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“Bulkeley sucks.” “Nothing about this school is ok.” “We need our school as promised.” “When are we going to have our school?” “How many classes will graduate before they can have the high school experience?” “Not together as one Bulkeley nation.” “Disadvantaged.” “High school dreams down the drain.” “This is my first year at Bulkeley and I wish it was my last.” WE NEED OUR HIGH SCHOOL BACK!
These are some of the messages sent by thirty-six Bulkeley High School students to the much maligned Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools, Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, and the much maligned Hartford Board of Education during the Board’s monthly Regular meeting on May 16th.
With cardboard signs filled with free speech, once deemed not allowed at Board meetings by the pied piper of the Board, Chairman Rigueur, the students gathered to bring a dose of reality into the charade which Superintendent Rodriguez and the Board have created at HPS.
Due to the renovation project ongoing at Bulkeley High School on Wethersfield Avenue, Bulkeley nation has been split in two like a highway through a city, with juniors and seniors now attending a former elementary school in the North End, while freshmen and sophomores attend a former elementary school built in 1885 in the South End. The renovation and resulting split depriving kids of an education and the educational experience.
The future Bulkeley High School
Students told the assembled cast of Gilligan’s Island that the classrooms are hot, dirty, buggy, and since they have no cafeteria, they must eat lunches just as “nasty” at their desks - like they were on Gilligan’s Island.
Besides lacking a comfortable and sterile environment in which to eat their lunches, Bulkeley students stated that they lack an auditorium, a science lab, appropriate and unlocked restrooms, and probably a room where they could meet with the Superintendent to discuss their issues. A discussion one student wondered why has never taken place and that they are not being taken seriously.
Similar wondering is heard from the teacher side of the education equation at HPS. Similar wondering was heard from families and the media in March of 2022 as Hartford Courant articles reported on the districts lack of communication about the cancerous PCB discoveries in Hartford schools. This wondering seems to be an ongoing issue with folks who come in contact with HPS. It’s like a growing virus.
Despite $155 million in federal ESSER money and the constant parade of third-party partners marching before the Board with open hand and thesaurus but with little substance, these Bulkeley students also informed misplaced authority at HPS that teachers are lacking the materials needed to teach, they haven’t had an upper-level math teacher in five months and are forced to use the much maligned Edgenuity online learning platform. A student informed the powers-that-be that face-to-face learning is lacking, thereby discouraging rather than encouraging learning – just in case they didn’t know.
One student spoke of the lack of career guidance and pathways for students. She stated that students “feel limited” in setting goals as there is a lack of shared knowledge and guidance toward creating possibilities. How many times have we heard “we’ve got this covered” in Superintendent and third-party slide presentations? And here we are.
Bulkeley High North
Bulkeley High South
Much of the student complaints centered on their school lunches. For the second time in four months (“Hartford Students Boiling Over School Lunches”) a group of angry and hungry students have confronted the Superintendent and the Board with complaints that the lunches provided by the school are better suited for a dog – no offense to dogs, I love dogs, but I’m not eating anything in a red can with an “Alpo” label glued to it.
And this is how the Bulkeley “36” and their classmates feel. The students stated that the meals are “horrible,” “unhealthy, unappetizing, unfilling, culturally inappropriate, and lacking in variety.” Students are throwing out their lunches or skipping lunch altogether and going hungry, suffering physically and mentally while trying to meet expectations academically, expectations which a student labeled as “unrealistic.”
Existing literature on the effects of school renovation on a student achievement is not definitive as being a detriment, but a federal study does claim the negative effect is “minimal,” and the learning loss can be quickly recovered. However, the report does state that there is a difference between renovation while students are in the building and renovating while sending students to a building that Mark Twain may have visited. With this difference in mind, the report stated, “Repeated research has demonstrated that poor building conditions have a negative influence upon student achievement.”
For the school years 2017 to 2019, Bulkeley High School had a chronic absenteeism average for the three years of 50%, while Hartford High School had an average of 67% for the three years. From 2019 to 2022, Bulkeley’s chronic absenteeism rate has increased 30%, while Hartford High’s has increased only 4%.
While Bulkeley High students have been waiting to get their high school back, it appears they are getting a little antsy. Behavioral issues from 2019 to 2022 climbed 6% while fighting and battery incidents have climbed 30%
While Bulkeley students “Meeting or Exceeding” the state standard on the SAT for ELA has seen an increase from 2019 to 2022, the diagram below shows that from 2 , 3, and 4 years before the renovation relocation, SAT scores for ELA are between 59% and 30% lower today.
Except for the folks waving huge palm leaves over the head of the Superintendent in central office, this Bulkeley renovation hasn’t been going well. Despite being told in 2019 and 2020 that the renovation could be completed “with students in the building,” (Hartford Courant, Feb. 24, 2020, p. B3) and with central office remaining in the building, it soon became apparent that replacing the roof would require an empty building. Ya think?
And who was the genius that decided coming out of a nearly 2-year lockdown due to COVID would be a great time to displace a thousand students across the city, students already suffering academic, mental, and social emotional losses due to the lockdown? That decision alone deserves a big ol’ Trumpian, “You’re fired!”
In 2020 (Hartford Courant, Mar. 14, 2022, p. 2) bids went out for a second “construction administrator,” because one is never enough when you have access to taxpayer money. A group called “Construction Advocacy Professionals” (CAP) was hired after bidding $1.7 million, the highest of three bidders. CAP was told to hit the road shortly thereafter, leaving with nearly $1 million in state money.
In 2021 the renovation price tag went from $149 million to $154 million so that all of the Hooverian central office files could be moved to another central office location, and then it ballooned another $30 million when the idea struck to centralize HPS’ food preparation and storage services under one roof in the new Bulkeley building, where they will be furnished with sparkling new stainless steel to prepare meals which students will not eat.
The district then faced, in March of 2022, the threat of having to come up with an additional $16 million as the FBI investigated allegations that former state legislator Kosta Diamantis ran his on “Who Want’s to be a Millionaire” contest under Uncle Ned’s roof, guiding specific contractors into state contracts and promising districts higher than state allowed reimbursement rates for school construction projects.
Realizing that her high school years are fading like sunlight into grass, and her chance of getting a damn good hamburger and fries from the school cafeteria are slim to none, but knowing that others will follow her, a student at the meeting stated, “Please make things better for incoming students.” THEY NEED THEIR HIGH SCHOOL BACK!
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