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In a surprising result that immediately sent political fractures through the City Council chamber, Brad Markey became the newest member of New Bedford’s School Committee on Wednesday.
Markey, the former city councilor who had touted his experience chairing the council’s finance committee, is a well-liked, moderate politician with roots in New Bedford’s North End. Yet as he recited his oath of office, jeers rained down from the balcony while legislators rose for a standing ovation.
The public’s repeated cries of “Shame!” and “Bulls—!” were not directed at Markey. People had come to support the two leading candidates, Henry Bousquet and Marcus Coward. Those were the only two nominees to receive any votes through the previous five rounds of deadlocked voting at the Jan. 7 meeting.
So it was a head-spinning change of events when Bousquet submitted a letter rescinding his candidacy, and Markey received nine votes to win the election. After a two-week recess, the convention had resurrected Markey seemingly out of nowhere.
The new at-large councilor, James Roy, confronted Mayor Jon Mitchell when the meeting adjourned, raising his voice to call the mayor a “liar” in plain view of the media, his colleagues, and the public.
So what happened?
Until noon on Wednesday, everyone — including all voting members of the assembled joint convention — assumed that either Bousquet or Coward would prevail.
At 11 a.m., Mitchell made news when he announced on live radio that he would switch his vote to support Coward. He explained to WBSM host Chris McCarthy that, though he always preferred Markey, he had seen social media posts from Bousquet that amplified an article saying that more money should follow students out of public districts if they chose to enroll in charter, vocational, or home schools.
Mitchell said: “[Bousquet] put up a post that suggested that the money in the district should follow the student out, and I, and anybody who has been paying attention to the New Bedford School Committee over the last decade, would recognize that the mayor and others, almost every School Committee member to a person, has fought tooth-and-nail to keep every last dollar in the district.”
Mitchell also said that he had taken the time to interview both Bousquet and Coward since the first meeting of the joint convention. In that interview, Mitchell said he found Bousquet’s answers on Voc-Tech admissions policies to be a dealbreaker.
“I thought the vocational admissions policy is downright discriminatory and has not been completely fixed,” Mitchell said. “And [Bousquet’s] answers to my questions about that, to my mind, were not satisfactory.”
But it turned out that this public change of position was also a gambit — one that paid off for the mayor.
Answering questions from reporters on Wednesday after the convention, Mitchell said he would have elected Coward if it were only between him and Bousquet. But Mitchell said he “hoped” that his support for Coward, who was seen as the favorite among progressives, might put pressure on some of the more conservative councilors to settle on a more moderate voice: Markey.
Mitchell said he talked to councilors Ryan Pereira and Shawn Oliver between his mid-day radio announcement and the evening’s convention. Those conversations resolved that if the bloc supporting Bousquet was gone, then Markey was the next best option.
In the final tally, the nine who supported Markey were: Ian Abreu, Naomi Carney, Leo Choquette, Christopher Cotter, Joe Lopes, Mitchell, Oliver, Scott Pemberton, and Pereira.
The seven who voted for Coward were: Derek Baptiste, Shane Burgo, Melissa Costa, Brian Gomes, Jack Livramento, Von Marie Moniz, Rick Porter, and Roy.
The results were just as much of a surprise for Markey himself. He said he hadn’t spoken to any of the City Council or School Committee members between the Jan. 7 meeting of the convention and Wednesday’s second meeting. At that initial meeting, Markey had won two votes from Mitchell and Carney in the first round but then lost all support as a coalition formed around Bousquet.
Markey said he had been at the debate hosted by the Mayor’s Youth Council just the night before. At that time, he didn’t see any path to win the seat.
“I had started the process, so I wanted to finish the process,” Markey said.
After being sworn in Wednesday, Markey is now serving as the seventh and final member of the School Committee. Mitchell, as chair of the School Committee, said that he will nominate Markey to become finance chair, and said Markey’s “financial acumen” would fill an urgent need left by the passing of committee member Bruce Oliveira, the longtime finance chair.
As for the previous favorites, both Bousquet and Coward were courteous and composed on Wednesday.
Bousquet said that any disgruntlement caused by his election after Mitchell’s support eroded would have been an unnecessary distraction: “The city doesn’t need that … Kids and educators don’t need that.”
Coward, though he was disappointed that his supporters might feel like their advocacy “meant nothing,” said: “I feel like I’ve made a positive impact, and that was my mission.” He added, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Brad Markey is a good guy and a great candidate … And I’ll be back to run in 2027,” Coward said.
The next meeting of the School Committee will be on Monday, Feb. 9.
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
No way, money follows the student. Bad enough the same job in the charter school gets way more pay than the NBPS, not fair. Let charter schools pay tuition. It is not open to all students. Too bad!
Really strange how boards work in New Bedford. Council gets a say in some and not others. But all are paid by the city. What about other schools? According to ChatGPT…. New Bedford’s other schools aren’t governed by the city’s elected School Committee. Charter schools are overseen by their own (typically volunteer) Boards of Trustees that select new members internally, while the regional vocational school is governed by a separate regional committee whose members are appointed, not elected, by the participating town leadership (New Bedford, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven).”
I’m glad to see that Coward’s affiliations to the far left are what brought him down. Standing on his own and not trying to ride the coat tails of extremists will serve him well in the future.
Mitchell proved himself to be more of a flip flopper than even John Kerry.
‘I supported him before I didn’t and then supported this far right guy who I knew was far right until he got called out as far right and then I supported this far leftist that thought I could control and then went back to the boring guy I was supporting to begin with.’
Good job Jon! You played yourself.
Mayor Mitchell has once again shown that he is a poor example to the residents about keeping his word. Like James Roy said he is nothing more than a “LIAR”.
Where is my comment??
Sure the Markey was the mayor’s first choice, but the council listened to the voters, and turned it around to give Brad Markey the seat.