Yahaira Escribano has done much to delegitimize the BOE since her election in 2021.  Dissing on the public trust given to her by the voters, Escribano missed 40% of all BOE meetings in 2022, leading only Member Deristel-Leger in meetings attended by elected members. 

While sharing office space with the mayor-elect at the ruse known as the Hartford Landbank, and while prioritizing her time lobbying for a position within a future Mayor Arulampalam administration, her attendance at BOE meetings this year has been worse.

At BOE meetings she did attend, Escribano’s work on the board can no way be described as the work of a fighter, a community advocate, for the children of Hartford schools, but instead is best described as one where she accepted and joined her colleagues in a gutless laissez-faire approach to school governance and oversight.

During a BOE meeting earlier this year, one where Escribano was the only board member present and one where a third-party vendor was seeking a $130,000 contract, Escribano stated: “I have no questions…this is a straight forward contract…we’ve done this already.” 

However, less than two weeks later, Escribano interrupted the flow of business during a Regular Meeting to respond to criticisms directed at the manner in which the BOE awards vendor contracts (not sure where those came from), stating that “every” contract proposal is vetted “thoroughly,” “we ask very detailed questions…go through all the details,” as if donning some righteous cloak of indignation and making a statement in and of itself makes that statement a true statement; the district and BOE way.

Escribano’s attendance at board meetings, which, if compared to a student’s attendance at school would be labeled “chronically absent,” (do as I say, not as I do), is not the only way she has revealed her “vote for me and go screw yourself” attitude toward the voters of Hartford. 

During a BOE vote to extend the contract of Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez last fall, Escribano stated that despite “many” of her constituents being unhappy with the performance of the Superintendent and the direction of the district and wanting her to vote ‘no,’ she will “take a leap of faith” and vote to extend the Superintendent’s contract into 2025.

This appointment by the mayor-elect does not signal a strong and effective administration in Hartford City Hall.  The administration will collapse like a house of cards due to its shallow ineffectiveness and be a daily source of bemused embarrassment.

In other political news involving Hartford Public Schools, the Superintendent’s Chief Engagement Officer, Nuchette Black-Burke, will become Windsor’s new “mayor” as she was the top voter getter in the election for city council members, receiving 3 more votes than the second-place finisher.