Recognizing the parliamentary, legislative, and oversight abilities lacking on the current Hartford Board of Education, in his four-page supplement to the current edition of the Hartford News, Hartford mayoral candidate Stan McCauley signaled that change is imminent.

As part of his “Center Youth & Families” plan, Mr. McCauley stated that “we have the potential to create highly effective schools. Unfortunately, we are lacking the necessary leadership and connections to make this a reality.”

To correct this, Mr. McCauley will remove the school board members appointed by Mayor Bronin (what was he thinking?!) and replace them with “city department heads” to collaborate and align visions and goals between the city and the school system.

In his current thinking, Mr. McCauley’s five new BOE appointees would come from the city’s Finance Department, Community Engagement, Metro Hartford Innovation Services, Procurement Services Unit, and the Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation (as is currently named and organized).

A Mayor McCauley would name his own directors for these city departments, so how that plays out and how willing these new department heads would be to leading a major city department while also serving on the school board, is something to watch for as his plan unfolds. 

Hartford schools and the community need Mr. McCauley to focus on appointing assessment and advocacy minded folks to the board, folks who understand that the purpose of a school board is not to act as another team of folks from the Superintendent’s central office.  Needed are folks who have and are willing to devote the time necessary to do effective work on the board, folks who recognize the critical importance of, and are willing to listen to and allow, the voice of teachers to become part of the board’s conversations.

Recognizing current Hartford Public Schools’ current leadership ability to contract out for developing school and community engagement but it’s inability to actually develop meaningful school and community engagement connections after seven years at the helm, Mr. McCauley states that he will be naming an “Education Chief to execute an education agenda for the city,” connecting “all facets of education” with community and local business concerns through the involvement of parent, resident, community, and business leader involvement.

Recognizing the poor support from current HPS leadership toward teachers, leadership that Mr. McCauley states is “leaving everyone frustrated and burned out,” Mr. McCauley wants a new “conversation,” a conversation between the teachers union, the teachers, the administration, and the private sector to “rally the resources” necessary for teacher support.

Other points to candidate McCauley’s education plan include:

• Assist students in creating a “graduation plan” by connecting them with members of the residential and private sectors.

• Call for “Dream Directors” in every school for student exposure and aspiration; “to spark the curiosity, purpose, and imagination” inherent in every human being.

• Create civically minded citizens and future leaders by “inviting young people to the urban planning and policy making table.”

• Fully support School Governance Councils as a “primary means of community and parent involvement.”

While the current mayor of Hartford has left the school system to whither on the vine and function on its own in the hands of ineffective leaders, and while the current city council has ignored the voice of the community when it has spoken on the school system, candidate J. Stan McCauley envisions a “realignment” of concerns, a realignment that connects and links the visions and the goals of the schools, the city, the community, and the private sector.  The true vision of the village needed to raise and educate children.