As Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez’s current contract is set to expire in June 2025, and since the Board of Education has previously approved extensions in June of 2020 and 2021, and in September of 2022, it is expected that a request for another contract extension will come before the board in the next three months.

While her failures, academically, financially, and in a culture and climate context, have been well documented here and are quite evident to many teachers, community members, and even central office staff (“Internal HPS Survey Reveals ‘Toxic’ Climate in Central Office”),  it is troublesome that the BOE disregards these failures with some members employing blind, nauseating assessments of her eight years as head of the district.  This creates the fearful sense that the Helen Kellers on the board will overrule evidence, common sense, and clear-thinking board members and approve any contract extension Torres-Rodriguez may seek.

For a comprehensive assessment of the district under Torres-Rodriguez, one only has to look at the focus of the state’s newly created 119k Commission.  This group was formed to study the causes and potential solutions to the problem of Connecticut’s 119,000 “disengaged” and “at risk” youth (“Report: Hartford Tops the List for ‘Disconnected’ and ‘At Risk’ Young People”).  The groups focus are those young people between the ages of 14 and 26, and it was stated at their first public forum that it all begins with academics.  Using that cohort, and remembering that Hartford has a greater percentage of  “disconnected” and “at risk” young folks than any other city in Connecticut, each one of these troubled kids have gone through, or are currently enrolled in, the school district run by Torres-Rodriguez.  The 119k Commission will hold a public forum in Hartford on July 23rd.

That being said, and to that left unsaid for the moment, a vote to extend the contract of the superintendent should not occur while the board sits in its current crippled state.  This is not, which one might correctly assume, said in reference to the board’s inability to do their job as required by policy and common sense, but it is said in reference to the board being three members short of a full board.

The board is statutorily made up of nine members to ensure that the full spectrum of community stakeholders is represented.  Absent a full board, highly important decisions such as retaining the superintendent might not accurately reflect the needs and concerns of the broader community.  This is an especially important plot point to consider due to the fact that one of the missing players was an elected board member, elected by the broader community.  Sure, this member was Yahaira Escribano, who left the board to begin a three-month career as Mayor Arulampalam’s Chief of Staff, and who stated during the last vote on a contract extension in September of 2022 that she was going to go against the wishes of her constituency and “take a leap of faith” and give her approval on the extension, but still…

Absent a full board vote on such significant matters as this can raise questions about the legitimacy of the decision; even Torres-Rodriguez would not want to go into the historical record with an asterisk.  Haven’t we had enough talk of illegitimate elections?

Mayor Arulampalam stated during an NRZ meeting last month that candidates to fill the board vacancies were being interviewed and decisions were forthcoming.   The community needs your decision now!  The children of Hartford Schools need your decision now!

The BOE, having been thwarted by the voices of the public in their attempts to approve a bonus for the superintendent in December, albeit, by taking the cowards way out with a vote to ‘table’ the resolution rather than a vote for or against, the current makeup of the board could make a sleazy end run around that vote by approving a contract extension with a pay raise.  The voice of the public is needed once again to prevent that from happening and to ensure a legitimate future for Hartford school children.