Embedded Files
Hartford Schools Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez surprised the folks at a Maple Avenue Revitalization Group NRZ (MARG) meeting this week, unexpectedly visiting the meeting a month before she was scheduled to do so. Less opportunity for the community at large to arm themselves with questions and ideas which the Superintendent would rather not face without warning, perhaps.
However, one sees in this sort of public engagement, a more valuable public experience with the school system than the current school board could ever provide with their monthly “Public Comment” practice. This was truly, community involvement on the part of HPS, and the community should thank the Superintendent for making “community engagement” more than just a feel-good line in a policy document.
There were many questions and the Superintendent did not dodge any of them. However, she didn’t exactly express reality in a few of her responses.
The Superintendent told the folks at the NRZ that the district is pleased with the “significant improvement” they’ve been able to accomplish with regards to chronic absenteeism over the past year, citing a drop from 46% “at this time last year,” to 36% “today.”
HPS ended the 2021-22 school year with a 46% chronic absenteeism rate. The Superintendent gives a number of 46% for March of 2022, which means over the last 3 months of last school year, chronic absenteeism did not improve at all.
And then HPS started the 2022-23 school year. What she didn’t mention was that for the first 4 months of this school year, chronic absenteeism rose month after month to 41%, and stood at 38% in mid-February (“HPS Chronic Absenteeism Resumes Upward Trend”).
At the end of last year, the district’s neighborhood high schools, Bulkeley, Weaver, and Hartford High, had chronic absenteeism rates of between 65% and 78%. Not exactly fitting into the Superintendent’s “significant improvement” category.
The Superintendent’s goal of a 24% chronic absenteeism rate for 2024, displayed for the Board at a February Family & Community Engagement Committee meeting, would align that metric with what it was in HPS 2 years prior to COVID, which was 25% in 2017, the worst rate of a public school district in the state.
Before COVID, HPS leadership was concerned with the high level of chronic absenteeism. It got so bad that in 2019, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez began paying students to attend summer school.
The Superintendent told the NRZ audience that through HPS and the city working together, Mayor Luke Bronin “declared” chronic absenteeism “an emergency in the city” in 2019. One would think that if an emergency exists in the city, the public would be notified by various media outlets, however, no record of this public declaration of an emergency could be located.
The Superintendent’s flair for not completing her art work, not painting the whole picture, was then displayed by her comment on the district’s budget. Prior to multiple cuts, “mitigation” is the term the district leadership will use, HPS was facing a $24 million budget deficit for the 2023-24 school year. Last month, the Board approved, under questionable circumstances, a budget with a $2 million deficit. The Superintendent told the NRZ that the Board had just passed a “balanced” budget. The public needs a better punch line to this joke.
The Superintendent saved her best con job for last. A teacher present at the NRZ meeting, Mr. Richard De Meij, spoke about the many behavioral issues in his classrooms and stated that if the Superintendent did a “listening tour” of teachers, they would speak of the same issues. Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez did not believe this teacher, stating, “I don’t see that…I’m in schools regularly and I don’t see that.”
Below are 2 charts showing what the Superintendent is not seeing. The charts reveal the count of each incident for the years shown. The COVID years of 2019-20 and 2020-21 have been omitted. Two charts are used for ease of viewing due to the wide range of incident counts. All data provided by EdSight.
The chart below shows the percentage change in each incident from 2 years before COVID to last year, and from one year before COVID to last year.
For example, above the label “Weapons” (which could mean anything from a bag of rocks to a pair of scissors), from 2018 to last year, there was a 58% rise in incidents involving a “weapon” in Hartford schools.
From 2019 to last year, there was a 56% rise in incidents involving a “weapon” in Hartford schools, which of all incidents, this category saw the largest increase from 2019 to 2022. All data provided by EdSight.
Combining all incidents for each year shown, reveals that from the 2017-18 school year to last year, there was a 21% rise in total incidents. Also, for the school year 2018-19 to last year, there was a 21% rise in all incidents. Total incidents from the 2 pre-COVID years compared with last year have seen a 21% rise, yet the Superintendent, who states she is in schools “regularly,” states, “I don’t see that.”
In response to Mr. De Meij’s comment that the bad behaviors are receiving no “leadership focus,” the Superintendent stated that they are “doing something.” HPS has hired 20 more social workers, has focused on issuing teachers professional development for handling bad behaviors, and has sought the assistance of community partners, which means giving some non-profit hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to…I’m not sure.
“I don’t see that.”
This is a very problematic statement to make when you claim to be a data driven leader. Who would go to a museum to see an unfinished painting of the Mona Lisa? How does a discussion missing half of the facts entice engagement by parents and the community?
Much can be done about chronic issues in HPS if parents in Hartford recognize that the school system by itself is not doing right by your child, so your help is required. Chronic absenteeism and bad behaviors of students could be small speed bumps on the road to graduation if parents go to school leadership and tell them, “I see what you do not, and I want to help.”
In other words, rather than the Superintendent continuing to pay questionable sums to “community partners” without moving the needle, she ought to be creating “parent partnerships.” Give more parents a lens to the issues, that damn needle will move, guarantee.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse