This one is a mind bender.

In February, Hartford Public Schools leadership gushed with glee when they were awarded a $2.1 million dollar federal grant (it’s an election year, loyalty by Connecticut pols was repaid) over five years for HPS’ full service community schools program (“$2.1 Milllion Over Five Years Nets HPS Three New Central Office Staffers”).

Rather than hiring much needed teachers for any of the schools labeled “full-service community schools,” the district made no secret of the fact in their application for the grant that this money was to hire three central office folks.  After eleven years knee deep into the community schools program, suddenly, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez requires three extra personnel in central office to keep the program running.

But that’s not the mind bender.

During the March 27th budget workshop, a mere month after getting the $2.1 million federal grant for the full-service community schools program, HPS provided slide information which revealed that district funding toward the full-service community schools program would be cut by $500,000!

Towards the end of the budget workshop, Board Member Johnson stated, “we have the best and brightest minds working” for our students, and he wasn’t talking about the teachers.