Community trust in Hartford has been slipping and sliding for generations, largely due to the segregation in our region, partially corrected by the Sheff v. O’Neill case and, unfortunately, mostly correlated to poverty.

Hartford families cannot deny what is before their eyes.  Compared to the outlying areas, they see they are in a regional doughnut hole of disadvantage.

Their neighborhood schools, for the most part, still suffer from too much need and too few resources, and the State has no more answers for Hartford.

If city bankruptcy enters the picture, which could happen, there may be incentive for the City to raid the Hartford Public Schools’ budget by attempting to fund the schools even lower than the current State Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR).

Meanwhile, Hartford educators working in neighborhood schools continue to serve disproportionate numbers of children requiring special expertise for their language learning, disability, or academic recuperation needs.

Moreover, research-based calls for smaller, themed academies, while at one time smart, are running out of financial steam.  The third rail of school closings and consolidation is about to light up.

Where Does This Leave Us?

If we are to keep our commitments to delivering equity for all students, and to Hartford’s strategy of using the concept of individualized student success plans, under which every student is supported by a caring adult, we must think creatively and boldly in this time of crisis.

First, if we honestly assess the reality of the needs of Hartford children, we must acknowledge that without:

•  closing more schools;
•  extending learning deeper into the day and summer for certain schools;
• shifting our best teachers into our lowest performing schools;
• allowing more students to advance grades by showing mastery instead of seat time;
• placing more needy students into magnet schools to decrease the concentration of need in our         neighborhood schools; and
• helping families build rigorous learning environments at home . . . we are only pretending to do our best.

No constraint on our school system should go untested, just as no needy child should go unserved or under-served.  We must push the status quo in Hartford and ask the question, more vehemently, why not make more radical change in the way we deliver education?

Second, absent superb communications, Hartford’s “trust gap” will widen even further, especially given the central office member’s scandal – and next week’s and year’s crucial budget cuts.

Painful decisions are coming, and we must remember that making undeliverable promises or dropping decisions from the sky endanger Hartford’s reform long term.

Decisions going forward must be collaborative, born of candid consultation with parents, school staff, School Governance Councils, and community and philanthropic leaders. HPS has made moves to communicate more openly under the current Superintendent, but realistic and honest communications have not been a hallmark of the Hartford Public Schools; more work on this is advisable going forward.

Especially in this year’s daunting budget situation, the quality of communications stands to define – or in the worst case, further undermine – community trust.  Without it, Hartford has nothing.

The “acceleration agenda” being piloted at six Hartford schools is taking on family, medical, social and emotional needs at the individual student level, to boost performance.  As the buzz saw of budget cutbacks approaches, this customized, case-management approach is quietly making a difference, student by student.

“The key to individual planning is systematic follow-through on both needs and enrichment for every single child,” Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez said at a District panel discussion Tuesday evening.  “We can’t focus on teaching and learning in the classroom if we’re not focusing on the whole child.”

Indeed, getting families what they need within an hour is possible by leveraging the assets of the community, she said.

Dr. Narvaez moderated a panel discussion with educators and a parent, to review the acceleration agenda work at Burns Latino Studies Academy and the Burr, Clark, Martin Luther King, Jr., Milner, and Wish Museum Schools.  Here are some of the highlights:

After-School Enrichment.  Burr School and Community Supports Site Coordinator Bobby Casiano emphasized the wraparound family, health, social-emotional, and academic supports that his organization, City Connects, works to deliver with the lead agency, The Village, for each and every student.  For example, parents seeking swimming lessons and sports experiences for their children are no less part of the work.

Time to Dissect Data and Plan.  Burns Latino Studies Academy Teacher Mary LaFountain said the biggest support through the pilot has been release time for teachers to examine “true data” and collaboratively plan for each child.

A Welcoming Attitude.  Since his daughter just transferred to MLK and is shy, Parent Randy Norman said, it has been important that she has been made to feel at home.  “The teachers have asked for suggestions, they have complied, and they have connected,” he said.  “Basically, I just want you to continue on the same path.”

The components of the support for schools include technical assistance from ANet on the use of data for assessing student progress; site coordinators from City Connects to leverage school and community resources for children; and leadership consultations, in which the CT Center for School Change works with HPS associate superintendents of instructional leadership with respect to their professional development activities with school principals.

Here is the brief video describing the acceleration agenda (shown at the panel discussion Tuesday evening).

The Bottom Line.  The work of the acceleration agenda pilot is a major part of the District’s 2015-2020 Strategic Operating Plan.  It is evidence-based, drawing upon turnaround school successes elsewhere and now here.  In the current budget climate, how its best practices can be expanded – not to mention if and when – is a troubling question.

When Dr. Raygine DiAquoi and Dr. Philip Lee keynoted the Hartford schools’ March 19^th conversation on race, racism, and equity, some 700 parents and community reps filled the Bulkeley High School auditorium.  The room grew silent fast, however, when Dr. DiAquoi advised attendees that the practice of unequal funding is a practice of racism – and Dr. Lee cited the differences between what is legal and what is just.  The audience stayed.

In breakout groups, parents, educators, and community representatives looked through the local lens at the keynoters’ commentaries, considering that that there is no biological basis for race; that the same talk upon the death of Travon Martin took place more than 100 years ago in the Jim Crow era; and that it took centuries of intentional creation of law and policy to lead to today’s circumstances.

On the subject of cultural competence, as one student put it, in the context of having teachers not of his race, when his utilities were shut off, he could not tell his teachers.  “I can’t do it, because it just doesn’t feel right,” he said.  But teachers need training to understand that students don’t come to school to wreak havoc, he said.  “Students have things at home that get to them, whether it be abuse or the bills.”

One West Indian American parent put it this way: Latino parents approach him at arms’ length, a not-so subtle sign of racism.

Here are the video highlights of the March 19 conversation on “Race, Racism and Equity”.

“It’s really easy for us to say, ‘Why even try any more,’” Dr. Lee told the crowd.  “If you love the children, you do not have the luxury to give up.”  To reinforce the point, he quoted Dr. Cornel West: “Justice is what love looks like in public.”  Here is his March 19 presentation.

The Bottom Line.  The March 19 listeners wrestled with how to define and confront racism.  They met in large and small groups for a half day on some of the most serious questions our country and city faces.  In considering how to oppose those who maintain and reinforce a racial hierarchy, they received useful guidance from Dr. DiAquoi: It is not enough to be a non-racist; one needs to have an anti-racist stance, taking what you know and speaking truth to power.

Kudos to the Hartford Public Schools and Board of Education for taking on this sensitive and fundamental topic – and for risking thoughtful interchanges.  As the potential for a follow-up conversation is being discussed, the audience feedback – and what people put down on their “commitment cards” as ways to fulfill their goals – will be golden.  As well, it will be fascinating to see what the high school video documentarians from the Journalism and Media Magnet Academy, with CPBN support, come up with.  Overcoming institutional racism requires more than 700 on a Saturday morning … but what a great start.