Geez, I wonder how these things happen? Coincidence? I think not. The following statement was issued today by Hartford's Superintendent of Schools. I wonder if she just completed a BASIC management course and suddenly decided how to identify waste. Did she suddenly get a revelation from that little devil on her shoulder, whispering in her ear.
Since I am not a considered a legitimate journalist according to Kelvin Roldan and Pedro Zayas from the Hartford Schools, I doubt it had anything to do with my FOI requests that exposed the almost $70,000-.00 junket during a dire budget crisis, that involved sending over 30 employees to Miami to pick up an award.
Quite possibly it occurred because a "legitimate" journalist from NBC Connecticut's Troubleshooters,my mentor, Len Besthoff, was made aware of the trip and reckless spending by "We the People" and is featuring the story on the Nightly news tonight on Channel 30..
Whatever the reason, however change takes place, it is a good thing,. and this is definitely not the end of it yet. The lid is about to come off the operations at the Hartford Schools, and this is only happening with your help and information. Once again a heartfelt thank you for doing the right thing.
The statement from the Superintendent is below
Here is my original postinghttp://wethepeoplehartford.blogspot.com/2016/05/my-apologies-to-drunken-sailors.html
Dear Employees of the Hartford Public Schools,
Our decentralized professional development approach that is inherent in the operation of a Portfolio District has recently raised concerns. More to the point, what was an opportunity for celebration in receiving the Magnet Schools of America Donna Grady-Creer District Award for Magnet Sustainability, has instead revealed a flaw in our travel approval process. We are honored to receive this award and, clearly, the Hartford Public Schools needed presence at the event.
In addition to receiving this prestigious distinction, 11 of our schools also received awards, while our staff successfully submitted four presentations. This is important because it positions the district for revenue opportunities as a recognized leader in educational innovation. However, it is also clear that there was no need for such a large presence. Over the last few months I have consistently been clear about our need to face the reality of our budget and the city’s fiscal crisis.
As such, effective immediately, I am ordering a moratorium on all out-of-state travel that is non-essential and that would require payment, in whole or in part, by the Hartford Public Schools budget. This moratorium shall apply to all travel expenses not already incurred as of today, May 26, 2016. Essential travel is limited to the following: travel that is necessary to maintain academic accreditation; required professional development in support of the core academic program of our schools and the district; or required travel by a granting institution necessary to maintain funding. In all cases, travel will be reviewed and approved by the Chief School Improvement Officer and the Chief of Staff. All pre-approved travel is immediately placed under review.
In addition, I have ordered that all policies and procedures related to participation in conferences and other activities that require out-of-state travel to be immediately reviewed and that new processes be put in place.
Once again, I am asking for your diligent attention and compliance with this directive.
Sincerely,
Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, Ed.D.
Superintendent
26 comments:
Great job exposing this atrocity will the names of the staff that went on this trip be released??
Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, or should I address you as Dr. Schiavino-Narvaez, wake up, open your eyes, stop spending the taxpayers hard earned money.
How stupid do you think we are ?????? 8 days of school left and a moratorium is being imposed on travel. How about a moratorium on hiring incompetent leaders and a directive on getting rid of those that are in place now, including the superintendent herself. How convenient that this news came out hours before the teacher of the year banquet. This is unbelievable !!!!!
Why did the BOE send Genao (perv) to Atlanta just before he was arrested??? WHY? How much did this trip cost? Who else went? He did not go alone. Must have been a pretty important trip. Did he make any new "Friends" while he was there? WHY THE ATLANTA TRIP Rich Waring??
And everybody knows the Superintendent is nothing more than the highly paid puppet of the BOE. PLACE BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS- on Rich Waring and the BOE
Ahhhhh, the influence of Brookman's Blog . . . you're 3 for 3 this month! Killed the house deal on Tower Ave, exposed the highly-paid perv at the BOE and got him arrested and now, limited BOE travel. What are you going to pull out of your hat next, Kevin??
thank you Alyssa for the vote of confidence. None of it could be done without my great sources and the people that trust me and are willing to confide in me. But stay tuned, as they say, the best is yet to come
Kevin, First, kudos to you. Don't let it go to your head. This platform you operate on is quite successful. But I have said this before to you, select a small group of close friends to assist with this. It's too important to cease if one day, you become ill.
Len Bestoff is really dedicated. And Kevin, you are as much a journalist as Mark Twain was a writer of humor. He never had a formal education. When you work diligently at a chosen field, and you succeed as you have, believe me, you are a legitimate journalist.
Great work, love your blog, best journalist covering the city of Hartford, thank you
JUST SAW THE 11PM NEWS- GREAT REPORTING. Please to see you receive the credit you deserve and have to agree with all the other compliments to you Kevin. Don't let up! There is more under the skin of the BOE onion. RICHARD WAREING, BETH NARVAEZ, GISLAINE NGONOU, PAULA ALTIERI, AND JILL HODGEMAN are the real rotten onions at the BOE. I still can't believe at least one of them have not turned in their resignation. But I shouldn't be surprised. That would be the honorable thing to do and we are talking about people who are the bottom of the barrel scum. But they better watch out now that you are onto their shit. We the People will bring light to where there is darkness. Public-don't stop now, keep giving Kevin the ammo (information) he is not afraid to use it. We can make a difference, let's show the crooked BOE we are taking our school district back!
Jenna Carlesso is worthless and a lazy reporter. All she is good for is receiving press releases from the Mayor's office and printing them in the Hartford Courant.
Hotel fees of $25,214/33 = $764 per person ($191 per night for 4 nights).
Did each staff member get their own hotel suite? Where did they stay? The Ritz Carlton?
Conference fees of $24,057/33 = $729 per person - Jeez, I guess after spending that much they would have to get an award, right?
Narvaez obviously sanctioned this lavish trip. (By the way, who covered the workload of the 33 employees while they were away?). She was quoted in the Magnet Schools of America press release upon the acceptance of their "award" so she clearly knew all the details about the trip. Then when she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar she issues the travel moratorium. What a freaking joke!
From the Courant: "In an email to staff Thursday afternoon, Narvaez did not blame anyone in particular. But she wrote that "what was an opportunity for celebration in receiving the Magnet Schools of America Donna Grady-Creer District Award for Magnet Sustainability has instead revealed a flaw in our travel approval process." I'd at least have some respect for her if she stepped up and took full responsibility. Just disappointed and a little disgusted at the complete disregard of common sense and then the ridiculous "no blame" backpedaling.
I am so pissed I can't see straight. Good for nothing lazy so called journalist Vanessa DeLatore who writes for the rag the Courant didn't have the decency to acknowledge that she got all of her info for her travel gate article from We the People. I think she must work for the BOE. That is something those top administrators at the HBOE would do. Vanessa I know you read this blog - Shame on YOU!!! I will call you what you what you are a lying piece of crap plagiarist. My sister graduated from Stanford ass did you, you give that University a bad name. At least give acknowledgement to where you stole your story from. GEEZE (SMH)
I need to beg for supplies at my school
Wareing must go! Supt must go! Word is more layoffs are coming this year.We do not trust her leadership. I do not want a leader that protects a pedophile instead of our children, approves placing dots on kids, mismanages money, has no plan to lead and always has to apologize because she gets caught in her lies. For the sake of our children, we must march down to the mayor's office and demand her immediate removal NOW! Our kids must be protected from Beth and Richard! Why is Gislene still here? How about we use travel money to save needed staff or better yet fix the expulsion program that is being investigated by Feds? Who evaluated Genao this year? Why was his director of compliance never posted? Why would Richards law firm want to have someone who protects a predator work there? Does the law firms clients know this? Board members must ask for her removal or they must go. Great Job Kevin and please help us protect our children!
The District abuses the City's kids. Whether it spends $250million, $500million or $1billion, it operates in an inhumane bureaucratic mode, and has failed to even minimally educate thousands of kids year after year. It's not Rich W. or this Superintendent, such as she is. It's the State's District implementing the State's program. There is no local control.
But, why must the District's bureaucrats be so dishonest and be so deficient in transparency? Call Matt Ritter, Minnie Gonzales, and Dannel Mal-loy.
