Hartford Schools Snag Top New Haven Talent

Three years after she launched the city’s first ​“turnaround” effort at a low-performing school, one of New Haven’s star principals is packing her bags for Hartford.

Karen Lott, principal of the Brennan/Rogers School in West Rock, has been tapped to take over Jumoke Academy at Milner School, a low-performing Hartford public school undergoing a similar overhaul to the one Lott spearheaded in 2009.

Lott is one of two district employees leaving for principal jobs in Hartford Schools: David Goldblum, an administrative intern at James Hillhouse High School who had hoped to rise higher in New Haven, will become principal of Pathways To Technology Magnet School. The Hartford school board approved their appointments in a meeting last week; they both start July 1.

The departures highlight a challenge New Haven identified four years ago as Mayor John DeStefano launched an effort to improve the schools: How to keep talented educators from leaving the city? And, specifically, how to recruit, train, and retain top-notch principals?

“We’re disappointed to see them go,” said New Haven Assistant Superintendent Garth Harries. ​“We wish them well. We recognize that, as we work hard to develop talent and provide great opportunity for talent, some folks will see their life trajectory and career trajectory unfold outside New Haven.”

Lott’s departure is a significant one; New Haven higher-ups have highlighted her work as one early sign of progress for the city’s nascent school reform drive.

“Karen has led one of our clear success stories,” said Harries. He said she significantly improved Brennan/Rogers, ​“and has done that with grace and style.”

Charter Group Calls

Lott, who’s 47, came to New Haven in 2009 after a career in her native Springfield, Mass., where she was principal of a K‑8 and a high school. Superintendent Reginald Mayo quickly identified her as a strong leader and a rising star in the district.

In 2010, Mayo tapped her to lead the city’s first ​“turnaround” effort based on a new teachers contract, which allowed for the overhaul of low-performing schools. The school serves high-poverty, mostly African-America kids in an isolated part of town at the foot of boarded-up housing projects; before the turnaround, only 12 percent of 3rd-graders were reading at grade level, according to state tests. Mayo empowered Lott to replace two-thirds of her teaching staff and change work rules, including extending the school day. The effort was fueled by a $1.5 million federal School Improvement Grant, a federal effort to target low-performing schools. She also oversaw Brennan/Rogers’ transition into an interdistrict magnet school with a technology focus, backed by a second $1.5 million federal grant.

In the first year of the turnaround, Lott developed her new teaching team and got a handle on unruly behavior that had posed a problem at the school. In the second year, students began to show gains on standardized tests, leading the district to pronounce it a ​“clear success story” from reform.

Her work caught the eye of the Hartford school system.

“Given the success with the academic gains,” she said, ​“I was approached and asked if I would be interested” in running a similar Hartford school. Milner School (along with High School in the Community in New Haven) was one of the first four low-performing schools tapped last year to receive extra state money to launch ​“turnaround” efforts.

Milner looks a lot like Brennan in size and demographics. It serves 420 mostly low-income, minority kids. One difference is that Milner has more English-Language learners, Lott said.

The major difference is that while the school system kept management of Brennan/Rogers in-house, albeit with loosened work rules and more autonomy for the principal, Milner is being run by a charter school operator. Hartford hired Jumoke Academy, a charter school in Hartford, to take over management of Milner. The staff are still unionized. The principal is a public schools employee. But it aims to take lessons from the charter setting and apply them to a traditional school. 

Lott said she thought hard about the offer. ​“For a while, I was really uncertain,” she said. ​“I had to do some soul-searching about making the change.” Unlike at Brennan, Lott would be joining a school mid-stream into an overhaul. She would not get to choose her staff. The school already replaced much of its staff, and brought in a new principal last year to launch the turnaround; the principal is stepping down after just one year.

She said two factors encouraged her to switch: One, it’s a lot closer to home. She lives in Bloomfield, near Hartford; she has been commuting an hour to New Haven for the past four years. Two, she said, the school will provide the chance to take part in a new type of reform experiment.

