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Connecticut students told to use pizza toppings as metaphors for sex.

Students at a Connecticut middle school were reportedly instructed to use “pizza as a metaphor for sex” and asked to cite their favorite toppings — including cheese for “kissing” and olives for “giving oral.”

The eighth-graders at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Enfield received the “Pizza and Consent” assignment, which compared ordering a pizza to receiving consent, Fox News reported .

“We can use pizza as a metaphor for sex,” the assignment said, according to Parents Defending Education .

“When you order pizza with your friends, everyone checks in about each other’s preferences, right? Some people might be vegan, some might be gluten-free. Others might love pineapple, while others prefer pepperoni,” it said.

“Some might not like pizza at all. If you’re a vegetarian, your friend is a meat lover, sharing a pizza is going to bring up a lot of issues. You don’t know who you can share a pizza with unless you ask!” it continued.

“The same goes with sex! You have to check in with your partner(s) and ask for their preferences. Your partner(s) might be comfortable with one sexual activity, but not another,” the instructions stated.

“So start a conversation! It’s the only way sex (and pizza) can be comfortable and enjoyable for everyone,” it insisted.

The bizarre assignment then continued on another page, under the headline “Personal Pizza.”

“Now that you know this metaphor for sex, let’s explore your preferences! Draw and color your favorite type of pizza. What’s your favorite style of pizza? Your favorite toppings? What are your pizza no-nos?” it read.

“Now mirror these preferences in relation to sex! Here are some examples: Likes: Cheese = Kissing Dislikes: Olives = Giving Oral,” the students were told.

“Obviously, you might not be able to list all of your wants, desires, and boundaries, but hopefully you’ll start feeling more comfortable about discussing them,” the instructions continued.

“For those of ya’ll who don’t like pizza or sex at all, feel free to draw out another food favorite or include non-sexual activities,” it added.

Schools Superintendent Christopher Drezek said during a school board meeting Tuesday that the assignment had been sent “inadvertently” to the students, Fox News reported.

“The simple truth was it was a mistake. And I know that there are some who may not believe that. I know there are some who don’t necessarily maybe want that answer,” he told parents.

“In this particular case, I didn’t even get a chance to because the person who made the mistake jumped ahead of it before I was even notified that it had happened,” Drezek said. He said that while the assignment was “inappropriate,” there was no “hidden agenda.” “There was no secret cabal to indoctrinate kids on something. They sent the wrong document,” Drezek added. “So that’s what happened. And none of us are happy that it happened.”

Teacher Brie Quartin, the district’s health and physical education coordinator, took the blame for the imbroglio.

“The incorrect version, as opposed to the revised version of this assignment, was mistakenly posted on our Grade 8 curriculum page, and was inadvertently used for instruction to Grade 8 Health classes,” Quartin wrote in an email to parents, according to Parents Defending Education.

“I caught the error after our curriculum revision in June but failed to post the intended version. I own that, and apologize for the error,” she wrote.

Quartin explained that the correct version of the assignment was for “students to work in small groups to craft a pizza with toppings (no behaviors associated with said toppings) that would make everyone happy/comfortable using non-verbal communication only.”

“Students are then asked to reflect and discuss how thoughts or feelings can be confusing or miscontrued [sic], if we rely on non-verbal cues/communication alone. The parallel to be taught here is that when discussing pizza topping it is important that your preferences are clearly communicated to avoid any misunderstanding,” she added.

Parent Tracey Jarvis told NBC Connecticut : “This assignment is prompting kids to become sexually active before their time.”

Another parent, Marcie Talizeo, told the outlet that “this particular assignment was obviously not appropriate but it was not intended to cause harm to any child.”

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School district apologizes for assignment asking students to list preferred sexual activities.

The leadership of a Connecticut school district has issued an apology after parents expressed outrage over an assignment that asked students about their likes and dislikes when it comes to sexual activity.

Christopher Drezek, the superintendent of Enfield Public Schools in Enfield, Connecticut, apologized to parents at a school board meeting Tuesday night after eighth-grade students were asked to complete an activity called “Pizza & Consent.” The first page of the assignment, obtained by the advocacy group Parents Defending Education, explains the concept of consent, noting that “We can use pizza as a metaphor for sex!”

