001Good evening. As chairperson of the Hartford Board of Education, I hereby call to order the July 15, 2025 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 you have joined us as we celebrate achievement, review information, and make policy decisions related to the effective operation of Hartford 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 law. As the Hartford Board of Education, we are here to set goals, listen to the reports of the superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, and personnel appointments, and make policy for the district. We are not here to make management decisions or solve the problems of individuals. Management is the responsibility
002of the superintendent. The monthly meetings of the board are open to the public. They are a 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 confined to the time designated for the public to address the board. Decorum 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 ask for order periodically should noise begin to interfere with our recording capabilities. I am pleased that you have taken time to join us this evening. We are very proud of the school system and thank you for your interest in
003Hartford Public Schools. This will now be read in Spanish. Hartford. administr Moment. Fore disposition. communication. Thank you. We will now move on to public comments. Mr. Mills. >> Hello everybody. We as a board in collaboration with the superintendent and district leadership are committed to cultivating a culture of excellence at all levels of the Hartford public schools. 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 within 48 hours if follow-up is required via the preferred method of contact the speaker has indicated on the
004sign-in sheet. As a reminder, you have three minutes to speak. At the second minute, the bell will ring, letting you know that you have one minute left. At the second bell, please wrap up your comments. Now, Christina will read this in Spanish. Excellenc. Person. And our first speaker is Carol Gale. Now, there we go. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Carol Gail. I'm the president of the Harford Federation of Teachers. Last month, I outlined the various systems within Harford Public Schools that are broken. Tonight, I list potential solutions to those, all with the goal of retaining staff and providing stability for students in their educational experience here in Hartford. The board must take a more active role in directing the district to address these concerns. Some of these solutions will require negotiation
005with various unions. Also like last month, I will share three minutes worth of these ideas and leave you with a fuller list in hard copy. Number one, relationship with unions. Though I did not enumerate that last month, it is an overarching concern. You have appointed a new superintendent who has not yet reached out to HFT nor any other union. I ask that you please direct him to do so. Number two, special education. Set clear guidance and/or case lo case load caps. Open more self-contained classrooms to provide the smaller class size environment many of our students need. Provide clerical support. Number three, disciplinary systems for both students and staff. Continue the work of the code of conduct committee. shift the paradigm and overhaul the disciplinary process for staff to be in line with restorative practices. Number
006four, grading. Eliminate the minimum 50 grading policy and reestablish the grading committee. Number five, grievances. Resolve issues at the lowest level. Establish minimum responsiveness time frames and ensure that step two hearings take place in a timely manner. Number six, the transfer process. Work with unions proactively when confronted with reductions in force and eliminate staffing decisions based on favoritism or nepotism at all levels. Number seven, refusal of the district to initiate bargaining for all changes in workload. work proactively with pertinent unions to negotiate agreements regarding workload changes and respond to demands to bargain in a timely manner. Number eight was lack of exit interviews. Conduct exit interviews and identify areas for improvement. Number nine was lack of art and music offered to students. Make a commitment to providing every Harvard student with regular art and music
007classes by a certified teacher. Number 10 is lack of support for unified arts. Separate the unified arts, which is the art, music, dance, drama, from wellness, which is PE and health. Number 11 was lack of communication regarding principles versus program directors versus the district. Create a clear chain of command so that staff know to whom they report and have greater transparency of directives given to principles to pass on to staff to help avoid the telephone effect where you lose the meaning of the message as it gets forwarded. Number 12, contracting out of bargaining unit work. Do not contract out bargaining unit work without first negotiating with the pertinent union as this is a mandatory subject of bargaining. Number 13 was culture and climate. Take action in the schools HFT has repeatedly raised with culture and
008climate concerns and shift the paradigm from the one where management must always be right to management must always seek continuous improvement. HFT is ready and willing to roll up our sleeves and work with the district on all of these solutions. And I will leave with Christina the fuller list. Thank you. Our second and final speaker, Myra Ali. That concludes public comment. Thank you. So, Carol, thank you for coming out and giving us your comments tonight. We always appreciate them. We appreciate that you came out. Um, all right. So, thank you so much. And now we're going to move on to the report of the chair. With summer upon us and the superintendent search process and contract negotiations taking up much of our time in June and July, my report will also be quite short this
009evening. Um the only thing I have tonight is an update on the superintendent search process. So Dr. Andre Townsel will tentatively uh we we hope we believe that this is the date uh will be joining us as the next superintendent of Hartford's public schools on Monday, August 4th. We look forward to welcoming him to Hartford and to our incredible school community. We are working through his onboarding meet and greets and town hall schedules. Please note that there are a large number of individuals and groups he who he will be meeting with over the next several months. Hartford Schools has a large number of incredible people who work behind the scenes to support our students. And we want to highlight each and every person and group. So we will do our best to ensure he makes
010these connections as soon as possible. And he's just one person. So these meetings will not happen overnight, but they will certainly happen. We look forward to everyone having a chance to meet and welcome Dr. Townsel. And again, I want to thank everyone who played a role in the search for the superintendent. If you filled out a survey, participated in a focus group, or reached out to a board member, you were part of the process, and we thank you for your input. I also want to reiterate my thanks to the board members. Your work on this process was valued and important, and we couldn't have gotten to where we are today without everyone's participation in the process. I am honored to have been part of the process with you. As a reminder, you can find the
011superintendent report, full committee report, student reports, all attachments and videos in the meetings agenda on board docs. All committee and workshop meetings are livereamed as well as viewable after the meeting. The YouTube links are saved in each of the meetings agend each meetings agenda on board docs. I highly encourage the community to view the meetings and read the reports when possible. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact Christina Santiago, our board liaison at cantiago hartfordschools.org. And I believe the only meeting that we had last month was the committee of the whole meeting. So there was only one meeting between last month and this month for you to watch. With that, we will now move on to the report of the deputy superintendent, Dr. Ratley. The floor is yours. >> Thank you, board chair.
012Good evening. First, I want to commend the students and families of more than 1,000 students who earned their diploma during the June graduations. This also includes graduates of our adult education program, which also celebrated 15 participants in its inaugural certified nursing assistance program. Congratulations to all graduates and program participants. Approximately 40 staff members from schools and central office participated in a series of planning meetings to continue work on our district's strategic plan, taking steps to operationalize the priorities in the plan set forth by our entire community and adopted by this board. An official update and communication plan will be scheduled in the upcoming weeks. While we know this is time for summer vacation, we also welcome students, staff, and partners in several summer programs. And our capital preparatory staff and students began in full swing
013on Monday, July 7th for their first day of school. Finally, save the date for our annual back to school celebration slated for August 19th. Again, that's August 19th, 10:00 a.m. to 1 pm at Duncan Park, where there will be backpack giveaways and school supplies for students, activities for all children, and information for families. This concludes my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Rley. All right, we will now move on to the business agenda. Um, item number 4.1, contract approval, Relay Graduate School of Education. Motion that the Hartford Board of Education authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with Relay Graduate School of Education for the term outlined in the contract at an amount not to exceed $123,251 ending June 30th, 2026. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you.
014Uh Dr. Ratley, back to you. Just a reminder that this Relay Graduate School of Education um program is a Connecticut State Department of Education approved alternate route for certification specifically for high needs areas including science, math, elementary, and English language arts. This allocation of funding would allow us up to 14 program participants as a component of our recruitment efforts. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Ratley. Um, any questions or discussion from our board members? Mr. >> Yeah, typically I don't like doing this, but it's more of a statement and I really wish, but I think I just want to make sure um actually it's a request. It's not a statement. Can you please um going forward and in the future, whomever you contact in the state, can you bother them some more about lowering that GPA? I
015recognize that it is not a relay program issue. It is not a school system issue. It's a state issue, but recognizing the importance of bringing it down um so that we aren't accidentally like disqualifying candidates who are in the school already doing really good work. Um I think that would really help the system and really help with sort of the teacher shortage. Um, so if it's not really a statement, but if you can continue doing that, I know we're going to keep working on that on our end about when we meet with our legislators. Um, but I think that's sort of the real request that I have there. Thank you. >> Thanks, Mr. Mills. Uh, I Oh, yep. Miss Merchin, >> thank you. Um, thank you both for being here. Just for the general public,
016um could you share some of the information you shared with us during the committee of the whole specifically about the number of participants in the pipeline, the retention numbers of people who've gone through the program and have stayed with um Hartford schools just so we understand what the services that's really being offered and who's affected by it. Thank you. >> Oh, there we go. Hi, Natalie Javier. Uh thank you. So um some of the background information that I shared in the committee on the whole um this partnership has um gone on successfully for nine years. Um we started the partnership in 2016 and we've had 48 staff enroll in the program since its launch. 34 have successfully completed and graduated and um 83% of those graduates are um educators of color. 22 still teaching here
017in Hartford Public Schools and 73% of those retained teachers are teachers of color. Um last year's cohort, 100% of the participants su successfully transitioned to rostered teachers. Um in terms of for this coming school year, we have five staff currently enrolled and progressing into year two of the program and we are anticipating up to nine new participants. um six of those being participants are um educators of color. And then nationally um 70% of Relay students nationwide are teachers of color and they report a 95 satisfaction rate with the program and the professors. Um and Relay as a whole has a strong um history of retention. 91% of Relay alumni nationally remain in education after three years. So, it's really good for um an alternative root program. Is there any other information that you'd like me
018to share? I think Miss Brody has a question and I sorry, I meant to acknowledge our board members that were online. I believe it's Miss Brody and Miss um Estrada Perez. So, my apologies for not acknowledging you sooner, but Miss Brody, the floor is yours. >> Thank you. I just wanted to um grounded mention um that I understand first I want to make a request um teachers of color. Do we have like categories that the board could be made aware of? um just instead of saying of color like how many black how many um Latino like for that to be um provided to us that would be great for me. >> Okay. >> Um second I just wanted to say that I know this is a priority. I get that. But when we have to
019when we when we make cuts and we make cuts to like student programming and we because some of these funds are coming out of our um general budget. So we're making fund we're making cuts to direct services to students for this program that is wonderful that will that eventually support students. I think we have to be careful in that because I only can I'm the first thing I'm imagining is the amount that's coming out of the general budget. How many more like could we have served one more student in a program not a program because educating our students like when we talk about um the hope academy we say a program but that are that's our teachers teaching our kids. How many more academy students could we have possibly served? So, I just wanted to
020make note of that. >> I understand your concern. Um I just wanted to give you the breakdown um in terms of dollar amounts for general budget and then um special budget was for alliance grant funds. The majority of the budget will be coming out of alliance funds. Um it's 86736 and the remaining will be from general budget 36515. Um and that's maximum amount if everybody enrolled in the program um successfully enrolls and is is admitted into the program and there are some participants right now who are in the final stages of the application process with relay. Um so we I wanted to give you that information. Um, and we really prioritize here in OTM making sure that we have a diverse teacher staff for students. It's one of our number one priorities. And so, um,
021I understand your concern. This is also a really important concern for the students to have a person in the building and in front of them that represents the them and where they come from. And most of the pe people that are part of the relay program are current paras that live and work in in our community. And so that's really important to us. But thank you. Oh, and I also have >> I have the data for the breakdown if you'd like to be specific about black um Hispanic and Asian. And most of the participants are black or Hispanic. Um we have one Asian participant um um trying to enroll for for next year. But I can give you the breakdown if you'd like that data. I do have it. >> Thank you. Miss Brody, did
022you have a follow-up question? >> Not. No. Okay. >> Not a follow-up question. Maybe a follow-up comment. >> Okay, go for it. >> No, I'm sorry. It was a question. I'll hold the comment. The question, how much um pays relay for their services? Is is it a charge? How much do we pay relay or just I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question? I'm I want to make sure I understood what you asked. >> Yeah. Is there a over is there o any overhead in regards to this um training and programming? >> No, it's the partnership itself is free. We're just requesting scholarship dollars to support our current internal staff to be promoted and to be able to achieve teacher certification, which is something that they've reached out to us um and said that they they
023desire. One of the major barriers for our non-certified staff to become certified staff is financial. And so this is just um one of the ways that we would like to support them. There's no cost for the program for us. This is strictly to provide scholarships for our staff to become certified. >> Okay. Thank you. I Madam Chair, I'll hold my comment. >> Thanks, Miss Py. Any other questions or comments? Seeing no hands raised, uh, thank you both so much for your for your presentation today. The motion on the floor is that the Hartford Board of Education authorize the superintendent to execute a contract with Relay Graduate School of Education for the term outlined in the contract at an amount not to exceed $123,251 ending June 30th, 2026. All those in favor signify by saying I.
024>> I. >> Nays abstensions. All right, the eyes have it. The motion moves. Item 4.2, acceptance of funds and contract approval, the village chef interd district magnet summer enrichment grant. Motion that the Hartford Board of Education authorize the superintendent to accept funds from the chef interd district magnet summer enrichment grant in the amount of $79,999. Furthermore, the Hartford Board of Education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with the village for family and children for the amount or sorry, for the term outlined in the contract ending August 30th, 2025 at an amount not to exceed $79,999. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Thank you. Uh Dr. Ratley, the floor is yours. Yes. This grant funding will support summer programming that's actually taking place right now for our middle
025school students, grades six, seven, and eight. There are three CBOs as mentioned uh community- based organizations as mentioned that will be supporting enrichment opportunities component of this program. Um we have a staff member, Miss Hooker, who's come forward to share some highlights from the um committee meeting. Sorry. Good afternoon everyone. Um, as Dr. Ratley mentioned, this is a grant that we receive um for to provide a middle school program, which as a district we really didn't have or didn't have funding to be able to have a program in place for our middle school students. Um at our board meeting where we brought up the idea of applying for this grant, there was a highlight to ensure that this was something that was able to provide support not only to our magnet students but also to
026our neighborhood students. Um so this is a program that is open to both magnet and neighborhood students. And we have a partnership with three community-based organizations to be able to ensure that our students have not only in school enrichment opportunities for exposure to um outdoor um opportunities for them to explore as well during the four weeks of programming. Um the contracts are specific um in lower amount. This particular one is coming to you because we do have different contracts with the village which put them over that threshold, the threshold of the 50,000 that we need to come to the board which is why we're here today. >> Thank you, Miss Hooker. Any questions from board members? Minister Mills, >> just want to clarify um that the that in in the report um it mentioned that
027this is for classical magnet school, but that's only because this amount that you're asking for is specific to this one. That's not the only school in this larger program. Correct. >> Correct. So, Classical Magnet School is the site that is hosting our middle school program, but it's open to our middle schools that is bringing in uh 135 students from a variety of magnet and neighborhood schools to that particular location. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Miss Brody. >> Yes. My question did did is this the um amount of money that we had to apply for? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. So we only that is that the only amount the only school site or program that we actually applied for because if you look at the breakdown of this funding and how many um other operators
028the millions that they got in this amount we got. So, I'm hoping this wasn't for a lack of us applying. Whenever there's money and there's grants, we should be applying for everything. Um, every school, every magnet school should have been applying. Um, this is a very while appreciated. It'll surface some students. I don't know in comparison the breakdown that I receive this is like pennies to the total amount of funding available um for under this particular um grant as a whole. So, I'm hoping that we're just really taking the opportunity um every opportunity to apply to everything that's out there um because this was a lot of money and this is not a lot a big portion of that that was available. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Correct. So the way that we uh
029think through so that we would be competitive around this process was coming or bringing together our schools and connecting directly with our principal from classical magnet to be able to have this principal help us lead the uh application process but really ensuring that all of our middle school programs were kind of a part of the process. and then really looking at community based organizations that um help us put together a competitive program um to be a part of the process. Uh the contract is a subset of the funding that was received because the funding is paying for our teachers, is paying for all of the different things that are happening for the four weeks. um this is specific to the CBO component of that particular program for them to offer their enrichment piece. But you're
030correct, we are looking to ensure that we apply to any and all opportunities that is available to us here at the district so that we can have um opportunities and exposure for our students not only during the summer but during the school year. Thanks, Miss Hooker. Uh, Miss Brody, did you have any further questions? >> Only only other comment I think I would have is that when we we need to and maybe we do because when I'm saying we need to, we probably do it, but this is just my opinion, which may not be factual, right? There are so many providers that are even small smaller I mean all in our communities. I hope that we are engaging them and bringing them into what we do. They play a vital role um in our communities
031and I'm just hoping that the smaller guys get a chance um when these opportunities come forward because they're they're plenty they're plentiful. um within our Harford community and I'm just hoping um that we start seeing more of them partnering with us and getting paid for partnering with us, not a lot of the volunteer work that they do um day in and day out. So, this is not saying we don't do it, but just bringing high just highlighting that they're out there and they're looking for these opportunities um to not just volunteer and give to the community, something that they could grow from some opportunities. That's it, Madam Chair. >> Thanks, Miss Broy. Any other questions or comments? All right, seeing none, uh, thank you, Miss Hucker, for your presentation. Uh, the motion on the floor
032is that the Hartford Board of Education authorize the superintendent to accept funds from the Chef Interdist magnet summer enrichment grant in the amount of $79,999. Furthermore, the Hartford Board of Education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with the Village for Family and Children's for the term outlined in the contract ending August 30th, 2025 in an amount not to exceed $79,999. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Nays. Abstensions. All right, the eyes have it. The motion moves. Item 4.3, second reading, policy 9012, powers, purpose, purposes, and duties. Motion that the Hartford Board of Education adopt policy 9021, powers, purposes, and duties. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh, Miss Fortune, do you have uh anything to say on this one from policy committee?
