HBOE - Regular Meeting - 3/17/2026-ORG

001All right. Good evening. >> As chairperson of the Harford Board of Education, I hereby call to order the March 17, 2026 regular meeting. I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present and to our television viewers. The board superintendent and I are pleased that we have joined that you have joined us as we celebrate achievement, review information, and make policy decisions related to the effective operation of the Harford public schools. This is a regular meeting and all items that will be discussed or voted on this evening have been posted as required by state law. As the Harford Board of Education, we are here to set goals, listen to re to reports of the superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, and personnel appointments and policy decisions for the district. We are not here to make management decisions

002or solve the problems of individuals. Management is the responsibility of the superintendent. The monthly meetings of the board are open to the public. They are the time when the board conducts its business of governing the school system in a public arena. The regular meetings are not meetings with the public. Therefore, comments from the audience will be def confined to the time designated for public to address the board. The quorum and courtesy are important elements in effective public meetings. Please silence your cell phones or communication devices and refrain from talking while others are speaking. Since it is legally mandated that proceedings be accurately recorded, I may have to ask for order periodically should noise begin to interfere with our recording capabilities. I am pleased that you have taken this time this evening to join us. We

003are very proud of this school system and thank you for your interest in Harford public schools. Now this will be read in Spanish. at the Harartford. Harford administr Superintend forenc. Tonight we're going to start off our meeting with some recognitions. Um, Superintendent Townsel. Thank you, Chairwoman Brody. [clears throat] Tonight, we will recognize winners of the Hartford Public School Esports Winter Cup. Winters from the Calling All Brothers 2026 African and African-American history be and a student hero from Hartford Public High School who will be provided with certificates of recognition. First recognizing the Hernand Leaf Fontaine Classical Magnet School's Gladiators esports team. Esports is important is important for student engagement, attendance, and workforce readiness. Congratulations to the member of the classical magnet school's esport team and coach Eric Deno Denzo who took home the top prize in

004our district esports tournament. The Hartford public school esports winner cup which brought eight schools together over the course of two days on January 23rd and 24th initiated by University High School of Science and Engineering. The event began with middle school and high school teams playing online at their own schools all across the district. Then the two winning teams advanced to the finals on Saturday, January 24th in an in-person challenge hosted by Great Path Academyy's new esport and computer science lab. We are also grateful to our school administrators, STEM and technology academics team members, our educational technology support, and all the teachers and coaches who make esports possible in our schools. Essport is an official sport of the Connecticut Interscolastic Athletic Conference. Our esports Winter Cup winners are Matteo Shalon Sanchez, Pierce Leup, Elias Ortiz, Corey

005Quals, Rodrigo Trujillo, Caleb Weston, and Aiden Weston. If you can make your way to stage for a group picture. [applause] >> [applause] >> Yay. Congratulations. >> Can we shift this way? Shift this way. So behind this >> right behind this black TV. >> Everybody can shift a little bit over >> about the lighting. >> Taking Deb's place today. >> Do we see everybody? >> Nice and tight. >> Chris, I don't see you back there. >> Make sure you're showing your certificate. Right way up. >> Different pose. >> One, two, three. [applause] >> Yeah, might as well stay while you read if you don't. or not. [laughter] >> I think they play Smash Brothers, too. >> Yeah. And and gentlemen, correct me if I'm wrong. It's y'all play Rocket League, Mario Kart, Smash Brothers. >> Smash

006Brothers. Shout out to Smash Brothers. There we go. Clap it up for them one more time, please. [applause] Next, Mcdana Middle School students earned top prize in the 2026 AfricanAmerican History B. Our community partner, Calling All Brothers, hosted their 2026 African and African-American History Bee, in which three of our middle schools were represented by teams of eighth grade boys who participated in the annual Jeopardy style history trivia contest. Hartford Public Schools is so proud of our scholars from Mcdana Middle School, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, and Miljner Middle School who raised the bar for black history. A big congratulations to the Mcdana Bears who earned the trophy in this important knowledge cons contest. We'd like to call up coach pastor AJ Johnson, advisor James Beller, students Jaziel Delgado, Jaden Canonz, Joshua Nent, Javon Figerero,

007Branson Williams, and Hayden Sanchez. [applause] >> [applause] >> in the middle of the >> Make sure you got your hold your certificate. between >> that's a trophy. worth it. [crying] >> That's what [applause] I'm talking about. [applause] Thank you. Make some noise for them one more time, please. >> [applause] [applause] >> And last, we are proud to recognize Hartford Public High School junior Raini Santiago for her extraordinary courage. Raina Le is enrolled in the CNA program at the Allied Health Pathway. And this past October, she used the skills gained from her CNA coursework and her readyCT stop thebleleed training to save a neighbor's life who had endured a gunshot wound. Thanks to her swift and composed action, he survived. While she was honored at her school, we also wanted to recognize her incredible bravery here

008tonight. So, we can have Ray Nalise come to the stage. [applause] Congratulations. >> Hold on. Um, can we can we [applause] >> Oh, yeah. [applause] >> [applause] >> Oh, thank you, Chairwoman Brody. That concludes our recognitions. >> Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. We will now move on to public comment. Mr. Mills, we as a board in collaboration with the superintendent and district leadership are committed to cultivating a culture of excellence at all levels of HPS. We thank you for taking the time to attend tonight's board meeting. We appreciate you coming out to learn more about Hartford Public Schools and for sharing your thoughts and concerns. We have established a protocol to track and respond to concerns raised. We want you to know that we take your concerns seriously and to that end, staff will follow up

009within 48 hours. If follow-up is required via the preferred method of contact the speaker has indicated on the signing sheet. As a reminder, you have three minutes to speak. At the two-minute mark, the bell Harford. person. Investig Pastor AJ Johnson. Good evening, Madame Chair and members of the board, superintendent in the Hartford Public Schools community. My name is AJ Johnson, a proud resident, pastor, community organizer and former member of this board where I had the honor of serving as vice chair and chair of the policy committee. I want to say I miss y'all very much. Miss y'all. First, I want to celebrate this moment. Tonight, we recognize the young kings from Mcdana Middle School for winning the African and African-American history be. This matters because when our young people know who they are, they begin

010to understand who they can become. That's not just education, that's liberation. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank our superintendent and this board for your leadership during a challenging time. We know that Hartford Public Schools is navigating real financial pressure yet continuing to prioritize students, protecting programs, showing up and advocating at every level. And tonight, as this board considers extending the superintendent's contract, I think that's important because in time of uncertainty, financial challenges, evolving needs, and real pressure on urban districts, stability matters, leadership matters. In continuing the matters of our students, this is important. At the same time, we see you advocating at the state capital for stronger education cost sharing, ECS formula, which remains the primary way Connecticut funds education. And I want to name this because it matters. The

011board that I had the honor of serving on helped to launch and prioritize that legislative advocacy, and it's powerful to see that that work not only continues, but it is growing. We appreciate you for staying in the fight for Hartford's children. We also see progress across the district, innovation in our schools, expanded opportunities for students, and a continued commitment to equity. And I also want to thank board member Tyrone Walker and board member Ruth Fortune for showing up and supporting our young people at the HistoryB. Your presence matters more than you know. and superintendent, I personally thank you for showing up, being present at the parade at Mcdana. For the students, it wasn't just symbolic, it was leadership. It told our young people, you matter. And to the new board members, not so new, but

012new to me, new board members, welcome. This is a sacred work. These decisions shape not just policy, but possibility. And as someone who has sat in those seats, I'll say this. Harford doesn't need perfection. We need partnership. So keep fighting for our children. Let's keep telling the truth about what we need. And let's keep celebrating moments like tonight because our young people are not just our future. They're our right now. Thank you and God bless you, Robert. Good evening. Uh, my name is Bobby Abate. I'm a former teacher at Harford Public High School, 35 years. Uh, I'm also a member of the Hall of Fame committee at Harford Public High School. I'm here in support of our proposal to name the basketball court at Harford Public High School after Marcus Cami. And we all we've

013talked about his exploits in athletics and his generosities uh supporting our teams. Uh last night uh our basketball team won a thrilling semifinal championship for the state and they're on their and they're on their way to Moheaggan Sun to play for the state championship this year. Our football team, our soccer team made went deep into the playoffs and there's a renewed uh feeling of pride in our school. Uh our superintendent talks about the three A's all the time. Uh academics, athletics, and art. We uh we feel if we get kids to feel good about themselves that they'll stay in Hartford, they will stay in our schools and join this history of ours. 388 years we're celebrating on May 14th. uh if if our kids know the tradition uh traditions of our school, the history of

