I would like to say that the Hartford Board of Education has been crippled by the resignations of three members since October (“BOE Loses Second Member in Three Months”), however, the current board was crippled by ineffectiveness and cluelessness long before Yahaira Escribano left the BOE and became Mayor Arunan Arulampalam’s secretary.

Despite the ability to fill those vacancies, which nobody really noticed, with three available wooden Indians made from knotted pine, the Mayor appeared before a large crowd at the Maple Avenue NRZ meeting last week and said that he has been interviewing candidates and expects to name three new members of the BOE within a few weeks.

Per the Hartford Charter, you know the one, the one where the Charter Revision Committee, which included private citizen Arunan Arulampalam, ignored the community’s request for an all-elected board of education rather than a majority mayoral-appointed board, the Mayor’s new appointees must be approved by the city council and then the board of ed.  These approval meetings will serve as a local version of Washington’s confirmation hearings, but it is doubtful we will hear about things such as somebody putting pubic hair in someone’s Coca-Cola.

As the Mayor attempts to fill the off-target appointments of former Mayor Bronin (2 down, 3 to go) in filling the board vacancies, the Hartford school community would be best served if he appointed oversight and accountability minded folks, which is a board member’s duty and responsibility but is, with the current board, about as rare as an Israeli at MIT.

Unbeknownst to current board members, HPS Board Policy 1206 states:

“Governance is the primary role of the elected and appointed School District Board member. Governance involves ensuring the delivery of required educational and support services in the district by providing oversight and policy to the Superintendent regarding those services and desired results. Governance is strategically based governance and policy focused on effecting system improvement and sustainability.”

In other words, it is the duty and responsibility of the board of education to provide oversight on the services and the results of those services which are currently being thrown against the wall with hopes they stick by the superintendent.

While we can pull any board meeting out of the hat and give examples where current board members have abandoned the spirit and responsibility of Policy 1206, lets just use the most recent March 11, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting to underscore the pathetic actions of this board.

Asked if he had any questions regarding another $220,000 contract being given to the company Stay Plugged In (SPIN for short) for Esports labs, Board Member Johnson assessed their performance by saying “we have supported something like this in the past…unless anything is different…I support it.”

Well, something is different, they’ve been in HPS for over a year now and during the spin for their initial contract, “Hartford Schools to Get Esports Lab,” SPIN told of how positively this was going to effect the academics, attendance, and engagement of those kids in the program.  However, after one year in service, not one piece of data verifying those positive effects was presented to the board on March 11th and not one board member thought it a good idea to ask.

Wooden Indians, great for selling cigars, not so great for school boards.