State Senator Bye Resigns To Join Lamont Administration

WEST HARTFORD, CT — West Hartford’s Beth Bye has been nominated by Governor-elect Ned Lamont to lead the Office of Early Childhood. Bye, who won re-election as a state senator this past November, will complete her current term representing the 5th District but will resign her member-elect status and will not be sworn in to a new term in the Connecticut State Senate. The 5th District includes Bloomfield, Burlington, Farmington and West Hartford.

The Office of Early Childhood was created in 2013 to coordinate and improve the various early childhood programs in the state to create a cohesive high-quality early childhood system.

“Beth Bye has devoted her entire professional career to helping to build a more progressive and equitable early childhood system in which all children, regardless of their parent’s socioeconomic status, can grow, learn and develop,” Lamont said. “It’s clear that the formative early childhood years are key to providing children a solid educational base and platform, and I know Beth is the best person to take helm of this critical agency.”

Bye is currently the Executive Director of Auerfarm in Bloomfield, a community farm that hosts 15,000 student trips annually and partners with Wintonbury Early Childhood Magnet School. Prior to that, Bye led Great by 8, a community partnership to develop a program that supports optimal health and educational outcomes for children ages birth to 8. Bye also served as the Early Childhood Director at the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), where she supervised the birth to three program for CREC, and also helped to open two early childhood magnet schools. Earlier in her career, Bye was the Director at both the Trinity College Community Child Center and the University of St. Joseph School for Young Children, which was named a State of Connecticut model pre-school.

“I am grateful to begin this next chapter in my career, leading an agency I helped to spearhead and create,” Bye said. “Connecticut’s children- all of them- represent the future of our state, and deserve to have the tools and support necessary to develop, grow and thrive. I’m looking forward to working collaboratively with the early childhood community and the K-12 system to assure the readiness of both young children and the schools that serve them alike.”

Bye will begin serving as the Commissioner-designate in late January. Her nomination will be sent to the General Assembly for its advice and consent.

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