014our school, we feel we feel that they'll stay. We want to attract and retain kids from all over the city. We're losing kids to the suburbs and other schools and we want to reverse that. So, we need help. Uh don't underest don't underestimate what kids uh the impact of our students seeing banners of of of previous uh sports uh heroes in our school. One of those things we're doing is painting a corner of our basketball court after Marcus Cami, Harford's own Marcus Cami. Okay. Uh And on May 14th, again, we're going to have alumni from all walks of life, doctors, lawyers, teachers, uh firefighters, police officers, social workers, and athletes. We we welcome you to join us on May 14th at Hartford Public. And again, one of those things we want to honor and we're

015waiting is the basketball court for Marcus Cami. Thank you very much for listening and we appreciate your support [applause] >> Na House. >> Good afternoon. My name is and I am a senior from HMTCA. Today I wanted to briefly highlight the importance of the accessibility of libraries specifically for childhood education by speaking to my personal experiences and providing solutions for other school communities. I grew up loving to read but financial pressures limited the variety of books I could afford to purchase and I didn't have You want to start over? Start over. >> Is this better? >> Sorry. [laughter] >> My name is Nia New House. I am a senior from HMTCA and I would like to take some time today to discuss the importance of the accessibility of libraries and childhood education by speaking to

016my personal experiences and proposing solutions of how we can provide library services again in our school communities. Um, and just to reiterate, I used to love reading, but again due to financial pressures and lack of transportation. I live in the suburbs, so I would didn't have access to public libraries because I again, I didn't have transportation to get there. And that all changed when I came to HMTCA. The library within HMTCA has acted as a safe space for myself and my peers throughout my time at this school, providing accessibility to books during school that I would otherwise not have been able to read. Apart from holding books, the library acted as a space for students to decompress from a long day of intense coursework, which is was extremely helpful for those adjusting to middle or

017high school. Unfortunately, many but if not all, library spaces within our district have been left unused due to budget cuts. While solutions to address budget concerns are limited, I'm here to propose two solutions of how we can re-implement active library systems within our schools for our students without taking a toll on our budgets. Um, my first solution specifically for schools without any library spaces involve starting programs that like they're titled little libraries. And essentially what they are is those kind of boxes you see in residential neighborhoods where you can take a book and leave a book. They're kind of an exchange system that's a founded on an honor system. And this could be applied in many different ways. either with students collaborating to create these boxes and installing them around Hartford or it can transform

018into a bookshelf within the school where students can have the accessibility to look at books that are available and take some out but also leave some for other students if they see necessary. Um, I emphasize student involvement in these processes because I believe that it's extremely important to demonstrate leadership, especially for underassmen or even middle school students so that we can better our school communities. And my second solution involves reopening schools misused libraries by having them run by upperassman students. This process, at least within my school, involves finding students who can work as TAs and help track books coming in and outside of the library. Um, overall these libraries are extremely important. I've surveyed people, both seniors and eighth graders within my school and found that almost all of the seniors I surveyed valued having

019the access to the library without their high school career. And many middle school students have also emphasized how much they are look forward to using it in the future. which is why I wanted to take some time today to speak to how we can reopen these libraries with keeping it to consideration budgets but also basing it on student involvement and a whole community centered ideas. Um, thank you so much. >> Moyer Washington on every time. Okay. How's that? All right. 22 years ago, I started teaching at Lewis Fox Middle School in Harford's North End. And I was excited to finally have my own classroom. I love books. I love reading. I love writing. I did not know I was going to spend the next 22 years cultivating over 1500 books to have in my classroom.

020When I transferred from school, my last school 10 years ago, I literally had to use a moving van to get my books to go with me. Um, this isn't a flex. This is a fail. A fail because our district has continued to lose funding and make cuts on something that should be a foundation of our education. I've spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars at Book Barn, Amazon, library book sales, Donor's Choose, cultivating a library that reflects my students interests and identities. But this is not something I should have to do. I should not have to beg for funds on the internet to get a collection of graphic novels for my reluctant readers. I should not have to spend my weekends filling paperbacks with Blofford series, Harry Potter, and Twilight. I should not have to

021ask for Barnes & Noble gift cards for Christmas to stock up on books for my classroom. On average, 70 77% of schools with predominantly black and brown students don't have library access across the United States. In Hartford, we're nearly at 100% with only two to three librarians left in the entire district. This is just another instance where we're allowing our students to slip between the already widening gap of systemic racism and budget deprecation. I'm equally proud and sad that my student Nia New House has to stand before you today begging for what she and her peers are entitled to. We have a gorgeous library in our school with windows on all sides. It's like a fishbowl, a book aquarium, but students can see and not touch. I e echo her concerns and also offer another

022additional solution. Is it possible that we partner with Hartford Public Libraries to reopen some of our school libraries as community libraries? Could we create a partnership with Hartford Public Libraries and Hartford Public Schools? I don't know all the logistics of how it could work out, but if our students can start figuring out solutions, maybe we can as adults, too. And then I just have a quick caveat to add. Um on April 21st is the next board meeting, but it's also parent teacher conferences for the district and that happened in December. So when you guys are making the calendar in the future, can we not put um board of education meetings on the same night because if we want parents and teachers and families to come to both if we could have them on different nights,

023that'd be awesome. All right. Thank you. Hansen Jenny. Good evening everyone. Superintendent board members. I'm Haya Cynthiani um chair of the Bay Avenue Revitalization Group. Um tonight I just want to thank you um superintendent for coming out to our neighborhood meeting. Um, and then the second thing I want to say, I am so proud of our Harford Public High School boys basketball. They are going places. They are h they have a drive and they have a focus and they're getting where they need to go. Okay. So, that says I'm here to talk about some other things. Um, I talked to a couple people about the magnet schools in Hodford and one of their biggest concern is that, you know, I live next door to that school and I cannot get into that building. Why is

024that so? Is the system set up to continue to drive our kids out of the out of the city? What's going on? We need to address that. You cannot have a magnet school sitting there with half their seats empty waiting for the white kids to come into our city to be a part of our education. We should have enough quality education for our children that lives in the community. We did not know what chef um implication was going to turn out to be but it has destroyed our neighborhood. Okay, for the simple reason is our children don't have friends in their neighborhood anymore. economically hurts us, psychologically hurt our children, emotionally hurt our children. We have to stop that bleeding. Okay? We need to bring our neighborhood back. We need to have kids be able

025to walk to their neighborhood school. It makes no sense to me for us to set up a system that's no longer working. We need to look at it and address it. Okay? Yeah, we can talk all about bringing more money money. We need to address the seriousness of what's going on in our system in general. So I'm hoping superintendent you will sit at the table with at the state level and say this is not working for us anymore. Okay. And let them know and we will also advocate for that because it has to change. It's no make amen. Okay. Um can you as I said can you imagine living next to the school and you cannot get into it a good quality school. Let's look at that in general. Okay. How would you like that?

