Following Yvette Bello’s resignation in October, the Hartford Board of Education saw its membership drop to seven members as Kim Oliver resigned during the board’s December Regular Meeting.  Oliver was appointed to the board by Mayor Luke Bronin in 2017 and with her resignation, elected members now hold a 4-3 margin over appointed members, unless you count Member Escribano as an appointee since she has publicly stated that she will vote against the will of the folks who elected her in the first place.

In 2017, when the superintendent search committee drafted a news release stating that “the committee” supported and selected Leslie Torres-Rodriguez to be the next superintendent, Kim Oliver sent an email stating: "Please note that as the entire search committee did not make the decision, I don't feel comfortable with the press release.”  Later, committee members Hyacinth Yennie and Hernan LaFontaine disagreed with the committee’s assessment that “the group” had elected to support Torres-Rodriguez (Hartford Courant (Online), Apr 4, 2017).  It has been downhill with this superintendent ever since.

Since August of 2022, Kim Oliver has been employed by the New York based non-profit, The New Teacher Project (TNTP), which has been receiving contracts from Hartford Public Schools since 2020.

In other board member news, after a several year lapse in the requirement that the BOE have two non-voting student representatives on the board (Board Bylaws 9160), two students elected by their peers were introduced at the December Regular Meeting to fill this vacancy.  Welcome to the BOE Ms. Uzoma Chukwurah, a senior at Classical Magnet, and Ms. Zari Reed, a junior at Kinsella. 

Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez and Chair Rigueur made statements to the effect that the purpose of the student representatives was to “bridge” the student body with the superintendent’s office and to be the voice of the student body on the board of education.  These comments were made shortly after student Malachi Henry rose to speak about the “preposterous” school lunches being served at HPS, while mentioning that other students had come before the board last school year to report similar feelings about the school lunches (“Hartford Students Boiling Over School Lunches”), which, said Mr. Henry, resulted in “no changes.”  As Mr. Henry alluded to, students brought their voice to the superintendent and the board previously, only to be smiled at and thanked for their comments; there was no change.  How much sincere listening will the superintendent and board do when the newly elected student representatives speak to them?

I once saw a bulletin board.  The only things pinned to it were blank sheets of paper.