Many times people avoid difficult decisions saying it is legal, but the greater question is "is it moral?" Such should be the issue facing Hartford's Superintendent of Schools Beth Schiavino-Narvaez.
Schiavino-Narvaez faced off with an angry crowd of parents last night at a budget hearing. Narvaez is spearheading the effort to lay off close to 250 Hartford Schools employees, including teachers and other professionals. All of this at a time when Narvaez is greedily accepting her 3% raise , potentially increasing her salary to $270,000 next year. Narvaez's salary is currently about $257.500.
Even Mayor Luke Bronin gave back $20,000 of his salary after taking office and realizing the City was in dire financial condition. Narvaez continues to take and take, giving nothing back from her salary and at the same time willing to lay people off.
Legally, she may be entitled by her contract, but where does the morality enter in. Superintendent Narvaez, you have failed every child and parent in the Hartford School System by your handling of the Eduardo Genao matter. Not just in your handling of the situation after his arrest became public knowledge, but even prior to his arrest.
I have a hard time believing that you had no knowledge or had any indication of his pattern of predatory behavior prior to April. You promoted him and if you were doing your job you would have reviewed his personnel file and seen the previous allegations.
The fact that my FOI requests for those same documents have sat in your office for over a month indicates to me that you do not want this situation exposed further. May it be that you realize you are part of a cover up that allowed one of your immediate subordinates to prey on innocent children?
Even the e-mails I requested to and from Dr. Ngoudou through an FOI request have met a brick wall. Why? What are you hiding?
How you can morally think about laying off teachers and the "worker bees" in our schools when you keep an over priced Chief of Staff sitting next to you. The same Chief of Staff who also failed very child and parent in the Hartford Schools when she was "too busy" to look into allegations of Eduardo Genao preying on a child.
Several of those teachers could continue teaching if we got rid of an ineffective Chief Of Staff at $170,000 a year in salary plus close to another $100,000 in benefits
You should both be ashamed of yourselves every time you look in the mirror and realize the reflection looking back at you enabled a predator . And every member of the Board of Education that allows this behavior to go on hoping it will just go away should also be ashamed of themselves for violating the trust that has been placed in them..
In the meantime, the cover up continues as documents are destroyed and kept secret. A source of mine in the Superintendent's Office has advised me that Eduardo Genao's personnel folder is half as thick as it was before his arrest as documents are purged to avoid any implication or knowledge by the "higher-ups".
Dr. Narvaez and Dr Ngoudou should both be looking for alternative employment where they don't need to worry about the "moral" decisions they need to make to protect children. They clearly are not up to the job requirements
You can see more on Genao, including allegations by employees that Genao's behavior went on for years, at WVIT NBC Connecticut Troubleshooter Jill Konopka
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9 comments:
Narvaez knew exactly all along what was happening. The Hartford Board of Education is as bad as, or worse than the Catholic Church in covering for pedophiles and child predators. The shredders are running overtime in the Superintendent's Office
How can she sleep at night.
Narvaez's salary is currently about $257.500
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But, she's (over)paid by the District not the City. The question is why we allow the State of Connecticut to impose this horrible bureaucratic monstrosity on the City and its kids.
Was Narvaez the one hired with so much fan fare a couple of years ago? Who could have guessed that she'd be having such problems since she is just so well educated?
She must be in it solely for the money and will drag out her employment as long as possible. Surely, an individual so educated would know that she had absolutely no chance of improving the system or raising scores. If it is possible to raise the scores of inner city kids, where are they doing it? Is it happening in Cleveland, Detroit ,Baltimore, DC, or St. Louis? I don't think so. So what is the real problem?
You hit the nail right on the head. I work at central office and all the talk is how Genao file is under lock and key with Jill Cutler Hodgman, Hodgman was even making sure there were no other copies of his files in other offices. So I wouldn't be surprised if some of his files were lost while in Cutler Hodgman possession. There is no way Narvaez did not know about Genao's past. The HR Chief Jennifer Allen and Jill Cutler Hodgman made sure Narvaez knew of his past. I just wish one, I mean ONLY one reporter would ask Narvaez directly if she knew about Genao's past. I want to see if she will go on the record for lying. The BOE meeting Tuesday was a shit show. Wareing should step down for his incompetence in running a BOE meeting, Narvaez should listen to people and gracefully go away. And by the way Narvaez should take her Harvard pal, too busy Chief of Staff with her. There are so many of at central office asking how could Gnonou be so busy, we are still trying to figure out what is that she does. It is time for BIG CHANGES in Hartford Public Schools!!!
So what is the real problem?
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The problem is that the schools are a government program. The kids are who they are. It's not as if "inner city" kids just popped up yesterday; non-inner city kids moved out long ago. If we were serious about educating them we'd have acted on what we've known for years; the State of Connecticut Hartford District Schools are crumby on top of being "unconstitutionally" segregated. Give the kids vouchers. Get rid of the districts.
Peter- usually I agree with you, however I hope you might consider my thoughts. Hartford parents and students have the opportunity to opt out of Hartford schools now through magnets, charter and regional open choice. I believe many Hartford parents are like suburban parents and they want to send their kids to neighborhood schools for convenience(kids walk to school, not on a bus for an hour to get to school and back etc). However, unlike most suburban schools, Hartford is dysfunctional and corrupt. Look at what is happening in Hartford now with the budget and the pedophile (only 2 examples of hundreds that occur daily). You have a Supt making $270K and the students are not performing and you have suburban Supts who are succeeding making less than half of that. Get rid of this Supt, her Chief of Staff, the BOE Chair and start over. Give the parents and students what they deserve...A REAL CHANCE to get a good education.
For $270K all of Hartford students should be Rhode Scholars. Does anyone know if their has been a positive change in student performance. I am guessing no positive change or we would have heard about it. They all know how to pat themselves on the back and eat out of the trough of big salaries. With a few parents and community people they can change the dynamics of the school board and the outcomes for Hartford students.
Mr. Brush... Read The Bell Curve by Charles Murray. Then you will realize that this is all wasted money. There are better approaches.
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