During the Hartford Board of Education’s Policy Committee meeting this past week, it was announced that the Hartford Board of Education would be receiving a Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) Board Leadaership Award at the organization’s conference in Mistake…sorry, Mystic later this month.

The Board Leadership Award is based on a board of education’s Trumpian self-evaluation in areas of leadership, professional development, policy, and their ability to be, if not effective, at least collegial in working with each other (public displays of exasperation toward other members by Chairman Rigueur not withstanding).  The BOE skews their abilities, influence, and accomplishments as required on the CABE award application, which is then scored in some unknown manner by an unknown CABE committee which then makes a decision based on some unknown formula as to whether or not the submitting district deserves a participation trophy.  Hartford’s Board of Education successfully hoodwinked the process this year.

The deciders at CABE apparently do not do in-person evaluations of the boards they are about to anoint as being effective examples of a board of education.  Despite an application where most of the criteria list does not apply positively to Hartford’s BOE, a more rigorous evaluation of this board in action would reveal that CABE is giving an award to a board of education which:

• routinely violates or ignores its own bylaws (“BOE Chairman Violates Bylaws Minutes Before Reelection,” “Elected Committee Chair Removed by Appointed Board Chair”),

• has ignored consistent language in policies which on one occasion resulted in an incorrect vote tabulation for a vendor contract renewal (“Jersey Company Wins HPS Contract After Questionable Vote”),

• has members who rarely attend meetings (“Chronic Absenteeism on the Board of Education,” “The Board of One”),

• has not included student representatives in any meeting since 2020 (“Students at the Table”) despite its requirement in board bylaws (9160),

• has failed to maintain an accurate and timely calendar of meetings for the public on its web page,

• operates in the darkness as to evaluations of Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez’s performance (“Hartford Superintendent Receives Board’s Mid-Year Evaluation,” “Superintendent and BOE to Public: Accountability is None of Your Business”),

• is criticized over its vendor vetting efforts by one of its own members (“Board Member Browdy Vents Over Vetting,” “Three Contracts Without Demonstrating Success”),

• ignores false and misleading data reports given to them by Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez (“HPS Data: Some Wins, Some Losses & Some Lies,” “Superintendent Reports on 2022-23 School Year,” “The Board of Education Flops Again”),

• ignores complaints concerning the performance of Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez (“Facebook Conversation Reveals HPS Disfunction,” “Superintendent Keeps Public in the Dark About Threats,” “Superintendent Hit With Special Ed Complaints,” “The Culture of Fear in Hartford”),

• has failed to engage the community with the school system, witnessed by the 5-10 folks present at the board’s monthly public meetings who are not attached to or who are not seeking to do business with HPS.

Let’s be clear and honest, this board exists only to check off state mandated boxes and if not for that purpose, they could all stay home, and no one would be the wiser.  This board is inept, ineffective, and not worthy of a CABE award.  Any prestige attached to receiving a CABE award is diminished by the Hartford Public Schools Board of Education being named as a recipient of the award.