Aliyya Swaby Photo
Harp, Carlos Torre at Monday’s meeting.
Board of Education members approved moving Clinton Avenue Principal Ana Rodriguez to a central office position — in hopes of avoiding losing $2 million in state grant money for the school over the next three years.
It’s still not clear if that will work.
The decision to move Rodriguez was made at a special board meeting Monday evening at 54 Meadow St.
It opened the way for the board to appoint a new principal.
But the board did not yet meet a state demand to appoint a new principal for Clinton Avenue, or for another school in town.
The action took place in 10 minutes at the meeting — after board members kept the public waiting three hours while they held an executive session.
The special meeting was held after Superintendent Garth Harries received a letter from state education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell dated Monday warning him to get a new principal for Clinton Avenue or else lose a “Commissioner’s Network” grant, which would get the Fair Haven K‑8 school needed money and a plan for improvements.
The board voted 5 – 1 to approve Rodriguez as an English Language Learner (ELL) supervisor in central office, a peer position to current ELL Supervisor Pedro Mendia-Landa, starting in mid-September.
Board member Ed Joyner voted no on that decision. He argued that Harries had not followed the proper procedure to create the position and recruit a full roster of candidates. “But I love Ana [Rodriguez],” he said.
A May 2015 state audit revealed struggles with developing talent and a rigorous academic program, and with the instructional leadership of the school. Click here to read the full audit.
State Audit
Results of May Clinton Avenue audit.
Clinton Avenue received the lowest score, a “1” or “below standard,” on three of 23 indicators: instructional leadership, academic rigor and student attendance. Wentzell said in the letter that state officials expected new administrators at the school in order to address its low score on instructional leadership.
The second half of the letter reads as follows:
“The initial planning grant that Clinton Avenue received was predicated on the expectation that the ‘below standard’ on instructional leadership would be addressed by bringing in a new principal. The Turnaround Office worked with the Clinton Avenue assistant principal on plans during the 2015 – 2016 school year and the assistant principal presented the Clinton Avenue plan to the state board. All of this was done with the expectation of new leadership at the school, which you yourself explained when you came before the State Board of Education on May 4, 2016.”
“Unless the planned leadership change occurs at Clinton Avenue School, no funds will be released to Clinton Avenue to begin implementation of its turnaround plan. Furthermore, no additional supports offered to Commissioner Network schools will be provided to Clinton Avenue School until this issue is satisfactorily addressed. I strongly encourage you to work with your board to resolve this issue as the start of the school year is upon us.”
Clinton Avenue is expecting $800,000 in state grant money this upcoming year, and then $600,000 to $700,000 for each of the following two years, Harries said. That’s $2 million at risk.
The state did not give the board a deadline. “I think we have the time,” Harp told the Independent after the meeting. The board approved Rodriguez for the central office position to “make it clear she will be moving,” responding to the state’s clear demands, she said.
Rodriguez declined to comment Monday after the meeting.
Text of Wentzell’s letter to Harries.
After a three-hour executive session Monday, board members trickled in to a conference room of members of the public, who stayed to see how it would end. During the 10-minute meeting that resulted, Mayor Toni Harp detailed changes to a personnel report Harries had created for action that night.
• Harries had asked the board to consider appointing current Clinton Avenue Assistant Principal Kristina DeNegre as the acting principal for the school. The board decided to remove that appointment from the report, and instead start the full hiring process for the position.
• The board decided to approve Rodriguez for ELL Supervisor starting “on or around” Sept. 19, when her replacement as principal is expected to be found. Until then, she will stay at Clinton Avenue.
• Harries had asked to transfer current Fair Haven School Assistant Principal Jaime Ramos to Clinton Avenue assistant principal. Since DeNegre was not approved as Clinton Avenue principal, Ramos’s transfer was removed from the report.
• Harries had recommended former Hillhouse High School Principal David Diah as acting principal for former Hyde School, now called the Dr. Cortlandt V.R. Creed Health and Sports Sciences High School. Board members voted instead to transfer him to a role as assistant principal of the school, and to start the full hiring process for the principal position.
Mayor Harp said the board hopes to have “everything settled” and leadership positions filled by mid-September. Diah will be running Hyde/Creed School for the first month until a principal is hired. He is welcome to apply for the position, Harp said. At a meeting last week, a few board members expressed skepticism that he would be the right person for the job.
The school community turned out at that meeting to demand they make a hire, and fast, so students don’t start the year behind.
The turmoil might feel familiar to Diah. Last summer, Diah was promoted from administrative intern to one of three assistant principals at Hillhouse. Two months later, before the school year started in August, he was promoted to one of three Hillhouse principals—a week after the board had approved a different candidate for the position. Those last-minute leadership decisions marked a rocky start for Hillhouse students.
Board members want to create a hiring process that opens positions up to more candidates, board member Darnell Goldson said at the meeting. He said he expects that process to be done by September.
I'd be interested in understanding the nature of other boards of education that have such a stronghold on the hiring/firing process of educators as my sense is that there are few if any. (Perhaps the NHI can look into this?)
Like any executive that reports to a board, the hiring and firing should be at the superintendent's discretion whereas the board has the discretion to hire and fire the superintendent. While I understand the board's frustration with the sitting superintendent these types of policies reach beyond their responsibilities as a board. I doubt any executive would take over the reigns of a company without complete control to hire and fire staff so why would the board of education think a superintendent would want to take the job in New Haven without complete authority to hire and fire educators?
The folks on the board of education saying that such polices should be instilled ought to ask themselves whether they'd be willing to work under such conditions. In fact, I'd challenge the board to ask 10 sitting superintendents in Connecticut whether they'd be willing to work in New Haven with such hiring/firing policies.