Looking to reverse the damage done to Hartford Public Schools by the hands-off approach taken by Mayor Luke Bronin over the last eight years, Mayor-elect Arunan Arulampalam has created a link between City Hall and HPS central office as he announced the names of folks who will be co-chairing his various committees (Hartford Courant, 14 Nov. 2023: B1).

Arunan’s goal is to promote collaboration between city departments, to “bring people together.”  Hartford City Councilwoman Marilyn Rossetti said, “Oftentimes things are done in silos.  Here’s an opportunity for us to genuinely cross over and talk to each other.”  This anti-silo campaign was a major part of the mayoral campaign of the woulda-coulda-shoulda been mayor-elect (“mistakes were made,” said the Registrar of Voters), J. Stan McCauley.

This sounds like a plan, however, Richard Sugarman, the person named by Arulampalam to co-chair the “youth and education committee” (as named by the Hartford Courant) has been talking with Hartford Public Schools on a business level for many years and has deep business and personal connections to HPS, none of which have turned this district into a realtor’s dream, or an idiot’s nightmare.

Mr. Sugarman said in 2015 that his “favorite cause” was improving the lives of folks in Hartford communities, while he chooses to live in West Hartford.  In doing so he has led non-profits like The Connecticut Forum and Hartford Promise, while also doing consultant work for The Village for Families and Children, as well as Hartford Public Schools.  No, there is no evidence of an educational degree or actual educational experience in Mr. Sugarman’s background.   As a result of his working to save Hartford communities…well, Believe in Hartford, says Mr. Arulampalam.

Mr. Sugarman, along with his wife Doris, founded the Connecticut Forum, a million-dollar a year non-profit bringing folks together for bridge building conversation and sharing of ideas.  Bill Knight, the CMO of Adams & Knight Marketing, an HPS contracted partner tasked with bringing teachers to Hartford, sits on the board of The Connecticut Forum.  When they began the Connecticut Youth Forum program, The Connecticut Forum became a contracted partner of HPS.

Mr. Sugarman’s non-profit, Hartford Promise, was involved in HPS’ June of 2022 $2 million “investment” for building a “post-secondary pipeline,”  a pathway for “college scholarships and success.”  Mr. Sugarman’s son, Jesse Sugarman, employed as the chief propaganda specialist at HPS, created and gave the presentation on Hartford Promise to the BOE in June of 2022.  HPS Superintendent Torrez-Rodriguez sits on the board of Hartford Promise.

Mr. Sugarman has “advised and consulted” with the Village for Families and Children, a perennial half-million dollar contracted partner of HPS, while also advising and consulting with the folks at Travelers, who routinely funnels money through HPS to non-profits working to save Harford schools.

So, while the Six Degrees of Richard Sugarman has created years of cross-community collaboration, perhaps now that it has reached the highest elected office in Hartford (elected, not paid, that title belongs to HPS’ superintendent), we may finally see some positive movement in Hartford Public Schools.

On the downside, all this siloed back scratching makes it doubtful that our new mayor will seek to rectify Mayor Luke Bronin’s largest mistake and apply pressure to the USA's weakest board of education to remove the now well-connected Leslie Torrez-Rodriguez as superintendent of Hartford Public Schools.

UPDATE, (Nov. 24):  In 2008, Richard Sugarman was on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Center for School Change, another HPS contracted partner, which has since seen a name and mission rebranding to the Partners for Educational Leadership, a current contracted partner of HPS.