Daiana and I felt like fish out of water when meeting with Amanda Roy, community programs manager at the Greater Hartford Arts Council.  But when the idea formed for putting on a Weaver High School Redesign-themed art exhibition, we knew we needed a little guidance.

Up until now, engagement efforts around the redesign of one of North Hartford’s great institutions consisted of community forums, panel discussions and meetings.  While each of these avenues is instrumental to developing a high-quality school, there are different parts of the Weaver story those forums don’t capture and people who often go unheard and unseen.  And yet, the passion and vibrancy around seeking a high-quality education is palpable.

Art as an expression has long played a role in society: It has demonstrated time and again that its messages can spark new ideas and challenge and inspire us all.  Art can be a way to expose social justice issues like inequity in education, celebrate the past, or even dream about a brighter future.

So, there we were in the small conference room off the main lobby explaining to Amanda how we hoped an art exhibition centered around Weaver could “weave the past into the future” – celebrating the former Weaver experience and culture, as well as, the promise for Weaver’s future.

From a community perspective, the narrative of urban education is that school based decisions just happen to us, not with us, but the Weaver Redesign Project invites the community to be the authors of their future, creating it, as actors in their own story.

This Weaver art exhibition is making another space for more discussion, introduction of new language, and ways of talking about good schools that help us to make public the uncomfortable and messy conversations that have traditionally been held in private.

Amanda put our minds at ease as she walked us through the process of crafting a call to artists and thinking through curation and other exhibit guidelines. She offered to remain our guide until we reach the end of our goal of celebrating and building energy around the redesign of Weaver High School on exhibition night, February 28, 6pm-8pm at the Artists Collective.

We’re still taking submissions and welcome you to join us “weave the past into the future”.

View the full prospectus at www.weaver2019.com.

Check out this video from Harpers Galleria – What role does art play in society?

Now in its third year, Inspire Hartford has become a destination and a journey into 21^st century learning and what’s possible for Hartford students.

But this year marks the beginning of what we hope will become a deeply engaged, thoughtful community of collaborators, willing to use their time, talent, and resources to seeing nothing less than each and every Hartford student reach their highest potential.

Our new vision of how change happens in education is the underpinning narrative that led us to our featured speaker, Liz Dozier, who shares our passion for using social innovations to drive change. Liz is the managing director of Chicago Beyond, a philanthropic venture fund designed to improve life outcomes for young people in Chicago and beyond.

In an interview with Chicago Sun Times about the new venture philanthropy startup, she describes her organization’s impact as addressing youth safety and educational attainment as “flip sides of the same coin”.

As former principal of Fenger High School in Chicago, Liz knows all too well how violence and other obstacles can shatter a student’s future.  Her daily challenges and passionate advocacy were highlighted in CNN documentary “Chicago Land”.  Carrying the stories of her students with her, she sees Chicago Beyond as a vehicle to make a broader impact and actual “investments” in others doing the personal and direct work with Chicago’s youth.

Creative and innovative solutions were keys to her success at turning around Fenger High and it’s those same great ideas that Liz says she’s looking for in the proposals from non-profits seeking funding from the foundation.

For as long as people have worked to drive change, transformational ideas have been the cornerstone of their efforts, brought new people in, and inspired others.

When Hartford’s best and brightest thinkers, artists, business people, teachers, non-profits – and other leaders from across the city– gather for a single night in March, ready to interact around the accomplishments of Hartford students, change is on the horizon.

Please join us

Wednesday March, 28, 2018

5:30pm VIP 6:00pm-9:00pm program

Downtown Hartford Hilton

For sponsorship opportunities and tickets visit: www.inspirehartford.com

Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez’s school consolidation plan reflects a comprehensive, research -based recommendation reflecting input from teachers, parents and guardians, students, faith leaders and community leaders, say school board leaders.

