At the Hartford Board of Education’s November regular meeting, the board welcomed and approved Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez’s choice for Chief Academic Officer, Ms. Kondra Rattley of Charlotte, North Carolina.  Ms. Rattley replaces Madeline Negron who earlier this year was selected as the Superintendent of New Haven Schools and who has been dealing with a $6 million computer hacking and a multiple-school lockdown due to neighborhood shootings; other than that, she’s doing great.

Ms. Rattley has served in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District (CMS) in various capacities over the last 27 years, most recently as “an assistant superintendent, specifically as a learning community superintendent,” says the South Charlotte Weekly.  It was reported that Ms. Rattley’s contract was approved by the CMS board of education in May and would run from July 2023 to June 2024 at $170,000.  However, here we are 5 months later and HPS was able to lure her from Charlotte to Hartford before the end of her contract with CMS.  That’s a coup…or was it?

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District is made up of 180 schools with more than 140,000 students divided into six Learning Communities.  Ms. Rattley served as the superintendent of the Southeast Learning Community of 25 schools.  At CMS, 65% of the students are Black or Hispanic and the graduation rate in 2020-21 was 83%.  However, North Carolina students are given an ACT test, along with the SAT, to measure college readiness.  In 2020-21 only 21% of students taking the ACT test met the benchmark in each of the four categories: English, math, science and reading.

In 2017, Ms. Rattley and the district fought with Charlotte-Mecklenburg families over the closing of two low-ranking neighborhood middle schools and combining all the students into one school which would become a magnet school.  For the 2021-22 school year, Wilson STEM Academy underperformed the rest of CMS district and the state in performance grading, scoring an overall ‘D’ grade.

During HPS’ board meeting, Ms. Rattley responded to Board Member Browdy’s question about Ms. Rattley’s commitment to HPS, since she’s not from these parts.  Ms. Rattley assured Ms. Browdy that she is dedicated and committed to HPS and then she uttered a statement that I’m sure gave Torres-Rodriguez agita.  Ms. Rattley said that she is committed because “it takes 3-5 years to get things done.”  Torres-Rodriguez is on the 8-year plan and still floundering around like a fish out of water.

Torres-Rodriguez’s blood pressure most likely also rose after Ms. Browdy asked Ms. Rattley about her views on schools working with and supporting families, because said Ms. Browdy, that’s “not so much of what we do now.”  Ms. Rattley said that you “can’t do it without families.”   There’s the secret sauce!

Ms. Browdy abstained from the vote approving the contract of Ms. Rattley.