026And you're paying your taxes, you're doing everything, you live in the city. If we want to stop the bleeding, again, as I said, we have to stop sending our children to the suburbs. Um, and also I want to support continue to support the basketball court at Hoffer High as Marcus Cami. Okay, that is really important. So, we need to make sure we do that. Um let's fa let's bring our children back and again as as previous person said our libraries we need to have kids go back to libraries I remember when our kids school they have t have time to go into libraries to look at paperwork do research and stuff like that now we don't have media p people anymore so we need to bring those back because we have some beautiful media center

027in our school system so please look at all those things I know it's a lot of stuff but we got to take one at a time and get it done. Thank you, Mike Forest. >> So, um, good afternoon everybody. Um, my name is Mike Forest. I'm president of a nonprofit called Harford Public High School Athletic Hall of Fame. We have two things that we do. We honor uh athletes and coaches from Harford public and we also have a charitable arm. We try and give back uh to the kids in Hartford u with with some support as best we can. So I'm here for the Marcus Cami court naming at the school. Um I'm leading a group that thinks it's a great idea. Um talk a little bit about him and others have mentioned him, but

028so Marcus Cami is a Hartford native and and a legend from Hartford. His resume is as good as really any athlete from the city of Hartford. um start at UMass, uh 17 years in the NBA. Um just it's just just a great story. We can go on and on about Marcus Cami. Um he so in going back a few I'm I'm going to say 20 years, he has been very generous uh to things going to programs at Harford Public um our Hall of Fame, which again has a charitable arm. He's been unbelievably generous with us and also to um local charities in Hartford. So he's demonstrated, you know, he he is definitely all in. He he loves his Harford roots for sure and you know he's he's a great advocate of our city. Um if

029we do this um students that work out in that fieldhouse or or play sports at Harford Public can be motivated and and proud that one of their own made it big. Um that would be a great benefit. Um other kids that are deciding what school they're going to go to. I might want to go to Harford Public has this great history, especially athletic history and all the adornment of the the fieldhouse. I think it's just a great um great example of what's going on there. Um so I think that's very important and and if we did this Marcus first of all he's very excited about this and and looking forward to it if it gets approved. His his support and generosity will only continue to grow and grow. So so we have a great opportunity

030here. Um um also this is also it's already been funded. So, whatever what what we're going to do at the high school, no charge to the city and uh is is already paid for and we've got money for it. So, no no worries there. Um and then um if and if we did do this, we would have a ceremony, you know, would all be invited and and it would another another example to publicize the great history um at Harford Public both um academically and athletically. So, um, and would get depressed there and and have great event and it would just be the beginning of a lot more good stuff. Um, quick story and it may be mentioned again, but so the um the the folks at Harford Public, they got a lot going on. Like

031I'm thrilled that the high school is in the finals uh at Moagan Sun and um we needed some money to fund some of the things that the administration wants to do for the kids and make the weekend even better. and we reached out to Marcus today and he sent us a very generous donation right off the bat. So, um, so he's been very helpful and and very we're appreciative of of his support. So, anyway, I know we're in the three-month, um, vetting period and we would appreciate at some point that this does get approved and uh, we can do something at a small level very good for the city of Hartford and and Harford public. Thank you. Michael Dones. My name is Michael Towns. 74 Rosemont Street in Hartford. Saturday the 14th of March in

032the newspaper headlines Hartford Current, this guy named uh Christopher Swift, the CEO of the Hartford Church Group is head of a group of people or a committee uh that includes the Etna, the Travelers, Nassau, which used to be Phoenix, Harper Steam Boiler, Harper Hospital, a few other uh or Hartford Health Group I guess it is now, but a few of the other longtime old uh corporations in Hartford with a lot of money and they're worth over a trillion dollars right now. And uh he's talking about putting money, millions, maybe even a billion downtown Hartford to revitalize downtown Hartford. Not one word about the Hartford public schools or for that matter the Hartford Public Library. Both of them were uh established around 1638. A lot lot uh sooner than the a lot earlier than the uh

033insurance companies because the newspaper did indicate that the Hartford insurance group was established in 1810. I know that Travelers was established around 1815 and and shortly thereafter was Etna and Phoenix and the others uh came after that. But they were all before the Civil War. And uh but the the ones the the grandfathers of all of Hartford are the Hartford public school system and the Hartford public library. And there's no money going into that. And we need money. We need more libraries. We need the libraries in the schools. We need the libraries uh branch libraries out in the city. We closed a bunch of branch libraries. We owned a building over on New Britain Avenue. We closed it. I don't know what we use it for now. And uh so uh we uh that's u

034something that we have to uh um and uh there's seems to be uh you know a lot of money to go out and have fun but not a lot of money to teach kids in in school. I also noticed that wish school is progressing uh pretty rapidly but I don't know the timetable of it whether when it's going to be finished. Uh it's the school that's in up my neighborhood and we're interested in uh in it being uh completed as soon as possible. Um and uh the uh uh also I just uh complain about the the new format of the agenda of the of the Harp of the Harper Board of Education. It's kind of hard to follow, but uh I'm sure somehow I'll figure it out. Thank you. Raquel Calderon. Good evening, Dr. Dol

035and dear members of the board of directors. I'm actually coming here to give you a a good news. I've been working a lot at um H&TCA and I have I admire the way Mr. Quinn is managing. He's putting a students first. I see the teachers that are happy is in a positive environment where the children can can you know be happy and and and do better. Um I admire the way he he has his expectations about being safe about cell phones usage and all of that. And uh I'm very happy to be working there and I'm choosing to work there lately because it's closer to my house and because I feel happy there and I just wanted to share that tonight. Good night. And I'm happy that you guys moved to Blay High School area

036so you can save some money for rental. Good night. Good evening. My name is Sarah Kovac with Educators for Excellence, reading on behalf of Megan Horsey, a special education teacher in Hartford Public Schools. The following is her statement. Good evening. My name is Megan Horsey and I am a special education teacher in Hartford Public Schools. Tonight, I am wearing two hats. First, I am a direct recipient of the salary increase that was recently approved. I'm one of the early career teachers whose pay went up and I am grateful for that. Second, I am a colleague to several teachers and pareducators in my building who are not eligible for the increase. I stand between those two realities. One where the district is making a financial investment and one where the workload is still pushing people out

037the door. So, tonight I want to walk you through three things I've learned from standing in that gap. First, the new salary incentive for early career specialed teachers matters. In my building right now, two teachers are working on durational shortage area permits. Temporary licenses issued because the district was unable to find fully certified candidates. That's how acute this shortage is. What Hartford Public Schools and the Hartford Federation of Teachers did took real effort and it deserves recognition. An incentive that brings licensed special educators into these roles sends a clear signal that this work is valued. We need more people in this work and paying them adequately is the first step, especially when early career teachers are most likely to leave their roles in the first few years. Second, recruitment without retention won't work. Since starting

038in HPS, I have noticed that there are not a lot of incentives for new or incoming teachers. This makes great teachers want to leave the profession because they don't feel supported by the administration or mentor teachers. The burden is real and it's driving people out. For the teachers who are already here, who have stayed, who carry institutional knowledge, our students cannot afford to lose them. Retention has to go handinhand with recruitment. That means having manageable case loads, adequate para educator support, and extending the same financial commitment being offered to new hires to the educators who chose Hartford and never left. Because here's the truth. We also need to keep the teachers who have made it through the hardest years. Even with the progress we're celebrating tonight, I see the stakes every day. I have been

039trying to gather data for a student who cannot thrive in the setting they are in, but the district keeps denying an outplacement and requesting more data. Across Hartford, students are waiting for services they are owed. This is why we have to keep going because when we support teachers, students get what they need. Third, Hartford cannot carry this alone. For this investment to last beyond this school year, the state has to show up with full funding for the seed grant and the excess cost grant and a foundation amount that accurately reflects the cost of educating students. Hartford made a promising initial investment in its teachers. that's worth celebrating. Now, I am asking you to continue pushing for the educators already here and for every student waiting for the services they need to succeed. Thank you, [applause]

040>> Michael Susi. Good evening. Um, I want to give a couple shout outs. So, the first one obviously is to Harford public basketball team. Um, I've gone to all the games. I um even in years past when, you know, they weren't that great because they didn't have um um they weren't necessarily disciplined. So having a coach now who is really invested in the school um he's actually our um FCSSP with CAP with uh classical. So he comes in the building every single day ask the teachers what they need is very involved and that rubs off on the kids and that rubs off on the community. Um, I know the superintendent. I know and I saw um, uh, board member Walker. I know you guys were at the game and you could see some of that

041passion from the coach and from the team. So, it's really nice to actually being able to brag about and see our school succeed. And then another shout out I want to give is actually to Raise who is a former student of mine. I had her last year and the stuff that she did um the quick actions that she was able to take is is fantastic and actually teared me up a little bit because seeing students potential is fantastic. So, you know, I'm talking about um you know, potential on the basketball court. I'm talking about potential just in um something that's really critical. But um I digress. One thing that I really want to mention um in my normal stuff that I talk about is um you know we have a lot of walkers, a lot

042of pedestrian, a lot of students who walk to school because Hartford High is centrally located. And with how the bus um system works, you have to be within two miles of the school. You have to be outside the two miles to be able to get transportation. Well, Harford's kind of Harford High is like kind of smack dab between it's um centrally located in the city. So that realistically you you'd have to be in the center of West Hartford to be able to get bus transportation. So when you look into the school, so I would suggest next time you guys are around Hartford High, look around and see is this actually safe for students to walk. At the end of Fourth Street where Hawthorne is, there is no crosswalk. We have a satellite lot for teachers

