Less than six months after requesting a bonus from the board of education, and at about the same time that she was requesting a contract extension from the board, and after spending the last seven years paying at least $1.2 million for “financial strategies” from the consulting firm Education Resource Strategies (ERS), and after spending $155 million in COVID relief ESSER funds over the past three years (at one point paying ERS with ESSER funds for advise on how to spend ESSER funds), Hartford Schools Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez was summoned before the Connecticut State Board of Education (CSDE) to explain how the district was going to meet its responsibilities to Hartford students after proposing a district budget with the largest deficit in district history.

Using information gathered during a state audit of HPS and based upon the responses given to the CSDE by Torres-Rodriguez (along with her presentation entitled, “Infinite Possibilities”), the CSDE didn’t buy into her rhetoric like some spineless and weak board of education and issued an order on June 5th (read the state report with HPS presentation here) which authorizes the Commissioner of Education to “take the necessary actions” to address the “management and expenditure” of HPS financial resources.

The state has concerns (i.e., doubts), that the district, within the context of its current budget storm, will be able to meet its obligations as it pertains to undeserved students, dropout prevention, alternative and transitional programs, non-school hour academic enrichment supports, extended kindergarten programs, development or expansion of scientifically-based reading research and instruction, numeracy instruction, chronic absenteeism supports, enhancement of technology based teaching and learning, community involvement, provision of services to students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and HPS’s operation of interdistrict magnet schools in accordance with state law and the terms of the Sheff v. O’Neill agreement.

Those are a lot of concerns about a superintendent’s ability to handle the financial responsibilities of a district while that superintendent seeks bonuses and contract extensions from a board of education which said she was doing a fantastic job!

While yearly state audits of school districts are normal, it is rare that based on those audits the CSDE determines the district’s financial health and stability are so mismanaged that the state is ordered to step in and provide oversight to correct that mismanagement.

It is unclear exactly what this state financial oversight will mean to HPS.  Will a state financial administrator with final say over financial expenditures be appointed?  Will future budgets have to be submitted to state officials for approval?  Will the state order specific financial corrective measures?  Will this result in additional audits to identify waste, fraud, and abuse?

One thing is clear, however, the superintendent, with oversight provided by her most recent BOE, has performed like Captain Edward Smith of the RMS Titanic and has steered the unsinkable ship into an iceberg.