TV “Shark” Mark Cuban said, “the earlier kids start thinking like entrepreneurs the better.”  The skills learned through thinking like an entrepreneur are skills which help young people throughout their entire lives.  “Those skills,” said Cuban, “are difficult to pick up in school.”

The company Eli Patrick & Co. has come to Hartford Public Schools to make it possible for 7th and 8th graders at Milner Middle School to pick up those skills and a whole lot more.

Eli Patrick is a Hartford based company which was founded in 2016 to assist non-profits in fundraising.  Skills gained and applied through that enterprise has garnered them success in their mentoring programs at public schools, such as those in Philadelphia, Camden, Baltimore, and Hartford. 

The head of Eli Patrick, Dr. William Clark is a Pastor at the Living Faith Church in Hartford.  Dr. Clark lists as references on his website: Kim Oliver, current Board Member and former colleague of Dr. Clark; Nuchette Black-Burke, Chief Engagement & Partnerships Officer in the Superintendent’s Cabinet; and Ayesha Clarke, former HPS Board Member and spouse to City Councilman TJ Clarke.

At the latest Hartford Board of Education’s Regular Meeting, Eli Patrick was granted $216,000 from a “School Improvement Grant,” to bring a personal and career mentoring program to the Milner School.

As part of this program, students will, at the end of the school year, engage in a “pitch competition” between other “student led groups.”  Each group will propose a business idea and the winning proposal will win a “student grant,” and assistance in launching their product.  There is no truth to the rumor that Mark Cuban will be judging the competition, as far as I could ascertain.

Proposals will be based on solving a problem in one of the following areas:

• ·         Social good (nonprofit)

• ·         Skill based or service product

• ·         Sale of a product or good

Hopefully, HPS will keep the public informed as to the progress of this exciting program.

But this program is more than pitching, it is about preparing students to “become leaders of themselves and their community.”  Some of the areas which this program will help students navigate are:

• • • ·         Self-awareness

    • ·         Attitudes

    • ·         Behaviors

    • ·         Consequences of choices

    • ·         Introductions to industries and employers in the Hartford area

    • ·         Financial and credit education

    • ·         Business entrepreneurship

    • ·         Career education

•  

Through the work of this program, together with working with school leadership, Eli Patrick “anticipates achieving the following outcomes” – no timeline given:

• ·         Less than 10% absenteeism

• ·         90% on-time enrollment into High School

• ·         Academic performance @75% or higher

Documents provided by HPS during the meeting state that Milner has participated in “similar” programs led by Dr. Clark, and has “reported improvement in student behavior, attendance, and outlook on their future.”  However, a search of BoardDocs reveals no previous interactions with the Board of Education and Eli Patrick & Co or Dr. William Clark.

Eli Patrick states that on average, in their work throughout the country, schools have achieved the following:

• ·         Absenteeism rate – 8%

• ·         On-time high school enrollment – 96%

• ·         “Successful” matriculation to 10th grade – 93%

• ·         Academic improvement – 85%

Again, no timelines were given for the data, however, the data points to successful tracking of students and results by Eli Patrick, something that is very rare in proposals before the Board, as rare as a Mark Cuban compliment of Kevin O’Leary.

When asked by Board Chair Phillip Rigueur if this program could be rolled out district wide, Dr. Clark stated that their only sample size has been individual schools, so that question could not be answered at this time.  However, with this “pilot,” and the engagement of school leaders, teachers, and parents, he believes he could answer that question in 18 months.

HPS states that Dr. Clark has led similar programs at Milner in the past, but as to when we are blind, so we are unable to assess any effects his programs have had on Milner’s chronic absenteeism rate.  However, as the chart below shows, Milner’s chronic absenteeism was nearly 40% prior to COVID, and astronomical since.