043on Hawthorne and I actually almost got hit by a bus on yesterday because there's no crosswalk. So you kind of have to play the game of okay, is the person actually paying attention to like is can the person see me trying to cross because it's a wide street on top of it. So, I would like this, this is a small ask compared to the stuff I've asked for, the stuff that I've advocated for in the past, is if we can get the city to make it safer for Harford High, for students walking to Harford High, so that there is signage that actually says that there's a stop sign that's not faded, so that you can have crosswalks there to let people stopping to know that there actually is people crossing to maybe speed humps like

044there are on dozens of other streets. streets in Harford. Make it safer so the students can actually go to class. Make it safer for the students. Make it safer for the staff so that I don't have so that I and other stu I and students and other staff don't have to worry about can I make the street and not get hit. I appreciate you for your time and I hope to see you guys some of you guys at the game on either Saturday or Sunday. I wish I knew which day. [applause] >> Okay, we're playing Stafford. John Paul Degrassi. >> John Paul Deg Gracia. Here we go. Trying to get here before the time clock starts. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I'm looking at the auditorium. My name is John Paulo Degratzia. John Paul Degratzia.

045I've lived on Franklin Avenue for 65 years. I seen this city change. Many years ago, this auditorium was completely full. It is not this evening. And I will tell you that it hurts my heart to know what has happened to our city of Harford. And when I was a young boy, had the honor and pleasure of having my cousin serve this city. She was absolutely incredible. In 1967, my cousin Annucillo, we are honored as part of our family to still continue to want to be here. I want to just tell all of you, I'm going to try to beat the time clock, but I want to tell all of you last week we had the honor and pleasure of having Dr. council with us at the Maple Avenue revitalization group and I'm also part of

046the Franklin Avenue revitalization group which we are going to be working hard to get that back on track as soon as possible. I want to ask all of you here and I'm going to try to skip as much as possible but what I will tell you is I heard this man and we've seen all our superintendent in the city of Hartford come and go. They talk a lot. Not much got done. Many of you know if you've been here as long as I did. And I want to tell all of you that we listened to this gentleman. Ladies and gentlemen, all of you have the opportunity of an absolute superstar in this city right now to direct the board of education. My hats off to you, sir. He is a gentleman with incredible credentials. Harford

047will probably never have another superintendent like this gentleman right here. I told them at the meeting when we were there and I will continue to tell you now and I will tell all of you please, we have the way to make this happen. I'm an educator in a nearby town. I see what's happening in the school system. But I will tell you, we must get our parents involved. We must get them right on track and they will be with us. And if I have to formulate thousands of parents to come and fill this auditorium, I will do so. But I'm asking each and every one of you elected and assigned, please, this man is true. We will never have anyone like him in the city of Hartford. And what I'm going to tell all of

048you, please find it in the kindness of your heart to make sure that we support this gentleman right here through your city council and through your elected officials. I'm asking all of you for your favor consideration on this budget. There's a signed money. We need to give it to him. He's standing right there with the baseball bat. Nobody's pitching the ball. He needs the ball for us to hit the home run. That is very, very important. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, please, please find it in the kindness of your heart, all of you, to support this man. He will give us the best and nothing but the best. Dr. Townzel, I told you last week, I am here to help you and I will support you in the best way possible, making sure that

049we get thousands of parents on board to support you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Good evening. My name is Gwindelyn Westbury. I don't know what to say after that gentleman there because um I came to talk to the superintendent tonight. I didn't go to work to talk to the superintendent tonight. I'm kind of disappointed because um the kids don't learn cursive writing anymore. They took it out of the schools. Why? I don't know. I think cursive writing is very important. They need to know how to write because signatures are important on documents. My great grandson is nine years old. He's in the fourth grade. That was something he should have learned in second or third grade. I have a grandson who is 27 years old and can't write his name. All he can

050do is print. And I think that is very sad and I don't like it. Just like some lady said about the magnet schools about our children don't have friends here at home. I think that is sickening as well and I think something should be done about it. I called a few weeks ago back in February to talk to someone about this. I got sick. I had bronchitis. I did talk to someone and then the person never called me back because I wasn't the the parent of my great grandson. But I am allowed to go pick him up if he's sick because I'm on the list. I thought Harford was the capital of the state of Connecticut. At the time I was a PTO parent, I mean PTO president of Clark School when my children went

051to school at the time. The teachers here in Harford were the highest paid and the best teachers. Harford schools or Harford children aren't getting the best education, but our surrounding areas are getting the best education. Why aren't our Harford kids getting that? That's what I would like to know. Thank you very much, [applause] Alisa Alisa Peterson. Let's see. Is this mic working? Okay, great. Um, good evening. Alyssa Peterson, a longtime Hartford resident. I've been speaking here for 30 years now, and I'm coming here without a prepared statement to stare all of you to stare all of you in the face. All of you board members are probably uh members of the one of the most powerful boards politically in this city and in this region. And I am at here asking you as a Hartford

052resident. I've been here again for 30 years as a resident speaking. I don't have children in the system. Most of the people that spoke here tonight don't have children in the system. But we are here because we know that a strong school system means a strong city. Horton Chef. Unfortunately, the settlement it broke Hartford. It it provided opportunities for students to go outside of Hartford or provided some with better education or some with better opportunities. But it's broken Hartford. We don't have homeowners anymore. We don't have neighborhoods anymore that where children play, who know each other, where parents know each other, where they all work to make their neighborhood schools better or fight for their neighborhood teams. the fabric of the schools or the fabric of the neighborhoods have been broken by the condition of

053our schools. And you need to realize that the reason why I'm here again tonight is you have five votes up there. That's all you need. I'm looking at all of you. You need five votes to figure out how much money you want. And then you stick to that figure and you go to the board. You go to the city council and you tell them you're not backing down. you're going to back uh superintendent counsel and then you're going to go to the state and you're going to go to the state and say, "Hey, we have $50 million in a fund, the rainy day fund. I've studied all the marb notes, the municipal review board. We have $50 million." The the chef settlement was a settlement with the state of Connecticut. So, forget you you could.

054Yes, you have to go to the city council and tell them the figure of your budget, but five of you need to stand firm and go to the state of Connecticut and say the chef settlement talks about sustainability. It is your role. It is your role, state of Connecticut, to make this system sustainable and all you have to do is stand firm, demand that money, and you will get that money. Otherwise, you tell them, "We will go get some attorneys and we will go back to court." Because I know that recently they've said one piece of the settlement uh uh has been satisfied, the school choice piece. The rest of it's not being fulfilled and it's up to you to go back to the state and say you're in violation. So stay with it. I

055thank you for your, you know, for your work. But five of you, that's all we need, a majority. Stick to it. go back to the state and and really I I echo uh what my fellow Southoun resident said about Dr. Townel. Um uh you are a gift to Hartford. I will say that um and but all of you board members, thank you for your service. You are gifts to us as well, but we need you to act for Hartford and thank you for allowing me to speak. Shabbone Burgess. Hi, good Hi. Good evening. My name is Siobhan Hamilton Burgess. I am the founder and executive director of Hartford Health Initiative. I am here uh with a request to the board. Um I am here in regards to school-based health education. uh as it relates to

056education, uh as everyone said, uh we should have the best within our school systems across the district. What you get for schoolbased health education is varied, right? Um and and what we're asking for is that how we implement that that every student across our district should have the same level of health education knowledge. Why is that important? Because of the disparities in our in our city, right? We focus on as an organization grassroots public health and the health. You can prevent the health of an adult by starting with our young people first. I am I also come here as a Harford public school alumni, right? I am a graduate of Weaver High School. And when I went to high school, we had public education, we had health education, excuse me, and then oh gosh, physical

057education and health, right? Um that was customary across. Now you we did a focus group with over a hundred students right from HPS and across the state. I mean, we only talk about the state issue, but across the uh the school system and the things they didn't know is scary, right? Um and that only gives us a purview into what their potential future health looks like, right? So, I think that it is super important uh that we and us as an organization just say that, right? We're not here to provide recommendations on how you should do it. What we're really trying to do is understand what is going on right because we think that that is the first step how we work that is the first step to understanding what the recommendation should look like