According to the document, “When you order pizza with your friends, everyone checks in about each other’s preferences, right? Some people might be vegan, some might be gluten-free. Others might love pineapple, while others prefer pepperoni. Some might not like pizza at all. If you’re a vegetarian, but your friend is a meat-lover, sharing a pizza is going to bring up a lot of issues. You don’t know who you can share a pizza with unless you ask!”

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“The same goes with sex!” the worksheet adds. “You have to check in with your partner(s) and ask for their preferences. Your partner(s) might be comfortable with one sexual activity, but not another. Maybe your partner(s) only want to be touched a certain way, or maybe your partner(s) prefer to use certain language. Or maybe they don’t like or want sex at all. You’ll never know if your wants, desires, and boundaries are compatible with theirs unless you ask.”

The first page of the worksheet concludes by calling on students to “start a conversation,” contending that “It’s the only way sex (and pizza) can be comfortable and enjoyable for everyone.” The second page of the worksheet caused particular concern for instructing students to “explore” their sexual preferences.

“Draw and color your favorite type of pizza. What’s your favorite style of pizza? Your favorite toppings? What are your pizza no-nos? Now mirror these preferences in relation to sex!”

In an example provided, a preference for cheese was used as a metaphor for kissing, while a dislike of olives was used as a metaphor for an aversion to oral sex. The worksheet included a blank circle where students were asked to color a pizza based on their favorite types of pizza and their preferred sexual activities. Twenty-two lines were drawn on the worksheet where students were to list their “likes” and “dislikes.” 

At the Feb. 8 school board meeting, Drezek described the “Pizza & Consent” assignment as a “mistake” and “inappropriate.” He added: “I know there are some who may not believe that, I know there are some who don’t necessarily maybe want that answer.”

“Normally, I would take responsibility and I still do when … one of our staff members [makes] an inadvertent mistake,” Drezek asserted. “In this particular case, I didn’t even get a chance to because the person who made the mistake jumped ahead of it before I was even notified that it had happened.”

After reiterating that “this was simply an error” and defending the staff member responsible for the mistake, Drezek assured parents that “there was no hidden agenda, there was no secret cabal to indoctrinate kids on something.”  

Drezek’s remarks come after parents addressed their concerns about the assignment at a Jan. 27 school board meeting.

“Since when … has it become acceptable for a teacher to ask a student what their sexual wants, desires and boundaries are?” asked one parent, identified as Amanda. She took issue with the district’s previous explanation that “the incorrect version of this assignment was posted in the curriculum by mistake and inadvertently used for instruction in the classroom.”

“Why didn’t the teachers that taught this assignment catch it and question it? Do they just teach the curriculum blindly, not questioning the morality of assignments required for the unit? Why didn’t our curriculum committee catch this? What is their role, if not to oversee the curriculum and make sure that these types of mistakes don’t end up as homework for our children?”

The apology Amanda paraphrased was written by Brie Quartin, Enfield Public Schools’ Health and Physical Education Coordinator, in an email to parents obtained by Parents Defending Education. “I caught the error after curriculum revision in June, but failed to post the intended version. I own that, and apologize for the error,” she wrote.

The outrage over the distribution of the “Pizza & Consent” assignment comes at a time when parents across the U.S. are confronting their local school boards to express displeasure about the inclusion of sexually explicit material in school curriculums and in school libraries. The books Gender Queer and Lawn Boy, available in high school libraries in Fairfax County, Virginia, and other school districts, have caused particular concern for parents.

As Fairfax County parent Stacy Langton explained at a school board meeting last year, “Both books describe different sex acts.” Additionally, she lamented, “both of these books include pedophilia, [and] sex between men and boys.”

“One book describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male. The other book has detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy,” Langton said. She elaborated on the contents of the graphic illustrations, which include “fellatio, sex toys, masturbation and violent nudity.”

While the books were removed from Fairfax County Public Schools’ high school libraries for a brief period of time, they were reinstated after an investigation. At around the same time that Langton was raising concerns about Gender Queer and Lawn Boy, the Mayor of Hudson, Ohio, appeared at a school board meeting in his city and called on the members of the school board to resign for allowing the use of a book with sexually explicit writing prompts in a college-level English class offered at the district’s high school.

