Donor’s Representative Offered to Help Conn. School District if Board Was Replaced

A representative of a hedge-fund billionaire’s foundation dangled the prospect of private help to a strapped Connecticut school district if its board were ousted, according to the Connecticut Post and The Wall Street Journal.

In the course of a six-month e-mail exchange, Meghan Lowney, a paid consultant to the family foundation of Steve and Sue Mandel, told the head of the State Board of Education that the Bridgeport school board was “dysfunctional” and that there was an “excellent private partnership to be activated” if the state reconstituted its leadership.

Last month, the state took over the Bridgeport district, Connecticut’s second largest, with 20,000 students, after the local school board voted to dissolve.

Allan Taylor, the state board’s chairman, said the discussions with Ms. Lowney did not play a role in his support for the takeover.

In the e-mails, which were obtained by the Connecticut Post through a Freedom of Information Act request, Ms. Lowney wrote that she was acting on behalf of the Mandels but did not explicitly offer financial support.

Mr. Mandel, the founder of Lone Pine Capital of Greenwich, Conn., and a past donor to Bridgeport education groups, did not return calls for comment.

The district is facing an $18-million budget shortfall, and the board had reportedly been marked by internal discord. A group of Bridgeport parents has filed suit to block the replacement of the elected board with state appointees.