“The first step is admitting you have a problem … so here it is, in black and white, for all to see that we have an issue.”  With these words, Hartford Board of Education Member Karen Taylor accepted the findings of last month’s stunning State report on child abuse and neglect in our schools and acknowledged the role (and failure) of the Board and other Hartford leaders to address such tragedies.  This acceptance comes with a promise from the Board, acting superintendent, mayor, and others, that such horrors will never happen again.  But are spoken promises enough to overcome significant trust issues?

No.  Hartford has responded to crises in times past, but the responses rarely have led to aligned collective action or otherwise sustainable solutions.  We have been here many times before; this is why so many Hartford residents have trust issues with State, City, and other education leaders.

Deep trust issues bedevil Hartford.  Many are justified, particularly cynicism about the prospect of lasting change.  It has taken the Sheff v. O’Neill lawsuit to belatedly (and still not fully) address racial isolation.  The gross and unconstitutional funding inequities found in the CCJEF v. Rell lawsuit are widely acknowledged, but the jury (or, rather, the CT Supreme Court as well as the General Assembly) are still out on both the final verdict and obvious corrective actions.

How many lawsuits will it take to truly transform Hartford’s “Avoid and Protect” culture, as indicted by the recent State Office of Child Advocate (OCA) report?  Are class-action lawsuits really the best way, or do we just need public servants inclined (and well trained) to protect our children?

Are Lawsuits the Best Way to Ensure Safety in Hartford Schools?

Some think another lawsuit is precisely what is needed to keep the pressure on Hartford education leaders so they will deliver on the promise to protect our children, rather than relying upon the adults whose past neglect and unlawful actions has done kids harm.  Any reader of the case studies presented in the OCA report would have to conclude that, notwithstanding the anti-bullying campaigns in schools, some of the worst bullies are misguided, adult staff members.

The Hartford Courant reports that Gwen Samuel, head of the Connecticut Parents Union, and Hartford Rep. Minnie Gonzalez hosted a community event and press conference at the State Legislature this week, where they advised the parent leaders to collect stories of abuse and to spread the word to other families.

Testimony, from impacted students and families, certainly would help lay the foundation to justify and support a class-action lawsuit, citing a reality, in which, according to Samuel in the Courant, “We have far too many people who are willing to look the other way and not tell what’s happening” … let alone act to prevent it from happening again.  As shared on Education Connecticut, for those children and families who have been negatively impacted, Samuel lamented, “None of them say how they’re going to make your children whole.”

Is Gwen Samuel right?  Do current Hartford education leaders need an outside, independent third-party mechanism – like yet another lawsuit and court decision after another generation goes by – to truly do right by our kids?  Or will the HPS Corrective Action Plan do enough or go far enough to address the problems in the system, remedy past harms, and prevent future ones?  We believe a lawsuit is not only justified; it already would have been filed in the suburbs in any cases like these.

The Bottom Line

Acting Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez is asking for our trust and to her credit, she is putting action behind her words, hosting multiple community forums in partnership with parent organizations and quickly rolling out a robust action plan with aligned implementation strategies.

The HPS Plan is a good start … to a much longer process, but it should not be the only strategy for changing culture at the Hartford Public Schools (and within the entire system, which includes the State Department of Children and Families (DCF), which also dropped the ball in connection with the incidents detailed in the OCA report).

As noted by Gwen Samuel, District and City leaders must find ways to make harmed children and families whole, and must truly change the culture so that the cycle of systemic failure stops.   A lawsuit may be needed to accomplish that.

While we all wish we didn’t have to focus so much on the very bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – physiological and safety – and instead talk about student self-actualization, this is where Hartford is right now.

When we take a hard look at Hartford’s most neglected schools (and communities), it is impossible to ignore the years of half-hearted investment in the face of extraordinary need.  It happens every day across the country; states and cities tell their school districts to “do the best with what you have.”  The demoralizing message goes to superintendents, who pass it along to school principals, who, in turn, filter it down to teachers … and families.  Budgets remain remarkably similar year to year – and some schools remain persistently underfunded.  If Hartford can stop that kind of budgeting, it can be one of the few cities in America to stop pretending about children’s futures.

At last night’s District community budget forum, Chief Financial Officer Paula Altieri crystalized the situation.  With flat funding, she said, “We’ve been on our own fiscal cliff for the past eight years.”  Our question, then, is, if the fiscal cliff is a constant, when will we change how we allocate resources?

Board of Education Finance and Audit Committee Chair Craig Stallings has been vocal about welcoming any and all Hartford residents to attend and engage with upcoming discussions.  That invitation extends to each of us; we at Achieve Hartford! are taking the finance chair up on his offer right now.
Let’s be honest with ourselves:  Our system is perfectly designed to produce the results with which we have struggled for decades.  So we must make different choices that not only change outcomes … but also change the system.
Areas of High Need Are Already Known: So Fund Them
It is no secret that many neighborhood schools fall below performance expectations in large part because of the immense concentration of need they face.  If we know where the most vulnerable children go to school, and we make equity the goal, then funding must align with need.  Period.
What does that mean for budgeting right now?