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]

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Eighth graders are given assignment to use pizza toppings as metaphors for SEX ACTS - including 'olives = giving oral'

• Eighth graders at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Enfield, Connecticut received a 'Pizza and Consent' assignment 
• It asked the students to list their favorite pizza toppings and use those as a metaphor for their favorite sexual acts
• The assignment was quickly deleted from the Enfield School District website
• But frustrated parents lashed out at the Board of Education for the 'inappropriate' material
• School officials are now saying the assignment was sent out in error 

By MELISSA KOENIG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: 02:11 EST, 10 February 2022 | Updated: 10:59 EST, 10 February 2022

View comments

A Connecticut school under fire for sending eighth-graders an assignment asking them to compare their favorite and least favorite pizza toppings to their sexual preferences is now calling it a 'mistake.'

The students at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Enfield recently received the 'Pizza and Consent' assignment, which asked students to compare their favorite pizza toppings to their favorite sex acts.

'We can use pizza as a metaphor for sex,' the assignment says, explaining: 'When you order pizza with your friends, everyone checks in about each other's preferences, right?... The same goes with sex.' 

It then provides the children with a section to list their favorite pizza toppings and their favorite sex acts, saying: 'Here are some examples: Likes: Cheese = kissing, dislikes: Olives = Giving oral.'

Once the metaphor was complete, the eighth-graders were also asked to 'draw and color your favorite type of pizza. What's your favorite style of pizza? Your favorite toppings? What are your pizza no-nos? Now mirror these preferences in relation to sex.'

And 'for those of y'all who don't like pizza or sex at all, feel free to draw out another food favorite, or include non-sexual activities.'

The assignment was quickly deleted from the Enfield School District's website, according to FOX News , and now district officials are saying it was sent out 'by mistake.' 

Students were sent this assignment asking them to compare their favorite sex acts to their favorite pizza toppings

After the assignment was released in January, some parents took to social media to express their disgust with it.

One woman, only identified as 'Amanda,' posted a video to YouTube saying that if the Board of Education meeting on January 27 was held in-person, she would have asked: 'Since when has it become acceptable for a teacher to ask a student what their sexual wants, desires and boundaries are?'

Others spoke out at another board meeting on Tuesday, with Jonathan Grande saying: 'The assignment was crude, it lacked good taste,' and Tracy Jarvis saying it 'is prompting kids to become sexually active before their time.

'Youth don't even know how to navigate platonic relationships, so why introduce sexual relationships?'

'We should not be encouraging youth to explore each other's bodies with multiple partners in an open environment for any reason,' she continued. 'If somebody is doing that or asking them to do that they should tell a responsible adult, who then reports it.

'I understand we need to teach kids boundaries,'  Jarvis said. 'But you are giving them way more information than they are psychologically ready to handle at this ag.

'By doing this, you open up doors for them to have partners that are older than them, increasing statutory situations,' she claimed.

'This has gone too far,' she said, adding parents 'will fight for the purity and protection of our children.'

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The incident happened at the John F. Kennedy Middle School in Enfield, Connecticut

Parents, like 'Amanda,' took to social media to express their disgust with the assignment

But school officials have said the assignment was sent out to middle school students in error, and even parents acknowledge that after it was published, the district's Health and Physical Education Coordinator emailed parents and apologized.

'The incorrect version, as opposed to the revised version of this assignment was mistakenly posted on our Grade 8 curriculum page, and was inadvertently used for instruction to Grade 8 Health classes,' Brie Quartin wrote, according to Parents Defending Education. 

'I caught the error after our curriculum revision in June, but failed to post the intended version. I own that, and apologize for the error.'

Superintendent Christopher Drezek reiterated on Tuesday that the assignment was sent to eighth-graders by 'mistake'

She went on to explain that the 'correct version' of the assignment would have students work in small groups 'to craft a pizza with toppings that would make everyone happy/comfortable using nonverbal communication only.'  

The students would then be asked to 'reflect and discuss how thoughts or feelings can be confusing or misconstrued if we rely on nonverbal cues/communication alone.'

And at the school board meeting on Tuesday, Superintendent Christopher Drezek again told parents it was 'inadvertently' sent out to the eighth-grad students.

'The truth was it was a simple mistake,' he said, according to FOX News. 'And I know that there are some who may not believe that. I know there are some who don't necessarily maybe want that answer.

'In this particular case, I didn't even get a chance,' he said, 'because the person who made the mistake jumped ahead of it before I was even notified that it had happened.'