058uh we have moved forward and engaging HPS right um just to keep it fully transparent um we've reached out uh what we include is stakeholders so uh parents youth and staff um we graciously thank uh Carol and her team for inviting us to to talk with some staff about it. Uh we have re reached some roadblocks in in other ways uh with data and accountability specifically because we do have surveys which include just information of have you ever had health education. What do you feel uh was helpful? What wasn't helpful? Right? When did you have it? What subjects were covered? That is the uh the content [clears throat] of what we're asking. Um and so whatever support that uh the board could help us with in in trying to really understand if we want to

059ensure that our city is healthy uh it really starts with our young people. Thank you. >> Cheryl Banks. Hello everyone. Good evening members of the board. My name is Charerelle Banks and I serve as a lead consultant for a healthy self initiative in partnership with Harford Health Initiative and Advocacy the Legacy. Um I just wanted to briefly speak to this one page that we have and shared with a couple of people. Um this document reflects what we are hearing directly from our young people and community spaces and across Harford. Um we are continuing to want to hear their voices in places like libraries, active schools and um and neighborhood engagements. Um this paper, this one pager highlights a consistent theme and that's young people are navigating health wellness and decision- making in real time and

060their experiences don't always align with how health education is delivered across the systems. The purpose of this work is not to evaluate any school or introduce any new curriculum, but to better understand how school-based health education is being experienced by our students and where there may be opportunities to strengthen alignment, consistency, and support. What we are doing right now is listening and gathering youth voices, community and stakeholders perspectives so that future conversations are grounded in real experiences. We look forward to continuing to work in alignment with the district as the process moves forward. And thank you again [applause] Kylegill. Good evening members of the board superintendent of schools. My name is Carol Gail. I am a Hartford resident and president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers. As we've heard, tonight's agenda does include a contract

061extension for Superintendent Townsel. I reached out to Dr. Townsel a couple times recently on an issue I feel of quite importance, but I have not yet heard a response directly from him. So, I bring this matter to your attention as something for you to consider as you address your agenda this evening. The state of Connecticut requires that every school district maintain a professional development and evaluation committee or PDK. When I became president of HFT in July of 2020, there had been no PDK existing in Hartford for several years. Recognizing that the evaluation process is a significant structure that impacts staff morale and retention, I advocated for getting PDK up and running again. A PETA committee limped along for a couple of years until the state of Connecticut intervened and instructed all districts to revise their

062evaluation plans. The state had come to the realization that the system that districts had used under their direction for about 15 years was ineffective in actually developing staff. So in school year 2022 to 2023 a full PDC committee embarked on the process of overhauling the evaluation system for teachers administrators and pareducators. An outside consultant an expert in the field of teacher evaluations was brought in to facilitate the process. Much time and in discussion ensued as to what needed changing, what was worth keeping, and most importantly, how to create a system that developed trust between evaluator and educator such that evaluations led to professional growth and development. In school year 2023 to 2024, the work continued with the outside consultant and ramped up given that the deadline now loomed to present a plan to the state

063by the end of the year. The committee drafted a new evaluation plan. Given my passion for this process, I volunteered to spend countless time outside of committee meetings to research, meet with the facilitator, draft sections of writing, meet in subcommittees, make revisions, edit the entire document, suggest appendices, and more. That summer, the committee finalized a plan, and it was submitted to the state of Connecticut. Per state guidance, the plan had to roll out last year in 2024 to 25. Unfortunately, the state did not approve our first plan. So, PEDC had to revise sections of the plan concurrent with the roll out, which did make the rollout suffer. The good news is the state approved our revised plan and it is now the official Hartford Public Schools teacher administrator and para educator development and evaluation handbook.

064I want to underscore that this document took over three years and the effort of over 50 people to collaborately create. It represents a deliberate paradigm shift to raise the bar to an evaluation process that is grounded in feedback towards growth and development. And though its implementation has been rocky, there are many positive impacts it is already having in schools where it is being implemented according to the plan. This represents the first actual structural change in Hartford that positively impacts morale and teacher retention. Let me repeat that. This represents the first structural change in Hartford that positively impacts morale and teacher retention. Per state guidance, PETA committees operate via consensus. Recently, however, three central office administrators unilaterally changed a process outlined in the in the evaluation handback. None of these administrators contributed to the creation of

065the document and their actions unfortunately aligned with the old paradigm of evaluations that occurred amid mistrust. They felt punitive and they often targeted a staff member for removal. The new paradigm is to create a system under which leaders develop their staff, provide support as necessary, and increase that support over time as needed, offering a new staff member time to grow and develop within an atmosphere of trust and supportive instructional leadership. The recent decision to change the process created by PDK was not made by consensus. It undermined the work of the previous three years and threatens the fidelity and trust that this new evaluation system creates. It feels like a slap in my face and a total disrespect for the three years spent developing this system, completely disregarding processes they were not involved in and not

066taking the time to learn about them before making unilateral decisions. Therefore, I have several asks. First, I ask that I get a response to this public comment. Second, I ask that the work of PDC be allowed to stand on its own state approved merit as it sets a new bar for Hartford Public Schools. Next, I ask that the superintendent support this PEX document which seeks to not only meet that bar, but exceed that bar with respect to the evaluation process in Harvard public schools. And last, I ask that the district experience how this paradigm shift plays out in real time and then and only then bring ideas for improvement to the table. engage in thoughtful and purposeful dialogue towards continuous improvement of the evaluation process and then set a new bar. PEDC designed a deliberate

067shift in paradigm, a structural change from what we were used to doing and a decisive improvement. Overwhelmingly, educators report that they are having more robust discussions that actually impact their work. Additionally, the evaluation system is designed to tie evaluations to professional learning such that each individual can grow in areas suited to their particular professional needs or interests. Isn't this what we want to see in Hartford? Thank you. Our last speaker is John Walton. Good evening, superintendent and distinguished board members. What a healthy environment we have here, right? where we can have disagreements about how we want to go in the same common goals and we can have those discussions but we have it very respectfully. It's good to see one of the student board members here. I noticed that you are here. We need you

068and we need students like you to be involved in the educational process. This is how you lead your city through education. So, I'm asking all of our parents, all of our residents to join us in strengthening your SGC's because Dr. Tanu, that's where it starts. When we have strong SGC's in every school, we have the voice and the buyin from our community. So, residents and parents, I need you to get together and really join your SGC's and do this. Now, with our youth program, we need our youth program to be strengthened, Dr. Townsel. Why? And why do we need that? because we need to have options and opportunities for our students. President DS has always said that we need to restructure education to include the trades or we do and you have heard that call

069and this superintendent I agree with the speaker is a star but he was picked by a bunch of stars which is this board who picked him and they've laid the groundwork for us and for him to now bring in our students and try to strengthen these programs and open up the door to more education in different ways. Now, Harford Promise is a promise and usually most of the kids who are going to get that Harford promise are the kids who are already motivated and their parents are on track. But we need those other kids, those forgotten kids. So, Windsor, Bloomville, Hall, West Hartford, Avon, Simsbury, you the kids who have been forgotten in those neighborhoods. Why don't you come to Hartford? Because this superintendent that we have along with this board have made some steps

070to bring in education differently, adding in some of the industrial education that we need and then adding in some of that tech that that uh EA sporting education and and advancing that kind of education. So student board member, we need your friends to understand that Harford's shifting and we all want to be a part of this shift. The shift that Harford is shifting to is we're finding out that we need to be more advanced in industrial education. We need to be more advanced in the EA sporting and that kind of education to attract those students who might not find traditional education as appealing. So, we need to stand with this superintendent, as the speaker said, and stand with this board to make sure that we're offering our students this. Now, we have some problems, yes,

071but we can fix those. So, don't you want to be a part of the fixes that Harford is heading towards? Don't you want to be a part of the newness Harford is is striving to go into? Right? We've gotten rid of the old. We have an inclusive round table now where all of us have an opinion and have a seat at the table. And that starts with the student board member. see him sitting up there with the rest of his peers at some point that'll be discussing how do we make Weaver a better program for getting our messaging out through social media and how do we bring back that competition between Weaver Harford High and Buckley don't you want your kids all over all over the the Harford County and all over the state don't

