Recently there was a post on Facebook by someone attempting to raise money for locks on lockers when the Milner School moves to Tower Avenue.
The person attempting to raise the funds for the locks is Patrick Williams, the Academic Support Co-Ordinator at the Thirman Milner School. Now I think it is commendable that Mr. Williams took it upon himself to try to provide locks for the students, but in a system that pays its Superintendent in the area of $276.000 a year in salary (not including benefits) and funds over $17,million for staff in the Central Office and Administrators it is beyond comprehension.
Should we really have to resort to Facebook fundraisers and bake sales to support the infrastructure of a school?
Even more disgusting is the total disregard for academics as opposed to once again taking care of the adults.
I went through Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez's proposed budget last night, line by line and it is just amazing to me the waste on things that have nothing to do with education. As an example, In the Superintendents Office under the Office of Academics, Teaching and Learning. What could be more important than Teaching and Learning? You would think that is the reason the Hartford Schools exist, to teach and for students to learn.
.
Imagine my surprise, no one in the Superintendents Office could find $1,000.00 to buy locks but the budget for travel in the Office of Academics, Teaching and Learning more than tripled for next year. This years budget in the Office of Academics , Teaching and learning alone is $7825.00, for just one office. That budget is proposed to more than triple next year to $24,045.00 an increase of over 300% for just one office.
I keep hearing the horror stories from teachers who can't get teaching supplies for their classrooms and bathrooms without handsoap or paper products, but $24,000 to travel?
An yes, it is obscene that children are not receiving the educations they are entitled to because very well paid staff members want to hop on airplanes for their junkets and stay in the best hotels
And the rubber stamp puppets on the Board of Education will just skim right over this budget.
Standby for the next car wash or bake sale to keep the Hartford Schools afloat.
Am I missing something? Who has to travel and why?
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely place to work.
ReplyDeleteAs a friend of mine recently stated at a board meeting, "Doce Dice Aut Discede".
ReplyDeletethank you kevin for continuing to shine a light on the priorities our City holds dear. Our kids deserve a better education than we are willing to offer.
ReplyDeleteHow about schools not being able to hire and retain teachers. There’s a school, maybe even several, where students have not had a teacher in the classroom from the early part of the school year, except for sporadic episodes. There’s something wrong when teachers don’t even want a job in Hartford. So those students get passed to the next grade minus 1 academic year through no fault of their own. Hartford, you cannot attract and retain teachers. Smh. The kids are the victims.
ReplyDeleteHartford is chasing its teachers out these days. I can't tell you how many people at HPHS are looking to get out of the school, out of the district, and even out of the profession. It shouldn't be like this.
ReplyDeleteThe word at Uconn Neag is to stay away from Hartford until the administration Leslie puppets hit the road
ReplyDeleteStay focused ,don't reapply don't play that game
Kevin find out why a Hartford High administrator was put on leave.
ReplyDeleteI think there are several of them, can you e-mail details , name? school? or post it anonymously for me if you want, just preface it "do not post"
ReplyDeleteThere needs to be a vote of no confidence for the board of education through the city for allowing this all to happen.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody really think EAP in HPD and HFD is really sufficient in accessing and providing mental health care for first responders that are either active or about to retire with a career full of horrible scenarios in their heads.If this isn’t the time to think about changing things up then don’t don’t know when. For those that know what I’m talking about that’s 5 in HFD’s recent past . Do we count the ones that did it the slow way with drugs and alcohol too? Then the count goes up. I’m so bummed and hope to never hear about another brother be in such despair. The chiefs in both departments need to get highly trained proffesionals and not co-workers in place to routinely see every single member on a mandatory basis to keep our brothers and sisters healthy once they sign up for this shit show. Kevin, when the time is appropriate you need to shine a giant spotlight on this subject. H.B. I won’t forget you brother.
ReplyDeleteSchools generally don't provide locks. It's great that someone is doing a fundraiser for that assuming all the money raised goes where it's supposed to. That doesn't change the point about travel of course.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure what schools don’t provide locks because we were provided them all through school. And my son who attends a CREC school is provided a lock each year. Here is a thought- why doesn’t hartford public schools make the students a priority instead of spending millions on useless board of education staff. Enough with the district coaches and all the made up fluff jobs. No other district does this. And have we not noticed all those made up positions don’t help. Here is what would help- smaller class sizes so students can get more attention, an actual curriculum and not the district ELA curriculum that was handed to teachers literally the day before school several years ago and teachers were told “ this is a teacher created curriculum and you will be creating it”. And this horrid Eureka Math which no teacher I know likes. Or all the wasted money on computer programs the kids HATE. Lexus which is supposed to help reading scores. Kids are mandated to go on so many minutes a week. The kids hate it because they find it boring. So I guess teachers in Hartford Schools will continue to buy basic school supplies for students while Leslie and her minions take trips and get paid to sit downtown and tell everyone how to do their job.
DeleteThis is hysterical.
ReplyDeleteAll that has to be done is to write a grant and give it to Lowes or Home Depot...this is just laziness. Also, cash=audit....which is bad
You can get a 700.00 field trip, if you just sit down on your butt for 10 minutes and write a proposal for a great field tip. Hit that 3/4 years
Need sports equipment? Good Sports...got 18,000 on that one- 2 hour app
What is sad is those of us who are experienced and who would love to turn around Hartford can't even get in the door.