Drezek then agreed with parents that the content was 'inappropriate,' but claimed there was no 'hidden agenda.

'There was no secret cabal to indoctrinate kids on something,' he said. 'They sent the wrong document. And I'm not going to perpetuate this story any longer on their behalf.

'So that's what happened, and none of us are happy that it happened,' Drezek told parents, noting: 'No one feels worse that it happened than the person that did it.' 

Share or comment on this article: School calls assignment comparing pizza toppings 'to sex' acts, a 'mistake' 

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Emails concerning enfield 'pizza sex assignment' made public via foia, a freedom of information act request by an organization called five stones venture inc. made emails about the controversy public record..

Tim Jensen , Patch Staff

ENFIELD, CT — Public communication at Monday's Enfield Town Council meeting was dominated by the reading of several emails to and/or from some elected officials regarding the recent "pizza sex lesson" controversy at John F. Kennedy Middle School, as well as some containing derogatory remarks about Superintendent of Schools Chris Drezek.

The emails — directed to or from Board of Education members Janet Cushman, Jean Acree and John Unghire and councilor Mike Ludwick — became public information with the filing of a Freedom of Information Act request on Feb. 23 by an organization called Five Stones Venture Inc. The request sought all emails involving Drezek and/or the nine school board members, dated from Oct. 1, 2021, to Feb. 23, 2022, and containing keywords such as "social and emotional learning," "SEL," "diversity, equity, and inclusion," "sexual education," "pizza and consent," "Al Vernacchio," "ESSER," "privilege," "white privilege," "white fragility," "transformative," "liberation" and "pizza assignment."

Controversy erupted in early February when eighth grade Family Health and Human Sexuality students at the middle school received an assignment called "Pizza and Consent." Brie Quartin, health and physical education coordinator for Enfield Public Schools, said the assignment was "mistakenly posted" on the school's grade eight curriculum page.

Despite assurances from Drezek that the distribution of the assignment "was a mistake" that was immediately reported to officials by the teacher involved, many concerned residents have flooded school officials with emails personally attacking — and, in some cases, bordering on threatening — Drezek and others. Patch has obtained many of the emails, including some that were brought to the attention of the Enfield Police Department.

An email Drezek received Feb. 10 from Steven Cotter included, "Your smile is deviant, like you've been pedophiled in the past, which would make sense why you're attracted to schools and making excuses. Pedophiles need to be prosecuted and executed globally. You have no spine, and no [testicles], and you're an enemy of God and children. You should have better discernment. You are a weak [slur for homosexual men]."

Cotter did not respond to an email from Patch seeking further comment.

Another email dated the same day from Cliff Nonnenmacher read, "Teachers officially have a lower respect rating than politicians and used car salespeople! What the hell happened to your profession? Teachers dominate the news with their indoctrination and stupidity. Please fire the Pizza teacher!"

A Feb. 11 email from Jacqueline Wozniak to Ludwick read, "Your superintendent has stated on the news that this assignment was a 'terrible mistake.' This perverted man is a terrible mistake to your school district! I certainly hope he is fired. It would be a blessing to your district." Ludwick forwarded that note to Cushman and Unghire.

Tracey Jarvis, pastor of New Day Church on King Street, sent a note to the congregation which stated in part, "I want to personally invite you to war against hyper sexualizing our children."

Jarvis serves on several town committees, including co-chair of the Enfield Together Coalition. Resident Gina Sullivan, who read Jarvis' note at the meeting, asked the council to remove her from any town board.

Board of Education chair Tina LeBlanc would not comment when reached by Patch.

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Enfield Parents Sound Off on School Masks, ‘Pizza' Lesson Controversy

By matt austin • published february 9, 2022 • updated on february 9, 2022 at 8:03 am.

Masks were a hot topic at an Enfield Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, which also was heavily focused on a controversy in town involving pizza.

During the meeting, a woman delivered pizza, was later confronted by audience members and then was escorted out by police.

Free 24/7 Connecticut news stream: Watch NBC CT wherever you are

Some people in town have been fired up after ordering a pizza was used as a metaphor in a sex ed school assignment.

The superintendent says the assignment was sent out accidentally to 8 th grade students and the staff member responsible has apologized.

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Some parents blasted it, though others pointed out it brought up an important topic.

“This assignment is prompting kids to become sexually active before their time,” said Tracey Jarvis, of Enfield.