Narvaez's will never hand in her resignation. She has a guaranteed contract. That's why she doesn't care about doing what's right for the children or the city. The only time she acts is when it's to clean up her image, for her next job of course. While she talks about budget and people being fiscally irresponsible, she continues to send Hartford money to her friends from Massachusetts (Harvard) by creating or expanding contracts to City Connects and Achievement Network. But hey, it's Hartford Public Schools Central Office - where it's not about what you know and can bring to the table, but who you know and how you can split up what's on the table.
@peter brush, now that's funny, would anyone call Malloy or any leaders at the state? Is the state management or spending transparent or well managed? I would like to see their travel expenses just for giggles.
At 11:21pm, don't worry some of them are leaving soon. By choice.
12:21am
I agree with everything you said, but I have also learned that those who can, do, and those who can't copy and claim it as their own. Why is it that a little local blogger can break stories? Because I have developed excellent sources and I do the legwork to confirm and verify with FOI requests and documents. I don't sit back and wait for a spokesperson to feed me my stories and I am beholding to no one.
One major factor that keeps me going is my entire reason for starting this Blog, to get information out and expose problems. When NBC Connecticut works with me and we exchange information, upwards of 60,000 people see that story when it airs. It takes me a couple weeks to get that many people to visit the blog. And when the Courant grabs my stories, I know the numbers are much lower on their readership but still, the message is getting out.
And because Len Besthoff and the people at Channel 30 tend to be ethical and give credit where credit is due, they have been around and understand reputation and respectability and credibility, not so much with Vanessa and the people at the Courant.
So stay calm and read on. I intend to be doing this for a while and I appreciate the support of you and all of my readers who have made "We the People" successful
@10:05
She could announce her source but that would make her loose cried with her colleagues but they already know. So she only portrays herself as insecure.
@peter brush, now that's funny, would anyone call Malloy...?
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The point is not that the State is operated by people on the up and up, but that the schools are the State's business. For my money there are very few pols as dishonest as Mal-loy, so I wouldn't call. But, how about if Mayor Bronin were to give his old boss a buzz, tell him that the City can't afford (a baseball stadium nor) hundreds of millions per year for the State's abusive education apparatus.
Kevin- I think Peter Brush may have a good point. The Mayor is ignoring the people. Maybe we should Call Commissioner of Education Diane Wentzell, Matt Ritter, Minnie Gonzales, and Dannel Mal-loy. Maybe they will listen to us and help up put pressure on these incompetent so called leaders. Kevin is it possible to post the telephone numbers and email address of the leaders above so that we can email them for support. I am willing to try anything except give up! Thanks for considering.
I have worked as teacher in Hartford Public Schools for 27 years and it has never ever been this bad. The lack of trust in leadership, The big salary central office staff, traveling all over the country on the back of taxpayers and our students and their families while the teachers have to beg and most times pay for our own supplies for our students. This year alone I have spent over $500 on school supplies for my classes that is not reimbursable like the travel for administrators. Teachers are afraid to speak out because of people like Jill Cutler Hodgeman who will fire you for any unsubstantiated reason. Our Teacher's Union has just given up trying to work with the Superintendent. This Superintendent and School Board Chair appear to be sleeping with each other as close as they are always joined at the hip together. Neither is respected by teachers and if Narvaez is still Superintendent the teachers will be calling for a vote of no confidence in September based on so so many mistakes and demonstrations of poor judgment. Andrea Johnson, I know you don't think we teachers are ready, but I disagree - I think we could hold a vote of no confidence before the June 21 Board of Ed Meeting. At least discuss it with some of reps at the schools. I am ready to be bold on behalf of the students and their families even though the Mayor and the BOE Chair are not. And Narvaez can take her busy friend Gislene Ngnou with her and go back to Harvard where you talk about how to make a difference but don't know how to make a difference.
@9:58pm, have you submitted a reimbursement for the $500 in supplies? Most are reimbursable but it does require you to fill out the paperwork and have your principal approve it. The district has million dollar budgets for supplies annually so speak to your school principal. And if they are telling you otherwise, tell your Union and they can add it to their agenda or discuss it publicly. Most times the people that can help with these matters are never told. Finally, make sure you are deducting this on your taxes. If you are a teacher the IRS allows for an annual $250 tax credit for classroom supplies. It's not everything but should help a bit until the matter is resolved.
@9:44
You want to call Mini Mouse to resolve an issue? Perhaps you should call Mikey Mouse and Donald Duck, too. That should help.
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