, as a taxpayer, and as a father of four children in the school system, he has "every right to ask for more details of any new program or partnership." 

Trustee Kazan then turned her ire at Wayne Township voters and parents who have been critical of her tenure.

In 2021 and 2022 a total of five pro-parent candidates ran for the school board.  All won easily.  In 2021, the parent candidates drew the first, second and third positions on the ballot. In 2022, the parent candidates drew the second and third ballot positions while board veteran Mathew Giordano drew the first slot.

In a clearly political statement which seemed to ignore the controversy surrounding the school board, Kazan argued against more "new people" on the board. Singling out "the past two years," Kazan attacked Wayne voters.  "If things shake out as they have been with the usual, in my opinion, uninformed 1-2-3 button pushing, we're gonna end up with a collective tenure here of about one year."

Mrs. Kazan's statement on the collective tenure of next year's board was far off the mark. Kazan seemed to have overlooked last years reelection of veteran board member Matt Giordano who was sitting next to her at the time she made the statement.

Kazan's greatest vitriol was saved for 2023 pro-parent candidate, Mark Faber. Mr. Faber is a father of four daughters in the Wayne School System and works as a consultant to the worldwide financial services industry. He periodically speaks at the public portion of board meetings and expresses the concerns of parents.

At a 2021 meeting, Faber stood up for a parent who sought to quote from a book called Gender Queer, an autobiography available in Wayne high school libraries. Written by Maia Kobabe, an American cartoonist who identifies as non-binary and asexual, much of the writing in Gender Queer is sexually explicit and at least one illustration by the author explicitly depicts an oral sex act. The parent felt that the book was inappropriate and wanted to express her concerns. 

Kazan who was then president of the BOE prevented the parent from reading excerpts from Gender Queer. Faber objected to the shutdown.

In her Trustee Comment last week, and reading from prepared notes, Trustee Kazan portrayed Mr. Faber as "someone who tears down our district, spreads disinformation, marginalizes students who may or may not share an ideology, [and] make[s] threats to the board and thinks nothing of it."

Trustee Kazan gave no examples of any of the things of which she accused Mr. Faber.  Instead, she said to everyone present or watching on television: "I think you know where I'm going with this. I'm gonna ask you to do Wayne a favor and not vote for Mark Faber."

In a social media post following the meeting, Mark Faber stated: "Although the things said about me are completely false, as a citizen of Wayne, Mrs. Kazan has the right to speak her mind." However, Mr. Faber did question Kazan's "use of a BOE meeting, the BOE live feed and the BOE YouTube channel to convey her message" and that "her behavior appears to breach the ethics rules of the Trustee position."

Mrs. Kazan's term in office expires at the end of this year and she is not running for reelection. She is strongly supporting her close political friend Suzanne Pudup for a seat on the board. Ms. Pudup was the vice president of the board when Mrs. Kazan was president. Ms. Pudup was not reelected for another term last year.