The Greenwich Republican Town Committee nominated Cody Kittle, in July, as one of their candidates for the Greenwich Board of Education. Given the extensive conflicts between parents and the board, the choice of candidate is very important. However, other than brief mentions and PR fluff, nothing of substance has been written about Cody Kittle, the Mystery Man.
The comments here are based on listening to him, watching his body language, and his facial expressions, as well as researching his background. To meet Cody is to encounter a tall, handsome and very young man who is quite pleasant and engaging. However, as he talks, his youth and inexperience becomes obvious to the listener. When asked what he would do on the board, at first, he seemed thrown by the question but later came back by suggesting he would make a good persuader. That sounds good. However, he is not the only persuader on the board. He would learn the hard way that opponents with more experience at infighting will push back on him with much greater skill than he can handle. He will cave like other Republican board members.
Instead, it is suggested here that the Greenwich Republican Town Committee is taking yet another young prospect and rushing him into a position for which he is not ready, only to find that he doesn’t perform and fails to get results. Enough with candidates who “fail up.” It seems like the RTC keeps having to relearn this same mistake over and over again. Dan, are you listening?
His background is only somewhat relevant for being on the board of education. He graduated with Northwestern University with a degree in mathematics in 2010 or 2011. He was also an enterprising person who, with some friends, was a publisher of college guides. He did some time as a education mentor in Chicago. and even mentoring on education in Chicago. But that was all 10 years ago. Things have changed. And that is where the mystery man runs into a problem.
By the comments he has made, he is clearly not ready to step into the middle of a fight which is only going to become more protracted and more contentious. Without having clearly thought through what he truly believes about public education, he will fail to stand his ground and he will appear indecisive. The opposition will pounce on that like raw meat at a deli.
There is a claim that he served on several boards. However, what did he do? You could serve on a board and still be a back bencher. Moreover, serving on a board with so little life experience does not make sense and it in fact gives the appearance that strings were pulled for him, rather than getting there on his merits. Instead, he needs to learn the art of politics in an environment where he won’t have a negative impact on public education in Greenwich. The RTC and the RTM are supposed to be political farm teams where talent is developed over years. It's a political machine for the "Boys Club" in Hartford.
Even though the debates have been in the public for several months now, he has clearly not thought through what he will say and do with respect to mask mandates, vaccine mandates and highly questionable curricula that include porn (the board pretends it is not porn), critical race theory, transformative social-emotional learning, and diversity-equity-inclusion “programs.” So, how shall we score Cody Kittle as a candidate?
Does Cody Kittle Pass The Smell Test ?
For people who regard these as serious matters, Mr. Kittle is most emphatically NOT your man. He fails the test as a candidate. Besides his over-rated sense of his persuasive skills, and his lack of experience, there is the sense of the man himself. The sum total of Cody Kittle is that someday he will prove his worth in the town government, but not today and not with the Greenwich Board of Education. He needs time to go back, study, do his homework and develop a comprehensive grasp of the Greenwich public school system. Right now, he has no grasp, and he has no clue.