A member of the Board of Education’s Student Representatives, Uzoma Chukwurah, presented the “Student’s Report” during the board’s January Regular Meeting, proving that despite the lack of effective educational leadership at Hartford Public Schools, there are some intelligent and talented students who will rise above the barriers put in place by misplaced leadership and achieve success.

While giving a detailed report on what the student representatives have been doing since their election to these positions, Ms. Chukwurah also brought along some student criticisms of the district.

Ms. Chukwurah stated that information sharing between the district and students…eh, not so great. She stated that during an SSAC meeting (Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council), Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez mentioned that there was a new class being offered in schools in which students get to “build their own school” (without the normal and accepted cost overruns, of course).  Ms. Chukwurah stated that “the majority” of students at the meeting had never even heard of such a thing and were disappointed that the information had not been better shared with them, causing them to have missed out on the opportunity to be involved with this class.

Similarly, while each school must have a Student Governance Council (SGC), as mandated by state law, Ms. Chukwurah stated that many students have expressed an interest in these meetings which had been previously unknown to them.  She asked how the student perspective can be captured by the district if there are no students to give that perspective.

Ms. Chukwurah also revealed that there are some HPS students with a keen sense of budget value.  She reported that at least one school had spent upwards of $12,000 on “Yondr pouches,” which are pouches that a student places their cell phone into during class and which must be tapped on a base unit to unlock the pouch in order to retrieve and use the phone.

Ms. Chukwurah stated that “many students were concerned” with the money spent on these pouches while feeling that the money could have been better spent.  For instance, she has heard from students that many teachers are spending up to a thousand dollars in personal funds for equipment needed in their classrooms.  Displaying a keen sense for sustainable spending, Ms. Chukwurah reported that students feel that the money spent on the pouches “could have been put towards a more permanent and lasting cause” (unlike the $155 million in COVID money spent by Torres-Rodriguez).

Ms. Chukwurah is a senior at Classical Magnet School and this space fully supports her appointment or election to the Hartford Board of Education if ever that opportunity arises.