Underscoring the need in Hartford for a source of news such as the Hartford Schools Report, local residents sitting down with their latte or bowl of Cheerios to scan the news headlines on Wednesday morning, may feel left out of the loop as local media sources appeared to have joined in a concerted blackout of the news that on Tuesday night, the Hartford Board of Education failed to approve a contract extension for Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez (see the vote and discussion here).

Following a failed vote to table the motion to extend, the six-member board voted 3-3 on the extension, and this isn’t baseball, tie does not go to the runner.  Surprisingly, three board members switched their votes from how they voted in 2022.  Member Browdy switched to an “Aye” vote, while member Deristel-Leger and outgoing member Rigueur switched to “Nay” votes.

Although social media contained many comments from satisfied teachers and others following the vote, local news sources did not consider this non-renewal as newsworthy.  A Google news search and visits to the websites of the Hartford Courant, WFSB, WTNH, and the CTInsider found no stories on this important local vote, although, WTNH did include a line on the final vote at the bottom of an earlier story about the Hartford city council refusing to give Torres-Rodriguez an increase in budget monies.  By noon on Wednesday, the news was still not a headliner.

While shadowing a TV news cameraman like a lost puppy in the moments leading up to the vote, the superintendent’s propaganda guy, Jesse Sugarman, rushed out of the Weaver High School auditorium following the vote faster than I did, and I needed a smoke!  Nothing to see here folks, everybody go home.  Torres-Rodriguez’s nearly 8-year strategy of controlling the narrative coming out of HPS suddenly went silent.

What are we to make of the media blackout?  Was there a connection and concerted effort between insiders at HPS and those reporting the news to protect the superintendent and report only the fluff news given to them by HPS and Sugarman?  How are we to trust local media sources to provide us with the full story in the future?

And what does this vote mean?  Is the superintendent now a lame duck superintendent (her current contract runs until June of 2025)?  Can the new board (5 new members are reportedly being seated in June) revisit this issue?  Did Torres-Rodriguez want out anyway, justifying her top supporter on the BOE, member Rigueur, to change his vote to appear politically correct to the no-doubt majority population of Hartford, outside of A.J. Johnson’s church, which wished her replaced?

Enjoy your Cheerios.