“This particular assignment was obviously not appropriate but it was not intended to cause harm to any child,” said Marcie Taliceo of Enfield.

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As for the issue of masks, the superintendent says they are still trying to figure out exactly how the governor’s proposal will work and when communities could decide for themselves about requiring masks in schools.

Though he says it’s clear current state rules won’t allow it to be done just yet.

Everyone who spoke during the public hearing was in favor of lifting the mandate.

“To all the teachers watching or listening, I know you want to see your students' faces again. I know you miss their smiles. This is the time to let the masks go,” said Matt Schmitt, of Enfield.

The board is now waiting to hear from Hartford about what the plan is and if masks could be done away with later this month.

We heard the board chair is ready to potentially call a special meeting about the issue.

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Weather forecast calls for heavy rains, possible snow in parts of ct, opinion editorials, amanda marquez: waiting for answers in the enfield ‘pizza and consent’ debacle.

On Jan. 13, an 8th grade health teacher handed out an assignment to students labeled “Pizza and Consent.” The assignment starts by stating pizza can be used as a metaphor for sex. It goes on to encourage the children to draw or color their “favorite pizza toppings” in relation to sex acts. The examples provided aren’t even appropriate to publish in this article, yet they were appropriate for middle school students? These children were asked to write about sexual wants and desires and turn the answers in to the teacher.

Let’s be very clear: a teacher asked minors to write their sexual preferences on paper and hand it in. Since when is it OK for any adult to ask this of a child? If a teacher pulled a student aside and asked them these questions, they would be fired, but when a teacher asks the class collectively, then it’s OK? The legal age of consent in Connecticut is 16, these children were 13. Is asking them to answer these questions even legal? Is it legal as long as it is under the guise of a “state-mandated curriculum?”

The Enfield Board of Education seems to be satisfied with such an explanation. One board member stated that this assignment stemmed from the state’s curriculum. So that begs the question, who at the state level thinks that asking underage children their sexual preferences is educational, let alone appropriate? What kind of people control what our kids learn every day?

Parents demanded answers from the board of education: Where did this assignment come from? How did it get into the curriculum in the first place? Is this mandated by the state? Who paid for it? And most importantly, what other questionable assignments are in our curriculum? Not only has the board failed to answer any of these questions, but our governor, Ned Lamont, has also failed to make any comment about this assignment, despite it making international news.

By ignoring the issue, Gov. Lamont is implying that the use of sex to teach kids in public schools is not his responsibility or worthy of his attention. The state spends billions of our local, state and federal tax dollars each year to fund our public education. We are left to assume that these are the funds used to purchase the egregious curriculum plans and materials. Which then poses another question: which other towns have this assignment or assignments like it in their curriculum? So many questions, so few answers.

If the state played no role in sourcing this assignment, Gov. Lamont would have already said so, especially since the story went viral. If he didn’t agree, he would have denounced this type of assignment immediately. His silence speaks louder than words, if this wasn’t something he had a hand in, he would have told us where the assignment was produced and how it made its way to Enfield. He would also ensure that the company involved in the production of the material was no longer working with the public schools in Connecticut, and make efforts to put safeguards in state curriculum guidelines to prevent inappropriate material from showing up in any public school.

Gov. Lamont has done nothing. He has ignored concerned parents just like the Enfield Board of Education, leaving all of us with more questions than answers and our children vulnerable to the next inappropriate, borderline illegal assignment.

I never thought I would be kept in the dark about my children’s education, that I would sit in front of an elected body, asking valid questions only to be completely ignored. But unfortunately, situations like these seem to be happening more often in our state and across the country. As a mom looking for answers, I’m grateful to Parents Against Stupid Stuff for giving me a platform to continue to call on Gov. Lamont to investigate Enfield’s “Pizza and Consent.”

Amanda Marquez is an Enfield mom and spokesperson for Parents Against Stupid Stuff PAC.

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'Pizza & Consent' lesson causes furor: Enfield may form task force in wake of sex assignment mistakenly given to students

Feb. 16—ENFIELD — In the wake of public outrage over an assignment mistakenly given to eighth-graders in January that encouraged discussion of their sexual desires using pizza toppings as a metaphor, the Board of Education will discuss forming a task force to ensure something like this does not happen again.

After listening to parents' fury for more than an hour at a Feb. 8 board meeting about the "Pizza & Consent" assignment mistakenly given to John F. Kennedy Middle School eighth-graders in a Family Health and Human Sexuality class, school board member John Unghire suggested establishing the task force.

He said it could be comprised of parents, board members, and school administrators, and that it's important that it be non-partisan so it represents a cross-section of the community.

Board Chairwoman Tina LeBlanc said this week that a task force is definitely something worth exploring. The board's leadership — which comprises LeBlanc, Vice Chairman Scott Ryder, Secretary Jonathan LeBlanc, and Unghire — plans to meet soon to discuss it. She said there's nothing on the calendar yet but the team will try to meet before the first board meeting in March.

The "Pizza & Consent" assignment used pizza as a metaphor for sexual consent, with such statements as, "When you order pizza with your friends, everyone checks in about each other's preferences, right?" and "The same goes with sex; you have to check in with your partner(s) and ask for their preferences."

After parents complained about the assignment to Brie Quartin, the school district's health and physical education coordinator, she apologized in an email and explained that students got the wrong assignment due to a technical error.

According to Quartin's email, the incorrect version, as opposed to the revised version of the assignment, was mistakenly posted to the Grade 8 curriculum page, and was inadvertently used for instruction in the health class.

"I caught the error after our curriculum revision in June but failed to post the intended version," she wrote.

The correct version of the assignment has students working in small groups to craft a pizza with toppings — with no behaviors associated with said toppings — that would make everyone happy/comfortable using non-verbal communication only, she wrote.

CORRECTING MISTAKES

WHAT: The Enfield Board of Education's leadership team will be discussing the formation of a task force to come up with measures that would ensure that inappropriate assignments are not given to students.

WHY: A controversial assignment, called "Pizza & Consent" that encourages discussion about sexual preferences, was mistakenly posted as an assignment on the health curriculum page for Grade 8 at John F. Kennedy Middle School in January.

REACTION: At a Feb. 8 school board meeting, parents and other members of the community expressed outrage over the mistake.

At the Feb. 8 board meeting, Superintendent Christopher J. Drezek said that he and board members all received emails with questions and concerns about the assignment.

In his remarks at the meeting, Drezek stressed that the assignment was mistakenly given to students by a school employee, never mentioning Quartin by name. He said the employee posted the assignment rather than a revised one that would have had the students work in groups to come up with a type of pizza using non-verbal cues and not having anything to do with sexual preferences.

"This was simply an error," he said. "If anyone can look in the mirror and say they've never made an honest mistake, you're probably fooling yourself."

Drezek agreed that the assignment given to students was inappropriate but was appalled by comments some people made online about the employee such as calling her a pedophile.

"This is a longtime, great staff member," he said. "There have been some suggestions (from parents) about how I should handle a mistake a staff member made. "

For the past two weeks, the school employee was ridiculed online, Drezek said, and "there's nothing I can do to someone that's worse.

"I'm speaking tonight to explain what happened and to apologize to that person because they have been through enough," he said.

A few people at the meeting supported the school system, and also spoke about finding the vitriol others expressed against the school employee sickening to hear.

After listening to the long public comment session at the Feb. 8 meeting, Unghire explained why he thinks a task force is necessary. In the aerospace manufacturing field where he has a background and mistakes can be catastrophic, Unghire said something called a root cause corrective action process takes place to find out how what occurred actually happened.

The process, he said, is to ask the five w's — who, what, where, when and why — and then implement corrective actions to prevent a recurrence.

"What appears to be the cause, is not always what the root cause is," he said. "I'm calling upon the chair and the board to form a special bipartisan committee to find out what happened, how we can prevent it from happening again, and put policies in place so people can be aware of lessons that may come out so it's not a surprise."

Unghire said in an interview that he has no idea how a wrong, unintended assignment got posted that "caused emotional injury to children" and that parents had previously pleaded with the board to examine that.

"That's why I proposed this task force," he said.

He said members of the public have already contacted him to express interest in participating in such a task force, and that it appears to him that there's board consensus supporting its formation.

"This Enfield issue has received global attention," Unghire said. "I would have much rather seen Enfield recognized for its excellent education system."

For more coverage of Somers and Ellington, follow Susan Danseyar on Twitter: @susandanseyar, Facebook: Susan Danseyar, reporter.

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