072you want your kids to be a part of that that rich culture that we had those rivalries so get your kids in Harford Don't be scared of Harford because Harford is going to be the cutting edge city to what is happening throughout the United States. So, we need that. We need this superintendent to have your support because he brought us all in and he said, "Let me try to fix this." He's solved all of our grievances. So, for those in the coalition, I hope he's solving yours as as well. But um we're starting to put away those old old problems and move forward to something a little bit little bit better. And we need he's going to need our support. Uh it's going to take a little while, you know, cuz we got some things

073to fix, but we can get there. And mayor, I think you want this, too. We just noticed that the state has increased or is getting ready to increase funding. So, we want to make sure that that funding doesn't stay at the top. I'm sure this superintendent, this board is going to make sure that that funding trickles down to the actual students and the supports of the students and not topheavy cabinet members. So, we understand that that's going to happen because this this is the buyin that is needed. I'm a Harford resident and I'm also a Harford parent, which many of the board members and people probably sitting in the audience are as well. And we need your support. We need this buyin. We can make Harford something different than no other school district can be

074because other school districts can't be what Harford can be. So, we want you to bring your kids here because they're going to get something a little bit different. It might not be as traditional, but it'll be different and it'll be just as profitable for them in their futures. And you know, there's another thing that the superintendent wanted to introduce, and he he brought this to union leaders about having a get together staff to really embrace each other as partners and as family. And so, we want to buy into that as well. We want to support that as well. What I'll say to you, superintendent, board members, and and and and to people in the audience as well, is people have a little bit of trouble buying into it a little bit because they don't know

075how to separate the fact that it is our job as union coalition members and union leaders to call balls and strikes. It is our job to advocate when we think something is not right. So people have to learn to take away their egos and take away their their pride and lay that down and say what's for the betterment of the team for Harford public schools which is one team even though we have separate rivalries that are very healthy. So we are we're asking everybody to be a part of that. We're asking everybody to give their best effort and we're asking everybody to help the superintendent not only change the culture of how we do things and how we do business in Harford public schools, but how we bring back students to our community because this

076is our community. It's changed a lot from the last 65 years, but this is our community and we embrace everybody of all walks of life. And in order for us to make Harford Public Schools what it needs to be, everybody has to buy into it and we have to do it in the best interest of our students. And I'll say this one last thing. I know I went over my time. Those of you who are not interested in the advancement of Harford public schools and not interested in the students of Harford public schools and are only here for self-interest, I will do everything in my power as union president and as a resident to make sure that your stay in Harford public schools is not comfortable. So I want to make sure that you understand

077that. So to the superintendent and to this board, I appreciate you. I thank you. And I think we can still do this together. This concludes public comment. Thank you everyone. Thank you for um public comment. Um at this time we're going to move on to reports. Um so I'll start with my report. the report of the chair. Um I I do want to say publicly for some people that know and some people that might be confused. Um the chef versus O'Neal lawsuit, we are not a party to the case. Um we deal with whatever is dished out as a result of court. Um the city of Harford, however, has entered um into those into that arena as a intervenor. Um so they so we have to communicate to corp counsel but we are not parties.

078We rely on them to intervene on our behalf. So we definitely need to have start having um more conversations around that. Um and we the ramifications of chef does not escape us at all. um we know the the good that it brings and we know the challenges that it has created, but it doesn't escape um anyone um that's sitting up here. Um I want to just give shoutouts to all our all of our um committee um chairs um for leading some robust committee meetings. Um we have been it's been a very busy um month since we've last been here. Um as was stated before, I know um it was said that um um board member Fortune and board member Tatum um attended um excuse me, Mr. Walker and Miss Fortune attended the African-American history be

079um for the student we students we recognized tonight. I know that Miss Fortune and Mr. Tatum attended Cab's Day at the Hill. Um we most of us were at the um budget forum. We also um some of us under the nudging of our board member Stephen Wilson um he had the wonderful idea that we um need to attend SGC meetings as board members. So we're signing up. We are um attending. I attended um one um it was wonderful. They didn't like put me on the spotlight. they were saying things and I was like at one point we were able because we we don't want to have all the spotlight on us and take away from the meeting. So we're going we're just um attendees when they ask us to speak we do but we want

080them to know that we are invested um in what goes on at the school level. We value um parent participation. We value the staff partnership and the school leadership partnership that happens in school governance council. I sat on school governance councils as a parent for many years. I understand um the importance of it um and so does some of um my colleagues. So, aside from that, we've met with state legislators advocating on um the behalf of um Harford public schools um and what we need financially and just some systems that we have to build ourselves to become a better district. Um we in finance we have um a workshop on the budget. Um we also attended well I attended the advocacy day at the capitol in which um our superintendent um and one of our

081students um did speak and present and represent Harford public schools very well. Um we they testified before the state um education committee um at the public hearing and um our CFO actually um took place in a lot of the financial um discussions that have been happening with legislators. Um there was a another um budget deficit discussion that took place um with the superintendent, the CFO and the mayor and some of his um folks. And we did have um three board members that did attend. Board member Walker, board member Wilson, and board member Mills attended that discussion. So, we'll continue um to speak with um the mayor on in regards to what our um students in our system needs. Um raise the bar career fair for students that happened at Parker Memorial was very um enlightening.

082um we all um society just puts a pressure and I'm not saying it's bad but it's not good for all students that college go to college. We um felt it was important um as a school district um to um present to students who are um who are thinking about other options, who's thinking about entrepreneurship, who are thinking about the trades, um who are thinking um about entering straight into the workforce. all of the things um that our students are interested in. Some of the things that staff had when I got there reported that what I didn't see was students light up. Students finally have someone speaking to them about things that they have interest in and validating them. Um we had um the men's warehouse um teaching um young men how to tie ties and

083giving them ties. Um we also had electric boat there who um provided an opportunity for some of our students to interview um the next Saturday um at our breakfast and learn um event. They were there just providing interviews to to also to community members. Um students were also at the raise the bar um career fair. They got an opportunity to um create resumeumés. They were given templates. They were had some mock interviews. So really developing those skills. Um we had over 180 students attend um that um in the north end of Harford. That was good. Other than that um I won't touch on some things. I know it'll be in the superintendent um report. Um yesterday um myself and Mr. Wilson were representatives on the um Harford School Building Committee. Um we were there questioning,

084you know, just what's going on in regards to our school, our buildings who that are under construction and our buildings that we have funds for sitting and waiting waiting to for construction to begin. So that's all that was um our busy um month. um that we had the pleasure serving um the student and families and staff of Harford public schools. So we are we will move into the superintendent report but I have to read that as a reminder. You can find the superintendent report full committee reports student reports all attachments and videos in the meeting agenda the meetings agenda on community that's our platform. Um all committee and workshop meetings are livereamed as well as viewable after the meetings. The YouTube links are saved in each meeting's agenda in community. Um I highly encourage the

085community to view review the meetings and read the reports when possible. And if you have any questions or feedback, please contact Christina Santiago, our board liaison at cantiagoartfordschools.org. And now we will move on to the report of the superintendent. >> Thank you, Chairwoman Broaddy. Immediate salary step advancement for special education teachers. I am thrilled to share some exciting news regarding our ongoing commitment to retaining our educators, especially those certified teachers in our high needs shortage areas. our teachers dedication to the foundation of our success and we're introducing new incentives to recognize your invaluable service. These incentives resulted from negotiation and collaboration with the Hartford Federation of Teachers. We are immediately implementing a salary step advancement to our current special education teachers on steps six, seven, and eight for the 2025 2026 school year. If you

086are a current special education teacher on step six, step seven, or step eight, you will be advanced to step nine in your respective salary lane. Looking ahead, we're extending this retention incentive to more of our high demand teaching areas for the 202627 school year. Active teachers in the following shortage areas who are on step six, step seven or step eight will be advanced to step 10 in their respective salary lanes. And those teachers are speech and language, psychologist, TE-OL or teaching English speakers of other languages, bilingual sciences, math, trade, and industry. We are genuinely committed to supporting and retaining highly qualified teachers at Hartford Public Schools. Important update to the Hartford Public School 2025 2026 school calendar. To ensure our students receive the full instructional time they deserve following this winter's six inclement weather days,

