Even as Capital Workforce Partners (CWP) last week celebrated its “Workforce Stars” – including outstanding students going directly from high school internships into jobs – a new two-year federal grant will slate 275 more North Hartford youth for employment support over the next two years.  These developments send important signals about the power of partnerships.

CWP brought the New York Times and Planet Money commentator Adam Davidson here to speak about the future of work, and also honored local students.

A few days later, the District announced that it has joined the City, CWP, the Blue Hills Civic Association and Connecticut State Colleges & Universities to implement a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to promote youth employment in North Hartford.

The Promise Zone YES! grant announced Friday will provide development, support and employment for 275 North Hartford youth over the next two years.

As HPS Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez put it, “The establishment of the North Hartford Promise Zone and now Promise Zone Youth Employment for Success that we celebrate today creates a nexus for education, youth and workforce development.”  It is badly needed.

Mayor Luke Bronin, Congressman John Larson, and Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal were key to this new internship augmentation, the superintendent emphasized.

The Hartford Board of Education this week tabled a plan for an academic renovation for Weaver High School, slated to re-open in 2019 with a new physical design that corrects the unfortunate correctional institution look and feel of that giant Granby Avenue building.  While plans for what was to go inside Weaver have been known for weeks, not enough communication happened within the Board itself about the merits of the plan for it to get voted on quite yet.  In addition, a lack of community voice present made it very hard for Board members to take action one way or another – reminding us that it’s not just how the Board and District communicate outward that matters.  It also has to happen in the other direction!

The plan presented would gradually close the Culinary Arts Academy and move High School, Inc., and the high school grades of the Kinsella Academy for the Performing Arts and the Journalism and Media Academy into the new Weaver High School, jettisoning earlier-announced plans. The vote wisely was tabled for a month.

Here’s a further rundown on the meeting, available on video here:

• Undeniably, confusion exists over the future magnet status of the Journalism and Media Academy, given challenges the school has experienced in attracting suburban students, but finding clarity on that issue prior to next month’s vote on the school’s move to Weaver in 2019 may be a challenge.
•  Blue Hills Civic Association President Nicole Porter fully supported the appointment of Principal Tayarisha Stone at Rawson Elementary School [Ms. Stone has previously been principal at the now closed, PCB-infected, and still proceeding Clark School].
• Newly-approved Principal Kenneasha Sloley for the M.D. Fox School was direct and forceful in her views about how her experiences with Bosnian and other culture groups have prepared her to lead this school.  As she responded to Board member questions about her work at Naylor School in the south end, audience members applauded and called out such phrases as “Get on him, now, girl!”  Principal Sloley made it plain she was capable of answering tough questions.
• Victor Cristofaro, a former assistant principal at Bulkeley HS, is a tri-lingual (English-Spanish-Italian) and special education resource teacher, approved for the principal post at the Latino Studies Academy at Burns.

So What Happened at MLK School?

At his town hall meeting June 14, Mayor Luke Bronin opened the meeting with the news that the Martin Luther King, Jr. School will remain open this coming school year, until plans for the future can be figured out.  He made it plain that keeping under-enrolled neighborhood schools has consequences for students and the education they receive.  “We need a smaller number of better buildings and better schools,” the mayor said.

“Even those who love MLK cannot deny that it’s desperately in need of work,” he said.  We agree, and hope that the recently launched Equity 2020 “task force” will not only provide direction related to consolidating school buildings, but also to placing students in higher quality seats throughout the city.

Magnet schools continuing to have many seats open is not okay; something we hope to see addressed as part of the Equity 2020 process, in which Achieve Hartford! will participate.  In the short term, the mayor, Board, and Superintendent made the right call in keeping MLK students, teachers and families all together in one building for another year.  Both building options seemed equally sub-standard; what matters now is extending the promise beyond one year.

Hartford led CT in the establishment of School Governance Councils (SGCs) a few years back but that early energy appears to be flagging.  At the District’s annual SGC forum this week, the latest data showed just 18 of 47 schools met the standards for membership compliance, reverting back to the 2012-13 level.

SGCs are designed to have 14 members, including seven parents, five teachers, two community members and two non-voting student members as they act in an advisory capacity to school principals on the budget and on ways to improve student learning.

As of May 23^rd, 23 of Hartford’s schools had met that seven-member parent threshold; 39 schools’ SGCs had the required number of teachers participating.  Here are the Board policy and State law detailing the structure and duties of SGCs – and here is our own 2011 evaluation of SGCs.

Tuesday’s forum at the Expeditionary Learning Academy at Moylan School featured a panel discussion moderated by Hartford Board of Education Member Tiffany Glanville [the video of that forum is online here].  A discussion of the budget challenges is at the 29:14 mark, where the flat funding for the past eight years amidst rising costs is highlighted.

Burns Latino Studies Academy Parent and SGC Chair Julio Flores offered on-the-ground views about budgeting and the associated parent education needed as well as the cultural impact of non-English speaking parents on meeting effectiveness and dissemination (at the 34:08 mark of the video). It bears mentioning that Mr. Flores has been nominated by the mayor to serve on the Hartford Board of Education, with City Council deliberations scheduled for next week.

As well, Community Representative Donna Sodipo of the Journalism and Media Magnet Academy SGC described how an organized approach to SGC meetings can serve to empower parents (at the 39:18 mark of the video).  As CPBN’s senior vice president of education, Ms. Sodipo explained her partnership role as it relates to heightening parent development in ways that stimulate their involvement in truly addressing school issues.

All in all, the importance of the SGC work – and the issues that constrain it – were candidly explored at the forum, which Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez summarized (at the 1:18:47 mark of the video).  Framing the challenge facing SGCs, she asked a salient question: “How do we move from a focus on compliance to competence to excellence?”  It’s a good question.