033>> Um, sure. uh briefly. So about three years ago, I believe in 2022, this policy was changed such that the board of education is only approving um cabinet level positions um from through the superintendent. Uh previously it included school principles as well and the principles were removed in 2022. So, this would reverse the change that happened in 2022 such that the board will approve cabinet level positions and school principles uh when the superintendent chooses to bring in um a new person at those two at at those levels. >> Thank you. Uh any questions, comments from board members? Mr. Tatum? Um, I'll just say briefly that I'm in support of this revision going back to the the board having a role in the appointment of principles. Um, not so much because I feel like the board
034needs to have a check on the superintendent's authority to make a recommendation, but more so uh because of the relationship uh context that it creates between principles and the board and the public as well. Um when principal appointments are uh uh something that happens regularly at board meetings in the public eye like this uh it raises awareness and and sort I believe elevates the position of the principal um by by bringing it to the public and bringing it before the board. It offers a chance for board members to uh in a formal way get to know the um new principles and new buildings and and just be more aware of leadership in the district which I think uh overall is a good thing. >> Thanks, Mr. Tatum. Any other discussion? Okay. Um I I will
035just say that um I I rarely disagree with anyone. Um, but I I I will just say that I'm actually not in favor of this only because I feel like I don't know necessarily think that I personally would be someone who could come back and say a principal should or should not be um a principal after all the work that has gone into it. But I will say that I hope that um if this does pass that we can kind of as a board work together on a procedure to do it in a way that which we're not, you know, we're not um really so much interviewing said folks in a public setting, but that we find a way to really kind of get to what we're trying to get to. Um which is really
036the connection to the schools, the connection to the principles. So that's that's just me um stating kind of my opinion on that. So, oh, Miss Brody, >> thank you. Um, the I kind of um believe in the opposite. I think I I've always stated over many years that principles are like the most important um positions in um in the in the school system. They create um they can foster a positive environment. They could be the driver of that in their school. They get teachers to buy in. They provide um role modeling for kids like they are they are it. Um when we when we talk about our employees, the board should never be like disconnected from that. Um if you go back and look at some of our past board meetings, it has always been
037um a standard practice. I feel the questions have always been appropriate but necessary. Um we have um SGC's that have over the years actually complained that they were the the candidate that they wanted was not didn't necessarily line up with who the superintendent wanted. So it gave us an opportunity to engage those people. It helps us not be around town talking to folks and don't know who the principal of a school is. Um that's that's something that we should not be um disconnected from. Um it is the same as if um I don't we we haven't done it here. Um but any any of principles and up to cabinet level positions, yes, they are they are publicly asked questions, but I think the board has never been inappropriate in their questioning. Um so I am
038definitely in support um of this. Thank you. >> Thanks, Miss Brody. Uh any other discussions, questions, comments? No. All right. Seeing none, the motion on the floor is that the Hartford Board of Education motion uh sorry uh adopt policy 9012 powers, purposes, and duties. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Nays nay. Uh abstensions. All right. The eyes have it. The motion moves. Moving on to the consent agenda. Contracts in the consent agenda were all discussed at the committee of the whole meeting. The items are 5.2 contract amendment approvals, community schools contract. These community schools contracts were approved by the board on May 20th and we are now amending the contracts to include additional funding that we received from the city of Hartford. 5.3 Approval of authorized signatory for Hartford
039Public Schools. We will be adding Deputy Superintendent Ratley and Chief Operating Officer Cologne as authorized signitories in the absence of the superintendent. 5.4 Approval Board of Education meeting schedule for the 2025 2026 school year. And 5.5 approval of minutes from the June 18th, 2025 meeting. Uh any comments or questions on the consent agenda? Nope. All right. Seeing none, do I have a motion to vote on the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Nays. >> Abstension. Nay. >> Oh, nay. All right. Thank you. Uh abstensions. The eyes have it. And that is the July 15th board of education meeting which is now adjourned. Thank you for joining us.