1. It is time to face the fact that our current number of schools is unsustainable.  We must restart the public conversation over the specific combination of building closures and school consolidation … and now – not next year.  The Board of Education can decide on a smaller, smartly realigned set of school buildings, with the express purpose of providing higher-quality education than before.  We don’t need to wait for another Equity 2020 process to launch into another quagmire or for a permanent superintendent to act as the savior.  The entire city knows school consolidation must happen.  Board Member Stallings has said we have 20 schools too many; CFO Altieri estimates we have seven too-many high schools.  Enrollment trends matter.  Favored school names can be kept; just in fewer buildings.
2. Looking to students first.  The Board must make similarly transparent and difficult decisions about the reorganization of central office for the purpose of downsizing.  If there is a choice between directly funding children and teachers in the neglected North End, versus protecting central office staff, we must choose to fund the needs of students – especially if the community is expected to help make and accept tough decisions regarding school consolidation.

Also, in a plea reminiscent of past Superintendent Beth Schiavino Narvaez’s forewarning of what Hartford stood to lose (from $20 million in budget cuts), HPS Operations Manager for Athletics Nicole Porter-Blake this week delivered spreadsheets to Board Member Stallings’ Finance and Audit Committee, suggesting $12.2 million (or an alternative lower-cost budget of $5.2 million) is needed to provide middle and high school athletic programming on par with the suburbs.  Right now, CFO Altieri says there’s $143,000 in the budget.  We know there are a number of examples just like this, where needed services do not have their needed budget, and without drastic changes in resource allocation, there is no way the HPS tagline should be, “Every Child Thrives. Every School is High Performing. No Exceptions.”

The Bottom Line

When revenue increases are a dream – and the current best-case scenario is being “only” about $6.6 million in the hole (see the Courant article on that), we at least need to have a set of programming goals to drive budget decisions.  That, it seems, is exactly what is missing.  The budget remains remarkably similar to last year.  Waiting for next year, when there will be a permanent superintendent and more time to engage the community, is a weak move.  Making decisions based on a plan, as opposed to simply cutting 5 percent across the board?  Far better approach.

What we are advocating for, approaching the 11^th hour of the budgeting process, is to let necessity become the mother of invention.

Given where we’ve been for the past eight years and where we now are headed, hoping for more funding is a bad gamble.

The challenges facing our schools are not shrinking; they’re escalating.  We must learn to do more with less.

Why wait to redesign the car’s engine we know must go twice as far on half the fuel?

Hartford leaders can start redesigning now, by making difficult but necessary cuts to central office staff and starting the school consolidation process based on facts already on hand.

If we don’t do this, we are once again only “pretend” budgeting, sending the age-old message to our neediest schools, that you won’t get what you need … so just do the best with what you have.

The Hartford Board of Education last week approved design specifications for the three-academy structure of the new Weaver High School.  Later this month, or next month, a community forum will focus on the building design that architects and construction management firms have worked on for years – literally.  And at last week’s Weaver Steering Committee meeting, there was a sense (at least from us) that the real work of designing high-performing neighborhood high school options in North Hartford has begun.

Four committees, each meant to have representation from at least one parent from one of the three Weaver academies – Kinsella Magnet, High School Inc., and Journalism and Media – along with representation from the Blue Hills Civic Association, reviewed their committee membership and charge so far.  The four initial design committees include:

1. Construction
2. Student Experience (In and Out of School)
3. School Climate and Culture
4. Family and Community Engagement

Each committee will be setting its meeting times shortly, publicizing membership, and prepping to plan and test out design strategies in two-month cycles.  And a strategy to keep the larger community up to date on the design work is being formulated.

The Bottom Line

While the Granby Avenue facility’s latest redesign is being completed, the obvious challenge is to gel its three separate schools (and three separate leadership teams) into a reinvented and newly iconic Weaver that, as the original school did so well, excites the community and all families and feeder schools.  The good news, from our perspective, is that the Blue Hills Civic Association has been deeply involved in work with community leaders for more than a year, sharpening the vision of what a new Weaver could be (as well as pinning down the standards needed).

The absolute worst thing that could happen would be for this process to start off with an aspiration to raise the standard of education delivered in Hartford, only to morph into a series of decisions made with no mind paid to quality – a la Equity 2020.  The work is off to a positive start, from our perspective on the steering committee, but more help is needed, and we encourage anyone with an interest to reach out – whether you want to serve on the committee Achieve Hartford! is co-chairing on Student Experience, or any of the other committees mentioned above.  Each one reach one!