
According to the Hartford Courant, David Medina, the Hartford School's Director of No Information, is admitting that they made a mistake by banning the media from two recent meetings involving parents and the leadership of Hartford's Schools. You can read the Courant's article by clicking here
But before you start rejoicing and thinking that Medina has seen the light and is actually going to start earning his six figure salary by providing information to the public, think again.
Rather than word the apology that they made a mistake and would open meetings up to actually strive for transparency, the release seemed to say just the opposite. It should have just read, "Sorry. next time we will plan ahead and be even more devious so that we can safely skirt the FOI requirements and legally keep the public in the dark".
According to the Courant, "On Wednesday, the school system released a statement indicating that the "error" was a technicality and that its intent to bar reporters remained."
It's intent to bar reporters remained...are you kidding me? Does Medina realize we are still in the United States or do Hartford's schools not teach geography? Or history for that matter. Does Medina not realize that we live in a free and supposedly open Democracy where his and his colleagues salaries are paid by the public who has every right to know what is going on in these schools?
What does the Superintendent have to hide? I can see asking a reporter to leave if they are being disruptive but "its intent to bar reporters remained" ? Those are Medina's words, not mine.
How is this tolerated by the Board of Education, the Mayor , the City Council and right up the ladder to our legislators and even our Governor. Until Mr. Medina and Dr. Kishimoto begin funding our school system out of their own pockets, we are the ones footing the bill and we have every right to know what is going on, especially in our failing schools like Burns and Milner.
The memo below, obtained through alternative means, seems to show the premeditated nature of their actions. And isn't it shameful that we can spend taxpayers dollars finding ways to break the law without getting caught instead of realizing that they are public officials and why they actually have jobs? I find it hard to believe that parents, or even administrators, in any of our neighboring suburbs would tolerate these stunts.
Medina Kauffman Memo
