Wow! Did anyone get the plate of that bus?!

Captain Kirk would have been proud of the way Hartford Public Schools leadership deployed their deflector shields during a recent budget workshop.  By using words and phrases such as flexibility, opportunity, feedback, school level choices, school level decisions, and school level priorities, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez, Deputy Superintendent Paul Foster, and board member/chair Rigueur used the March 27th meeting to carefully create the background narrative that places the onus for staff cuts under the district’s 2024-25 school year budget squarely at the foot of school principals. 

Oh yes, she did save some criticisms for the state legislature, the city council, and the realities of school choice and the resulting tuition costs, and somewhere in her head, I suppose there’s some blame left over for something Donald Trump did on January 6th.

Torres-Rodriguez once painted herself as the guru of budgets and spending.  When HPS bank accounts were flush with federal COVID free money in May 2021, she stated that she had a plan, a “multi-year sustainability strategy” for spending that money.

sus·tain·a·ble

/səˈstānəb(ə)l/ 

adjective

adjective: sustainable

1.  able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

2.  able to be upheld or defended.

In her Yale University profile for their Education Studies program, it states that  while Torrez-Rodriguez has been “[f]ocused on operational effectiveness and financial sustainability, she has mitigated budget deficits totaling $105M between 2017-2020.”  Hmm.  In effect, she is saying, I’m a stickler for “financial sustainability,” while at the same time saying she has “mitigated budget deficits” in every year in which she has been a superintendent. Insert image of train wreck here.

While crowing about her “financial sustainability” plan and powers in the past, as well as her cunning ability to cut deficits, this year we find our superhero stating that next year’s budget was crafted with “extensive” engagement with school leaders, because, she said, engagement “is always at the center of how we work.”  Seriously, she said this. She stated that her office had “rigorous,” “meaningful,” and “robust” conversations with school leaders, “focused on how we can make more efficient and strategic investments.”  From these conversations was born the 2024-25 school year budget.

Shoring up the narrative of the responsibility of principals (while deflecting her own responsibility) when it comes to budget development and spending, Torres-Rodriguez included in her budget presentation a slide which shows that 32%, or $150 million, of next year’s budget (36% last year) is targeted for school level spending, where principals have flexibility, discretion, and choice.

So, while not shying away from taking the credit for “financial sustainability” and mitigating deficits in the past, we now find our superintendent putting the spotlight of autonomy on the principals, placing them on the loose rocks at the edge of the fiscal cliff.

While using her speaking time during the meeting to direct strong inferences toward principals, Torres-Rodriguez deftly stepped aside and let her deputy, Paul Foster, do the dirty work and lob the heaviest bombs in the direction of school leadership.

“Frankly,” said Foster, schools spent “over and above” what the district’s little Equity Starter Budget recommended.  While, apparently, central office sat nearby for three years and watched this profligate, unsustainable, spending on the part of principals. 

Foster said this “over and above” spending was the result of the choices and decisions made at the school level and so now the school leaders are realizing the “consequences” and have to make the hard reduction decisions.  Corinne Barney, the Superintendent’s Chief of Schools and Innovation, joined in Foster’s attack, stating that “school leaders drove the decision making” on staffing cuts, central office only stepped in if school leaders “struggled” with the decision making.  I bet they did.

It was during this part of the conversation where the superintendent’s protector and lapdog, board member/chair Rigueur, as if on scripted cue and to enhance the narrative being presented, sent a message to the Zoom screen, stating, “I think it is important to highlight who drove those decisions at a school level.”  I’m sure you do.

Rigueur would state later in the meeting, “We, as community leaders, empowered school leaders to make decisions,” and questioning those decisions now amounts to “overstepping.”  Rigueur referring to himself as a “community leader” amounts to overstepping.

School positions for the coming year, classes to be offered during the coming year, and instruction time in those classes for the coming year, will be, said Foster, “based on decisions made at the school level.”  I’d hate to be an HPS principal for the coming year.

Folks, it was only a year ago when Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez and education-minded folks from around the state delivered testimony to the state legislature, stating that by passing proposed bill HB5003, school districts would be prevented from falling over the fiscal cliff created by the expiration of federal COVID relief money which they had enjoyed over the past three years.

Here is portion of Torres-Rodriguez’s testimony which speaks to the fiscal cliff and the issue of budget-killing tuition (read the full testimony here):

“H.B. 5003 would also assist our district in bridging the looming “fiscal cliff” when federal COVID-relief dollars expire. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning and student mental health cannot be overstated. These impacts will linger long after the one-time federal dollars expire. By passing bills like H.B. 5003, you are helping districts across Connecticut continue to address the interruptions to learning, and respond to each and every child’s academic and social-emotional needs. H.B. 5003 also brings further benefit to Hartford, and districts around the state, by eliminating general education tuition billing. Each year, tuition costs place a significant burden on our district’s budget and impact our ability to support the students in our classrooms. By eliminating general education tuition billing, you are creating a more cohesive and transparent funding system, lifting all districts up, and allowing traditional local school districts and public school choice programs to thrive and their students to be properly and adequately funded. This is a crucial and highly significant step that, when coupled with revised and restructured special education funding, will provide the equitable funding system that our beautiful and capable students and staff deserve. This historic piece of legislation would make tremendous strides towards supporting all of Connecticut’s students and bringing true, equitable funding to our communities. I urge Committee members to support H.B. 5003…”

This district saving bill was passed by the Connecticut legislature, and here we are.  Either legislators turned to spineless jelly fish and passed a piece of watered down, face saving, legislation, or Torres-Rodriguez is as full of shit as a Christmas turkey and she is presenting a fraudulent budget scenario today.

During the 2018-19 pre-COVID school year, the Hartford Board of Education awarded 24 contracts to outside interests, totaling $5,895,000.  Then, flush with $155 million of Uncle Joe’s ESSER money, the BOE, during the 2022-23 school year, handed out 48 contracts to outside interests for a more than 200% dollar increase from 2018-19 to $20,134,611! (a PDF file of all contracts awarded for the 2018-19 and 2022-23 school years is available here). 

And how’s that working for ya?

au·dit

/ˈôdət,ˈädət/

noun

noun: audit; plural noun: audits

1.       an official inspection of an individual's or organization's accounts, typically by an independent body.

verb

verb: audit; 3rd person present: audits; past tense: audited; past participle: audited; gerund or present participle: auditing

1.        conduct an official financial examination of (an individual's or organization's accounts).

Let’s be clear, this latest budget meeting was held for sole purpose of creating a narrative which deflects fiscal responsibility from district leaders to school leaders who suddenly have the power of the purse in that they have discretionary control of 32% of the HPS’ budget.

Board Member Johnson said he “applauds the work by the district to ensure that the community is aware” of the budget process, but that people are focused on the cuts “too much,” and not on what is being kept.  Yes, people tend to focus more on what is bleeding rather than what is merely an itch.

Board Member Leger left the meeting early to teach a yoga class.