“What’s different for me is a professional opportunity to learn about charter schools,” Lott said. She said Milner will provide a good chance to blend the best practices of Jumoke and traditional public schools. At Milner, Jumoke Academy is trying out a new role as charter management organization that may lead to further expansion.

Lott called her departure ​“bittersweet, because I have invested so much personally and professionally in Brennan/Rogers School.” But she said Brennan/Rogers has ​“an incredible team of teachers” and structures in place to ​“ensure that the work continues to go forward.”

“The teachers here have great ownership of the work and great commitment to the work. I felt that, for me personally and professionally, that this was an ideal time to go on and do something a little different.”

Brennan/Rogers has no assistant principal. Former Assistant Principal Jennifer Olson got poached by a school in Derby, where she now serves as principal. Teacher Gail DeBlasio has been serving as an administrative intern at Brennan/Rogers for the past year, serving the assistant principal role.

Salary was not a motivating factor for Lott’s departure: She makes $131,722 in New Haven; she’ll make $131,355 in Hartford.

Lott ​“did a remarkable job and set a strong foundation at Brennan-Rogers,” said Superintendent Mayo in a statement Monday. ​“School climate improved dramatically. Parent involvement increased.” Student engagement reached ​“new heights.”

Hillhouse’s Loss, Hartford’s Gain

David Goldblum (pictured), of East Rock, represents a non-traditional principal candidate who found more opportunities for promotion outside the district. He said he wanted to stay in New Haven, and applied to principal and assistant principal jobs here, but didn’t hear back from the district in time and decided to take the Hartford job.

Goldblum, who’s been at Hillhouse for seven years, arrived at teaching from an unusual path. A Stamford native and graduate of Yale School of Management, he worked as a real estate developer, doing neighborhood development projects, before finding a second career as a teacher. He was inspired by Burt Saxon, a former Hillhouse teacher, to join the ranks of urban teachers.

Goldblum was in the city’s leadership pipeline: Two years ago, he became an ​“administrative intern,” a teacher who takes on administrative duties. He spearheaded the high school’s Freshman Academy. He applied for an assistant principal job at Hillhouse last year but the district decided not to create another position at that salary level; Goldblum remained an ​“intern” for a second year, effectively serving the role of an assistant principal.

After spending a year as administrative intern, ​“I was looking for opportunities for advancement and was not offered anything in New Haven,” Goldblum said.

He’ll start July 1 as the principal of Pathways To Technology Magnet School, a Hartford-based magnet school serving about 330 kids from Hartford and surrounding towns.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for me to continue in urban education, serving the kids that I got into teaching to serve, in a different setting,” Goldblum said. He said he the school’s ​“focus on technology and project-based learning provide lots of opportunity for engaging high-school-age kids.

Pathways is currently housed in Windsor; as principal, Goldblum will oversee its move to a new building near Goodwin College in East Hartford.

The Search

Harries said despite New Haven’s efforts to attract and retain talented educators, he understands that not everyone will stay.

“We’re looking to attract and develop as much talent as we can in the district,” through new principal training and leadership pipelines. ​“We know we can’t always bottle that up in New Haven.”

Lott is the eighth principal to announce her departure this year.

The district has been working to fill positions at five schools, according to Harries: Wilbur Cross, Hyde Leadership, Nathan Hale, Bishop Woods, and Lincoln Bassett.

“We’ve done finalist interviews at all the schools where we had retirement openings,” including meeting with parent groups, Harries said. Now Brennan is joining the list.

The district also plans to find a new principal to take over Polly McCabe, a Wooster Square program for pregnant teens, Harries said.

He said no final decisions have been made on where principals will be placed. Though New Haven is behind Hartford in naming new principals, Harries said that has not hurt the process.

“We’re deep in conversations with our finalist candidates,” he said. ​“We haven’t lost anybody because of the timeline.”

He said assistant principal jobs would be filled after the new principals are selected.