NEW ROCHELLE, NY — If a School Board Member resigns in a forest does he make a sound?
Apparently not. Less with a bang and more with a whimper, Paul “Big Boy Pants” Warhit resigned from the New Rochelle Board of Education on December 22nd, the day before school offices shut down for Christmas Break. The resignation was made official when the school board acted to accept the resignation. Board President Rachel Relkin read Warhit’s brief email.
The school district wasted no time from removing Warhit’s name from its website.
Warhit, along with Amy Moselhi, was elected to a 5 year term on the board in May 2017, running from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2022.
There are no current plans to replace Warhit on the board until the May 2021 school election at which time the third place vote-getter would immediately be seated on the board to serve out the remaining 14 months of Warhit’s term.
Warhit is the second board member to resign before the end of their term in the past 3 years. Maddali Attalah resigned her board seat in January 2018. Her seat was left vacant until May 2018 when Christopher Danielo was the second place vote-getter in a year with one open board seat. He was immediately seated to serve out the remaining 26 months on Attalah’s term.
The board briefly considered appointing Daniello to serve out Warhit’s term but only two board members, Amy Moselhi and Rachel Relkin expressed support for the idea and the board agreed to operate with just 8 members until May.
Warhit famously showed little interest in running for school board, showing up late for debates, dressed in umpire uniforms (a side gig) and appearing to doze off during questions not directed at him.
Warhit was replaced as Board Vice President several weeks after insulting fellow board members who expressed doubts about a multi-million dollar deal to lease space from Bethesda Baptist Church to house the Alternative High School.
Warhit admonished his colleagues to ignore concerns of community members, telling them to “put on your big boy pants and vote (for the deal),
The deal died that night of June 23rd. The board voted him out as a board office on July 7th and he resigned December 22nd.
Paul Warhit is emblematic of the havoc that Mayor Noam Bramson has wreaked upon New Rochelle by wielding his hefty influence to get like-minded people (AKA “puppets”) appointed to various boards and committees within the city. Noam’s endorsement of these people center on his personal relationships with them, instead of their competencies. Everyone in this town pays the price for elected officials and board members who have misplaced loyalties and skill deficits. These Noam devotees and clones, such as Mr. Warhit, do a great disservice to New Rochelle with their dangerous and corrosive groupthink.
Noam gave this glowing endorsement of Mr. Warhit on 5/17/2017 for New Rochelle School Board (https://noambramson.org/2017/05/school-board-warhit-moselhi/):
“Full disclosure: Paul has been a personal friend for about twenty years, and I have always admired his strength of character and civic-mindedness. I’m not alone — among those who have worked with him in his various leadership capacities, Paul is just about universally respected. So it is with special enthusiasm that I endorse him today.
Paul’s contributions to our community have been wide-ranging and significant, including most recently service as the President of the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation. He is passionately committed to public education and will bring to the School Board a deep understanding of our community, along with valuable experience as a business owner and operator.
I look forward to Paul’s applying his considerable skills and energies to the students and families of New Rochelle.”
Let’s hope and pray that we get an individual of great character, skill, and dedication to fill the empty school board seat and the empty suit.