By now, most people who do not consider the Hartford Courant a legitimate news source are aware of the CT Mirror’s story on a special education student from Hartford Public High School who never received the special services she needed and which are required by law, and although unable to read and write, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez counted her as a member of a record setting 2023-24 graduation class.  The damning CT Mirror story can be read here, and a podcast interview with the author, Jessica Harkay, can be heard here.

There are three things you ought to takeaway from this story.  First, it’s proof, not rhetoric and hearsay, of a pathetic, grossly negligent school administration run by “Dr.” Leslie Torres-Rodriguez and her dismissal ought to be called for by any parent of a Hartford Public Schools special education student, in fact, the parents of all 16,000 students.  Take the half-million dollar hit to kick her ass out the door, but save the children!

Second, the superintendent’s own staff told the CT Mirror that this is not a one-off case: “this happens a lot through Hartford schools…she’s not the only one.”  The paraeducator, requesting anonymity due to a fear of reprisal (which was also mentioned by an HPS social worker in the story), stated that even students who are not special education students are graduating without being able to read or write, “they just pass them over” (for further reading: “The Culture of Fear in Hartford”, “Passed or Pushed Through?”).  A member of the superintendent’s own inner circle, a “special education administrator for the district,” is, in the story, telling us that something smells at HPS and it isn’t roses.  It is not fiction, heresay, sour grapes, or an aberration.  It is real and it is, and has been, ongoing.

And third, this is also a blight on every school board member who has served under and voted to retain this retched excuse for a school district leader.  Their irresponsibility in failing to properly assess the outcomes of the superintendent’s strategies, their failure to take seriously and take action on public comments by parents and teachers who come before the board to inform them, and their excessive overreliance on rhetoric and false and skewed data presented to them by the superintendent and her noodle-spined minions has, in all cases threatened, and in some cases ruined, the future of Hartford students.  (The Phil Rigueur-led board of education received an award last year (“Even the Worst Players Receive a Participation Trophy”) from the one of the most useless non-profits to ever seek a tax shelter, CABE – Connecticut Association of Boards of Education).  The shard remnants of the Rigueur-led board, decimated by Mayor Arulampalam’s new appointments earlier this year, short of committing hari-kari, should be shackled to the superintendent as together, they proceed through Dante’s inferno.  Shame! Shame!

Now, the new BOE, if they honestly feel that being a member of the board of education is more than a dullet exercise, holds the key to unlocking and ensuring accountability in the palm of their hands, it comes in the form of the proposed Hartford Teachers Advisory Council (read the HTAC proposal here).  Free from the tentacles of the black widow, the HTAC proposal offers a compelling solution to the issues exposed in the CT Mirror story.  Had an HTAC previously been put in place, it would have served as a vital check on the district leadership by providing real-time feedback on the effectiveness of polices.  Teachers would have been able to raise alarms about students such as the young lady in the CT Mirror story, it would have led to earlier interventions, more targeted support, and this collaboration would have ensured accountability at all levels of district leadership and prevent future cases of gross educational negligence.

Accountability for this gross negligence lies squarely with the leadership team, including the superintendent and school administrators, and the BOE is indited as co-conspirators.  The negligence of the three amigos is symptomatic of broader leadership failure that sacrifices student learning for superficial metrics of progress, such as graduation rates.

Like living in California, although we may be shocked by the earth quaking CT Mirror story, we should have expected it.  Last year, Hartford Federation of Teachers President Carol Gale came before the board and listed a litany of special education complaints which she was receiving from her teacher membership (“Superintendent Hit With Special Education Complaints”). 

In June of this year, the Hartford Teachers Leadership Program (“Hartford Teachers Working for Change”) held an annual presentation of projects they had been working on since the start of the school year.  The superintendent attended but only briefly.  Akeem White, a teacher at Global Communications Academy, presented on what school staff consider to be insufficient support and services for special education students.  White’s staff survey disclosed that 55% of respondents at GCA said support and services for SPED students was only “moderately sufficient,” while 45% of respondents called it “inadequate.”

Also in June of this year, based on a more than two-year investigation by the state’s Office of Child Advocate (OCA), it was announced that a civil rights lawsuit has been filed with the United States Justice Department against HPS (and several other districts) for their criminal negligence in servicing and supporting special education students as it relates to the High Roads scandal (“Superintendent Steers HPS into Civil Rights Lawsuit”).

Now, in her spin on this story and issue, the superintendent will throw the teachers under the bus.  She will highlight the need for teacher professional development and spend thousands on some consultant or non-profit claiming cognizance of matters relating to education.  She will blame the loss of federal COVID relief funds even though combined certified and non-certified special education staffing at HPS (according to EdSight, “Connecticut’s official source for education data”) has decreased for six consecutive years!  She will say that things are just so challenging at HPS with the high level of special education students enrolled at HPS, yet of the 10 largest districts in Connecticut, 4 of them either exceed HPS’ level of special education students as a percentage of the entire student body, or have similar percentages as HPS, yet their superintendent’s didn’t say, as did Torres-Rodriguez, upon becoming superintendent, “I understand at a very personal level what students need to be successful.”

Want the kicker to all this?  Here’s the kicker. 

In 2021, members of the state legislature, claiming that they have “cognizance of matters relating to education,” named Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez to serve on the state’s Special Education Task Force to assist in examining special education services in school districts across Connecticut.   WTF!!