Unlike an earlier plan proposed by the prior superintendent, Dr. Torres-Rodriguez’s approach is comprehensive and based on multiple factors, notes parent Tiffany Glanville, vice chair of the Harford School Board. As someone who served on the former Equity 2020 committee that had studied school consolidation in the hopes of making a recommendation, Board VP Glanville remarked that, “This plan is better because it isn’t just about facilities and enrollment; it’s about an entire restructuring of the District.”

The process looked at programs, facilities and how to maximize resources to create a district of excellence, adds parent and Board Chair Craig Stallings.

“The superintendent isn’t outlining three possible scenarios like her predecessor. She’s recommending one that she stands by based on public input and help from outside consultants, Educational Resources Strategies”, Glanville said. “I think that’s bold, I’m pleased with that leadership approach.”

Educational Resources Strategies (ERS), a national nonprofit consulting firm hired to assist with the process, helped ensure a comprehensive reorganization, not the facilities-based approach that was a hallmark of Equity 2020. While Torres-Rodriguez owns this recommendation, Glanville says, ERS seems “to have been a valuable technical support provider to this whole process.”

The District Model for Excellence reportedly involved a comprehensive mining of data, looking at the entire district, at programming, facilities, community needs and what works best from an educational standpoint, she says.

The superintendent met with people in groups large and small to hear their concerns, fears and suggestions. Dr. Torres-Rodriguez’s extensive community outreach included presenting preliminary findings. She proactively sought to engage every aspect of the community by attending parent forums, visiting schools, attending neighborhood revitalization zone meetings, town committee meetings, and meeting with city council members and state legislators representing Hartford, both Stallings and Granville said. She talked about the need for consolidation and listened to what residents said they wanted to see as part of that effort.

Dr. Torres-Rodriguez’s plan, unveiled Tuesday night at the Board of Education’s monthly public meeting, attempts to ensure that every school serves as a community school. Glanville says the plan strives to simultaneously create educational equity and fiscal sustainability by closing low-occupancy, high-cost schools. This consolidation plan seeks to create quality schools in every neighborhood, says Stallings, “making our schools community hubs and gathering places for intergenerational and extra-curricular learning.”

While he learned about the plan along with the community Tuesday night, he said he appreciated the decision to notify stakeholders all at once at a public meeting.

“There were no leaks. Most people got the information at the same time. We’re all digesting it together,” Stallings says. While it was riskier to inform everyone at once, “It’s fair.”

He was initially surprised to hear what schools are slated for closing, but he was pleased to learn that the school names representing community leaders will be transferred to schools that will remain open under the restructuring plan. He says it makes sense that the plan calls for relinquishing older buildings costing the district more money to run, holding onto names that mean something to the community and using the savings to strengthen the remaining schools.

“I’m not as concerned that all of our neighborhood schools are going to be decimated,” he says. “I’m a little more relaxed than I was before.”

While it’s difficult to see schools close and for families to have to change their routines, the process ultimately reflects parents’ desire to see a quality educational system for their children.

“We see that reflected very much in this approach,” Glanville says.

Going forward, Stallings says, he expects board members to accompany the superintendent as she meets with community groups to talk about the consolidation plan.

“We will be in the schools that are going to be affected directly. No one’s going to run from this. This is real. It’s going to happen,” he says.

Dr. Torres-Rodriguez projects savings could reach $15 million. Stallings says this plan may not be enough. “We still may have to do more.”

While closing buildings that are only half full is the fiscally responsible choice, the superintendent wrote in an op-ed in The Hartford Courant, persistently low student achievement demands the change proposed.  “The yardstick that measures our school district is student performance – and we have fallen short for too long,” she wrote.

“Fewer schools will mean fewer dollars spent on maintaining buildings and more dollars spent on learning. Closing under-capacity schools will allow for reinvestment in our remaining schools to make them better,” she wrote. “As the redesign moves forward, the transition may result in some discomfort and a lot of hard work over the next several years. But there is no alternative. If we do not make these changes, we will doom another generation of students to an underperforming system.”

Achieve Hartford! is excited to see bold – and unified – leadership willing to make tough choices and back it up with engagement of and in the community.