087we are once again making a strategic adjustment to our calendar. We have already reclaimed one of the six days in March. And to minimize further extensions late into June, we are converting Wednesday, April 29th, professional learning day, into an early release instructional day for students. On April 29th, students will follow an early release schedule and our dedicated staff will conduct their professional learning sessions following student dismissal. With these adjustments, we will make up the remaining four days on June 17th, 18th, and 22nd with a current last day of school scheduled for Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026. We appreciate the flexibility of our families and staff as we prioritize consistent, uninterrupted learning in every school for every student. Upcoming arts events, dance and theater festival. The Hartford Public Schools dance and theater department in partnership with Hartford

088Performs proudly present the fourth annual dance and theater festival which will take place Friday, March 27th at Weaver Canella High School. Students from Bansis STEM Classical Magnet, Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy, Hartford Public High School, Canella Lower, Canella High School, and Milner Middle School will come together to perform Connect as an audience and take part in workshops that celebrate their growth and artistry. Next, string festival. String musicians from Renzulli, Noah Webster, Great Path Academy, and HMTCA have been practicing at their schools and will come together as a group to perform at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and Breakthrough Magnet North on May 8th. Linkup performance. Students in grade three are learning how to play the recorder in music class. On May 20th, they will join their peers throughout the district to play with the

089Hartford Symphony Orchestra at the Bushnell to showcase what they've learned. And last, Hartford Youth Art Renaissance. This year's theme is hope and color, art as our voice. Visual arts teachers throughout the district submitted their student artwork for HYAR. This week, 30 schools will be represented and over 70 student artists will have their artwork professionally framed and on display at the Wodsworth during the month of May. Let me say this. on last week, I had the opportunity to meet with all of our principles in Hartford Public School, and it broke my heart when we were sitting there debating whether we would have a school resource officer or a behavior technician. The reason why that broke my heart because that shows the place we are with regards to our budget. When I started as superintendent of Hartford

090Public School, I had at minimum four reports placed on my desk. A blue ribbon commission, a public works audit on our finances about efficiency, a special education audit, as well as a magnet school audit. And the most of any of those reports say that Hartford Public School can save was about $400,000. In addition to that, it's been known that we've been in a structural deficit for a while. It's been forecast. In fact, in the last 10 years, we've cut $200 million and lost over lost 600 jobs. In the last three years, we've lost or cut $70 million and lost 400 jobs. I share that because every time I talk about our structural deficit in fiscal year 27, the question is, well, what is the plan? What is the plan? And I think that's in bad

091faith because even the MARB or the municipal accountability review board says there is nothing else to cut. Dr. Townsel, you guys are at the point where you're cutting bone and that is not good educational leadership. I cannot in good faith cut bone or foundation of Hartford public school and ask our families to send their kids to our schools without the appropriate teaching and learning resources and climate and culture resources. So, as superintendent, I will continue to ask and and and participate and collaborate with whomever has the political capital to make things happen for Hartford Public School. It broke my heart when I find out I'm going into many different rooms, walking up to the table to find out that I don't see my chair. And I talked to my mentor, Dr. Lois Harrison Jones. She

092said, "Dr. Towns, don't forget if you don't have a seat at the table, that means you're on the menu." And I said, "Wow." >> So, I'm going to continue to advocate for Hartford Public Schools to the best of my ability. And my prayer is that the political winds align to support Hartford. It is in bad faith when anybody says you do not have a plan or what is the plan or why don't you close schools in order to close a school you might generate barely a million dollar. We're in a $70 million deficit. If I close every last school, that is not the answer. We have a structural deficit and it's been known for years. is not the first time that's been said. My prayer is that it fall on the right ears and the

093right actions take place for Hartford Public Schools. So, I'm gonna share. Hartford Public School faces a continual structural deficit driven by a flat revenue and rising cost. Our deficit is driven by special education, tuition, and door-to-door transportation for Hartford resident students who do not attend Hartford public schools. This includes nonHartford public school magnet schools, open choice schools, and out of district placements. Our deficit is currently projected to be $22 million for fiscal year 26 and $52.5 million for fiscal year 27, $45 million deficit, plus the $7.5 million in current one-time sitting funding. The plan. Please visit our website to learn about our priorities. Here's the plan that we've said we have, but they're still saying what is the plan? The plan is we're proposing what we need for fiscal year 27. We have cut significantly

094over the past decade $200 million and 600 jobs. Over the last three years, $70 million and 400 jobs. Even the marbs say you cannot cut your weight out of this deficit. So with the state, we are focusing on specific legislative advocacy solutions to increase fiscal sustainability for Hartford public school and address these structural issues in long term. This includes one, adjusting the education cost sharing formula for inflation and phasing out general education tuition. Number two, fulfilling commitments from the 2025 legislative session related to special education. And three, align special education open choice responsibilities to ensure fiscal sustainability and support for students. With regards to the city, as we work on structural issues, we need one-time funding from the city's fund balance to support fiscal year 2027 operations. So, if anybody said, "Well, where's the money

095coming from?" There's something called fund balance. That's a rainy day fund. And right now, Hartford has a rainy day. And Hartford Public Schools is a part of Hartford. It's an emergency that we're in. And this is a inflection point where something must happen. The city has a fund balance which operates as a savings account. This money has been saved over time. It can be used for one-time purchase as needed. I've learned at the municipal accountability review board or at the MARB meeting on March 5th, 2026 that the city's current fund balance is $74 million. And of the of this 48 million is unassigned, meaning there's no goal or no current plan for it. And the other 26 million is assigned, which means there are plans for the money, but they may not have happened yet

096or it can be reallocated. Last year, the city had a $25 million surplus in their portion of the budget. This was because tax revenue was higher than projected and expenditures were lower than projected. Based on historical trends, the city is likely to have another surplus at the end of this year. These additional dollars go into the fund balance if not used or it goes into a savings account. While we are maintaining our staffing and budget formulas for schools, schools may experience a decrease in the number of positions or funding due to declines in enrollment and availability of grant funding. Positions will be reduced from the budget for these reasons. If we do not receive all of the funding we are advocating for from the state and city, we may have to go through another round

097of reductions after the city council votes on their budget on May 21st. It is more important than ever that you participate in the advocacy process so Hartford Public School does not have to make further cuts. We cannot cut the foundation. We do not want to cut our bone. You can do this by filling out postcards to state legislators and attending city public budget hearings on April 1st and April 28th. Ladies and gentlemen, we are asking Hartford to save Hartford. And my prayer is that the political winds align so Hartford Public Schools better days can remain in front of us. And with that, Chairwoman Brody, I park my bus. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. And now, do we have a report from our student representative, Shan Lelay Claude? >> Um, good evening. I'm Shanley Claude, the

098vice president of the student advisory council. Um, I made a way for students to come back to H Harford public school. The and we recently we student of the we student of the we student of the student council advisory. We recently went to the capital to advocate for more funding but we but to also talk about the change that's coming with the funding because if we don't get the funding we could not only build and buy more materials for the schools which will increase progress but what attract students to make them come back is for them to see the type of options they have for their future. Um, a way for us to to see what type of student what type of what type of uh future these students want to have is to create

099a a survey to see what to see what what their future look like to see if there if they want to if to see what type of what type of thing they want to do like to go to straight school, nursing, whatever it is, is for them to create a survey to see and then we could create a maybe a career day where we get them to come and see what the type of thing they need to do. Um, I know that I know that it's I know that Harford Public School doesn't get a lot of trust from the parents because because of of actions and different things that students have done. But for the for the students to come back, we are going to rebuild our image. We are going to change the way

100the way we are if we get more funding. So I'm asking you people understand you right there. I'm asking you for I'm asking you to advocate not to only look at us students advocating for the help. We want you to help too. I want not only us students going to the capital asking for more funding but you can do the same thing. Your parents, your teachers, you have your voice too to use. You can use your voice. It's not only us students use your voice as people around us and as students of HPS I've I've seen I've seen people who have talents before multiple students have talents they have to bloom because of our budget cut deficit. I've I w I've witnessed it firsthand where students are losing their talent. They're losing their musical musical

101passion. They're losing their voice. What make them unique and stand and stand out student because we don't have that budget funding. So what are you going to do as people around us? What are you going to do? Are you going to are you going to help us or just watch us lose and suffer? What are you going to do? And for the cutting pro for Harford cutting problem we when we are cutting teachers because of our lack of funding your help and many other students voices can speak against against that and for the issue of the for the issue of Harford deficit of staying the same for the past decade. It's not I'm not surprised by this, but I'm also surprised because that shows what type of community we are. That means for 10 years

