Hartford Parent University March 10^th held its largest graduation ceremony ever – with 35 parents from the M.D. Fox, Thirman Milner, Simpson-Waverly, and SAND schools completing the Achieve Hartford!-supported No Child Held Back™ program.  This means these parents have taken ownership over their children’s learning, fully understood their role as a partner with the teacher, and built up their skills using personalized learning plans and technology.

For the parents at these four schools completing this program, it also means that now, all parents have a personalized learning plan for their children and a Chromebook tablet for emailing their teachers, checking Powerschool, and accessing online learning resources, along with up to $300 in “solution services” to help their children pursue educational interests or address educational challenges.

Other results from the parents’ participation in the program include:

• On ability to very confidently support their children’s education, the parent proportion rose from 32 percent before the program to 92 percent after the program;
• In terms of confidence working with their children’s teachers, parents rating themselves at the top level (being very confident) rose from 28 percent before the program to 96 percent afterwards; and
• Lastly, the average growth of self-reported knowledge, of what Student Centered Learning is, increased by almost 40 percent for parent participants as a result of this program.

For No Child Held Back Author Yovel Badash, this rite of passage was just the beginning, as it is for all who mark graduation day.  “When you graduate from a university, you start your adult life,” Author Badash told the graduates at The Lyceum.  “So, today is a beginning, not an ending.  From now on, parents can talk with teachers as equal partners.”

Achieve Hartford Executive Director Paul Holzer told the graduates, “This program came together as a result of three organizations coming together – Hartford Parent University, Achieve Hartford! and No Child Held Back™ – and now the ask is of you … to come together with your child and your child’s teachers, because that’s where the magic happens.”

Here is a sampling of views from four of the HPU graduating parents:

• Samantha Pacheco (SAND) – said the program “has made me a better mother.  Everything I do for my kids is their future – and not only my kids.  All kids.”

• Stacy Figueroa (Milner) – serves as the secretary of the school’s PTO and, through HPU, learned how to use a Chromebook tablet, access the District’s Parent Portal and understand the options for children with special needs.

•  Rodney Morton (Simpson-Waverly) – believes the program has empowered him to be a better father; “I didn’t know I had this much power as a parent.”  Moreover, he has been able to help his 13-year-old pursue the IT career he seeks.

•  Natalie Delgado (M.D. Fox) – appreciates the fact that her program experience has helped her to guide her two daughters with special needs, as “many doors opened” through the experience.  She encouraged all parents to look vigorously for help.

“I see so much growth,” HPU Executive Director Milly Arciniegas told the graduates.  “And now, you’re on a better path.”  But it hasn’t been easy for parents, she noted, stressing that when 10 parents at one school logged into Powerschool, they found academic data missing for their children, and in two other schools, Powerschool was not even set up with the children in the system.  “We know there are many times when a school reports difficulty in communicating with parents, and now we know that there are times, too, when a parent reaches out to make contact and has difficulty.  It’s a process – and forming a partnership takes time,” she said.

Most remarkable, she said, have been the advancements made by her parent coaches, who have become increasingly knowledgeable about the nuances of School Governance Councils, services for English Language Learners, and procedures for obtaining support for children with disabilities.

“The work that the coaches have done has been inspiring for me,” Mr. Badash told the graduates, “because, by teaching you learn, and the coaches have gained the ability to impact so many more parents’ lives throughout Hartford.  For the 35 graduates who worked with the parent coaches, they can now deal with the school system in an effective way.”

Here is the Hartford Parent University No Child Held Back™ graduation information online.

If front-line City, District and neighborhood experience add up to institutional knowledge, it would be difficult to find an individual with the depth and breadth that City Councilwoman Glendowlyn Thames brings to the table.  With firsthand awareness of citizens’ concerns and the past decade of Hartford school improvement efforts, her perspective is right on time as responses to the City’s budget crisis unfold.

Now chair of the City Council’s Operations, Management, Budget, and Government Accountability Committee, Councilwoman Thames worked for seven years in the administration of former Mayor Eddie Perez, serving as a community liaison and director of constituent services.  She also worked under former Hartford School Superintendent Christina Kishimoto as special assistant for major projects – as the strategic themes of Third Grade reading readiness, middle school redesign, and college and career readiness were being developed and implemented.

Currently, Ms. Thames is director of small business innovations for CT Innovations.

Today, she said in a recent interview, her priorities are “founded in the fact that we have a situation where we have neighborhood schools that are in dire straits.  How do we tackle that?  We just have to reflect and be honest with ourselves to ensure that we are providing equity across all of our schools, both neighborhood and magnet.”

In keeping with the Council’s role in funding schools, its role also extends to making policy for the City that helps families do the best for their children and the community.

The Council’s role is centered on partnership support, but it is important to emphasize alertness to the “consumers” of education – children and families, she maintained.  In her experience, she added, “What often gets lost is the instruction – the quality of instruction – and ensuring that school principals understand that they are the instructional leaders.”

Councilwoman Thames has a unique lens into the Hartford school improvement picture.  With all that is at stake in the fiscal crisis at hand, her perspective is invaluable.

Those at the Hartford Board of Education meeting Tuesday evening learned that Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez is responding to the City’s budget crisis by eliminating one-third of her senior leadership team, continuing the recent trend toward downsizing the administration downtown with the goal of allocating more funds directly to schools.

Dr. Narvaez recalled her description of last year’s budget challenge as “a perfect storm,” given the District’s eight years of flat funding, decreased special funds and rising costs.  “This year, the situation is much worse, because we just have nowhere to go, while also facing a budget gap of approximately $20 million,” she reported.

Facing cuts that can no longer be avoided, Dr. Narvaez said Tuesday evening, she and members of her administration are working to push resources out to schools for fiscal 2017.  “We are doing what is possible to fund their priorities, to fund the work of the strategic plan, and to honor the work of equity to the greatest extent possible,” she said.

The reduction of her senior leadership team will be followed by departmental cuts so that the District will be better able to give back to schools, she said.  “No one will be immune.”

At Tuesday’s Board meeting, early fallout from the budget crisis began to emerge.  Community spokespeople objected to the proposed consolidation of Bulkeley High School’s Upper and Lower Schools under one principal, contending that communications with parents and involvement of the School Governance Council have been inadequate.  Other comments took a different tack, suggesting that having principals at each of the three academies at Hartford Public High School is wasteful.

Here is the excellent Hartford Courant recap of the meeting.

The video of the meeting is online here, with the superintendent’s budget comments at the 1:31:12 mark.

The Bottom Line.  The reform strategies launched under Dr. Adamowski and Mayor Perez beginning almost 10 years ago focused on small, theme-based schools.  That District-wide model is strained, to say the least, by the current financial situation.  Given this, Hartford must be prepared to not only make tough choices in consolidating schools, but even more importantly, to make tough decisions about the ways education is delivered to the children who have the most intense needs.  We must launch a conversation that extends from consolidation into quality, else we risk losing the war for equity before the first battle is over.