102that stand there, y'all couldn't do anything. Y'all couldn't use your voices to see our students are getting dumber in school. Now we needed libraries. Y'all could have used our voice 10 years ago. But now y'all seen y'all seen our students suffer. You seeing me suffer because of our lack of education. You seeing our AC SAT score go down because of our lack lacks of education. As my question stand, what are you going to do to help us students? What are you going to do? Teachers, principles, all citizens of Harford, what are you going to do to help us change what is happening with our students? What is happening with our elementary kids? What is happening with our libraries, our teachers, we need your help. Us student cannot do all the job by ourselves. We need

103parents too. We need you to help us. And that is my report. [applause] Well, if we were not going to do anything, I know we all feel that we're going to do something now after that. Mr. Claude, thank you. And it takes a lot of courage for him to be in this spotlight and to deliver like that. So, if we could give him another round of applause. you are valued here. Um back to um Mr. Superintendent. >> Thank you, Chairwoman Brody. Uh ladies and gentlemen, it's important to know that this is Connecticut Board of Education member appreciation month, and I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge Connecticut's Board of Education member appreciation um members right here in Hartford. It is a special time in March to recognize our leaders. I am deeply grateful to

104Hartford School Board members who generously volunteer their time and expertise to oversee the successful operations of our programs. Their commitment to education is critical in making sure we are complying with state guidelines, establishing smart policy, and making strategic decisions to meet the needs and interests of our students, families, and community. It is a task that can demand long hours and rising to the occasion to ensure each and every student receives a high quality education. I want to extend a special thank you to Hartford Public Schools Board of Education Chair Shante Brody for her invaluable leadership and to all fellow board members for their dedication and hard work. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in supporting our school board members, not just today, but throughout the entire month of March and for the rest of this

105academic year, because together we can continue to empower students across the district to thrive in school and in life. And by the grace of God, we will set that bar, meet that bar, exceed that bar, and raise the bar. So, give it up for our school board members. [applause] Thank you. >> Thank you so much. They say it's thankless, but this felt good right now. Um I'll I wanted I want to turn it over to our legislative committee chair, Miss um Christa Esper Estrada Perez. She has a call to action. >> Hello everyone. My name is Christ. I am the chair of the legislative task force and part of the work that we've been doing is really thinking through the structural issues that we see as a city, right? Recognizing the role that the state

106plays and the ways that we have chosen to fund education, right? And the ways that wealthy neighborhoods are able to hoard their wealth, right? While extracting a lot of stuff from places like Cartford and that ends up really disturbing our communities, right? And part of the work that we need to do is address both at the legislature as well as the city level. Um, exactly like Superintendent Townsel said, um, because we need both of those structures to to to do the work necessary to fund education properly in our district. We know inequities, we know economic segregation, we know what racial segregation has done. Um, and the impact that it's had on our budgets and we see that not just in Hartford, we see it in Bridgeport, New Haven. And then we have the added layer

107of things like Chef B. O'Neal and what that has sort of the the economic ramifications of that. So, I say that to say that part of what we want to make sure that the call to action that we're having today is that we have postcards that we want you all to fill out. Get five of your friends, five of your colleagues to fill them out for you. Uh bring them back to the schools because the goal is to deliver those to our delegation at the legislature so that they know how important uh the ECS formula adaptations are and all of the other priorities that we've articulated are important for Huffer Public Schools that those are things are happening and we need your support to be able to do that. also attend the budget meeting for

108the city and of course let your city council and your mayor know how important it is to be able to find those city funds as well. So I want you all to take both of those actions. Get some uh postcards, get five of your friends, right? It's the easiest way we can do that. Um you can get those at the schools. I believe we have them at the office um at the main offices. um and then just bring them back and then we'll be able to deliver them to the delegation in uh up at the capitol so that we can have as many of you fill those out as possible because together in collective we can show how important education it is for our schools. Um and so we wanted to make sure that we

109highlighted that as well in terms of what you can do today. Um and never underestimate the power of a good email to your legislator or to your city council member to tell them how important uh funding for Harford public schools is. >> [applause] >> Oops. And I believe that um Miss Daryl St Ledger has a cave update. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. So the update for CABE is we have a the National School Board Association convention that's going to be taking place in April and our the incoming president is going is from Connecticut from Windsor actually. Um his name is Leonard Lockheart and um so we will be bringing him in sorting him in and all that. Um one major uh vote that we took that took place actually it was last week at

110our leadership meeting was we voted on a evaluation um that's going to be done that's going to take place that's going to be put together um for CABE for superintendants so there isn't an actual evaluation process process um that's in place for superintendent. So that's something that we're working on right now. So that was voted on and that will be put together. So there's more news that's going to be coming once that's done. And that's my update. Thank you. And now we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Um items on the consent agenda are 4.2 acceptance of funds um kids incorporated accepting funds from the Connecticut State Department of Education as a pass through for the Hartford Juvenile Detention Center School. 4.3 Approval of minutes from February 17, 2026. 4.4 Four, first reading

111of the admission placement policy, updating the age of enrollment to reflect updated state requirements. This is a first reading of the policy, so no vote is required at this time. It will be discussed again in policy committee before returning for adoption. Any comments or questions on the consent agenda? >> Do I have a motion to vote on the consent agenda? >> So moved. Second. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Nays abstensions. The eyes have it. Business agenda. Item 5.1 resolution approval of superintendent contract extension. The motion is that the Hartford Board of Education hereby approves one, a change of the duration of the board superintendent contract to July 1, through June 30th, 2029 and two, a 2.5 2.75 salary increase for the period July 1, 2026 through June 30th,

1122027. commensurate with the HPSA union contract and further moved that the board authorizes its chairperson to execute the revised contract with these terms on behalf of the board. Do I have a motion? >> So move second. >> Mr. Superintendent, you have words, comments. It's a privilege and pleasure to serve Hartford Public Schools as superintendent and chief executive officer. Um, I'll continue to work to the best of my ability for the students, the families, the staff members, anybody that has a stake in Harford public schools. I will always give my best. And I often talk with our leaders about the four agreements. And the first agreement is to be impeccable with your word. The second agreement is do not take things personally. The fourth agreement is do not make assumptions and the the third was not

113don't make assumptions. The last agreement is always try your best and I've made those agreements with myself. So I promise you I always give my best while serving as superintendent of Hartford Public Schools. >> Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. >> Um any questions or discussions from board members? Mr. Mr. Walker. >> Um yeah, thank you, Chair. I I just wanted to maybe re reiterate what uh we had set in committee that this um the extensions within the customary time period that extensions are held and that this is a customary action that is done annually for for all educational leaders, superintendents and that that the rate is also um aligned. And so, um, I wanted to say that because I think with, um, superintendent kind of coming mid year, I got a couple questions about, well, has

114he been here a year? But there's a customary period, and this is the same period every year for every leader um, to have this be evaluated. >> Thank you. And I'm going to correct you a little bit, Mr. Walker. It was in leadership because I know others probably looking like I wasn't in that committee meeting. [laughter] So, it was in our leadership department um um meeting that u Mr. Walker is referring to. Um any other questions or discussion? >> Miss Jacob. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I was just wondering what the duration was beforehand if we're just changing the start date from 25 to 26 or if there's more years added on the back end. >> The we're so it's two things that's happening. one is every um superintendent is allowed to ask every

115year um for an extension to be at three years to be at a three-year um contract. So, it has to be bought here for a vote. So, it would have been through 2028. >> Mhm. >> And we're extending to 2029. >> Okay. I just was wondering that. Thanks. No further discussion. So the motion on the floor is that the Harford Board of Education hereby approve one change of the duration of the board superintendent contract from to July 1, 2026 through June 30 of 2029 and two a 2.75 salary increase for the period of July 1, 2026 through June 30 of 2026. 7 commensurate with the HPSA union contract and further move that the board authorizes its chairperson to execute the revised contract with these terms on behalf of the board. All those in favor signify

116by saying I >> I. >> Any nays? Any abstensions? The eyes have it. The motion moves [applause] and this concludes the business portion of the meeting. Thank you for joining us and have a good night. together. I didn't >> [music] >> Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow, wow.