Harries Moves Leaders Without Board OK

Someone who was an intern at the school just 15 months ago has now been placed into the building's leadership role?

Can we have a story about this man's lack of judgement?

Good. Schools need building leaders certified in Admin with current training, not Screamers and self appointed Saints who have egos and politics as their agenda. Good for students and staff

This sounds like a reasonable decision. I am glad Harries did it without the board eventhough it was late. Having someone who knows the school is a better for students and staff. It actually makes sense and as a NH parent I feel is best for school, students and staff. Good thing the board was not involved and maybe the board needs to let Garth do his job!

Mr. Harries,
Why do you continue to use poor judgement when you know that the current BOE isn't rubber stamping your asinine decisions like the previous BOE did in you good old days. When are you going to come to realization of this pivotal epiphany? I guess the Professional Values in the evaluation process doesn't apply to you like the Professional Values category applies to every BOE certified employee that is evaluated annually? Well, there are so many other components of the evaluation process that applies to your subordinates that you are allow to circumvent. You continue to conduct business in NHPS like you are above the law and consistently exemplify a sense of entitlement and arrogance. Kudos to the current BOE that have standards, norms and expectations for all BOE employees including the superintendent. What makes you think you could do what you want and when you want without any accountability? Is this going to be a continued phenomenon of your poor leadership and management of NHPS?
Yes, everyone is entitled to a vacation, but not three weeks before school starts with so many critical leadership positions still vacant. Now you are scrambling to place candidates in leadership roles at the last minute which is causing you to make a mockery out of the process and the candidates. Is there an once of sensitivity flowing through your bloodline? Since we are on the subject of sensitivity, when are you going to complete appointing principals and assistant principals who have been waiting for their new assignment for the 2016-2017 school year since the last day of school-no fair. It's the last minute and you are going to make appointments by "shooting form the hip" instead of ensuring these appointment's are aligned with the individuals skill set? Please appoint the right person for the job not because their brother-in-law is Tomas Reyes(Anna Rodriguez). That's the real reason why a district with a huge deficit is paying for two Supervisors of Bilingual Ed.

O-o-oh . . .! I have a sneaking suspicion that this will not end well!

"BoydJones on August 18, 2016 9:03am

Someone who was an intern at the school just 15 months ago has now been placed into the building's leadership role?
Can we have a story about this man's lack of judgement?"

If you want to read about his highly questionable judgement calls, all you have to do is follow the Hillhouse 3 Principals saga ''' including the unfathomable decision to deploy 3 inexperienced administrators to run a project that was doomed for failure even if it were handled by the best and brightest administrators he had available.

BTW -- Don't we have enough "Principals on special assigment" to choose from, so we cant stop elevating all of our Administrative Interns to full accredidted principals?

I see all this as probably necessary confusion because the former BOE under DeStefano and Mayo was wholly appointed by DeStefano and thus easily controllable by the Mayor's office and NHPS officials.

The current BOE is not wholly appointed, or now has two elected members, and this change means that the BOE is no longer easily controllable by the Mayor's office and NHPS officials.

In short, the way things were done for a long time are no longer being done the same way.

This change is huge and I think the resulting issues are really only, or I hope they are, growing pains.

I am not going to attack Harp and Harries or defend the BOE regarding this article.

The BOE is a state agency (its organic or founding statute(s) was passed by the Ct Assembly) but is funded by the city. This creates gray areas and problems.

I just hope the Mayor's office and NHPS officials can work with the current BOE without having to go to the courts to settle their differing visions on how our school district is managed.

Administrative interns earn teacher salary while performing the role of an administrator. Not sure how these intern positions are appointed. It will be an unnecessary and disappointing beginning of the year for schools whose staff is unsure of the leadership in place or whether that leadership will change before too long.

FYI. The word is judgment in America. In England they often use the "e" but not here.
I noticed two posters who got it wrong.

Razzie: You said that you have a suspicion that this will not end well. I don't know!
If you are referring to Garth Harries future as superintendent, it is evident that he can do whatever he wants to do. He has no respect for this board and he is not worried about this Board because he has the protection of President/Mayor Toni Harp. Harries is privileged and he feels that he is entitled to ignore the votes of this Board. Mr. Harries and President/Mayor Toni Harp have done a good job of making the commenters in this paper believe that it is this board that is causing the problems that we are witnessing. I looked back at articles from last year during this same time, and these last minute appointments and musical chairs where happening then too. I was present at the last board meeting. We waited for the board members to come out of a three hour executive session and it took them about ten minutes to report the changes that they voted on regarding Garth Harries recommendations. One of the things that they reported to us was that Diah would be changed from principal at Greed to assistant principal at Greed and he would open the school. I still cannot believe what I read in this article this morning. It is apparent to me that Garth Harries can do whatever he wants to do regardless of what this board might vote on. Since these board members refuse to rubber stamp everything that he brings before them, his entitlement shows that he can disregard their legal vote and do whatever he wants to do. President/Mayor Toni Harp fired Mendi Blue, Marcus Paca, Ron Manning, Nicole Jefferson and Jackie James for less than what we have witnessed Garth Harries doing repeatedly. Our children are suffering under Harries leadership. The question is where is the community? This is our children's academic future at risk. Maybe if sports were eliminated out of the schools, we would get a reaction from the community.

After seeing how arrogant, disrespectful and incompetent he has been, the board should suspend him immediately and move toward removal. There are a lot of rumors floating about in regards to the content of the extensive executive sessions. If he has done something unethical, that should come out as well so that no other district jeopardizes its students and families by hiring him.

Mayor Harp's support of Harries — which can be explained only by him hiring people connected to her and her cronies — should be remembered. She is not on the side of students right now. And we need an airing of the content of executive sessions.

"WE ARE A MESS," declared two BOE members about our school district in a recent NHI interview. They rather diplomatically revealed the cause of that "mess": Superintendent Garth Harries.
Many residents complain that Harries is not a professionally trained and experienced educator. Many who closely follow what has been happening in our school system over the past 3 years recognize this as a problem, with one major exception: Toni Harp, mayor/ BOE president.
Harries' poor evaluation by the BOE reflects his lack of training and experience and leadership skills. Each year for 3 years his evaluation score has been lower than the previous year, with an average letter grade of "C," average to mediocre. Mediocrity in school leadership may be acceptable to Harp and the teachers' union president, but it is not acceptable to New Haven residents. Our kids deserve exemplary, experienced, quality leadership.
Harries is employed by the BOE and is directly accountable to its members. This BOE, comprised of several highly trained and experienced educators, has endeavored to make Harries accountable for his decisions, appointments, promotions and policies. When they see sound judgment from Harries they support it. When questionable things are proposed or done, they challenge him. That is their job to fight for what is right and best for our schools and students. Harp calls it micromanagement!
BOE members volunteer their time to monitor the direction of our schools. This week they spent 3 hours meeting with Harries on principal appointments. A decision was approved by the BOE on Monday night, which Harries unilaterally discarded Wednesday night, making new appointments without BOE approval. This is blatant insubordination!
Concerning principals, the district has a surplus who have not been appointed to any school. Yet they are paid full salaries, but do no work! Who is responsible for this waste of taxpayer money?

Part 2.
Some of these principals in name only should be required to cover some of the vacancies in our classrooms.
The route to principalship today has been remarkably streamlined, producing near instant administrators with minimal experience. People are interns one year and a year or two later are full principals, some never serving as assistant principals to gain some necessary experience.
Inexperience at the top appears to breed and promote inexperience, to the detriment of the school district and the students.
Despite the messiness, the disputes, the conflicts and the struggles between the BOE members, the mayor and the superintendent, these things would never take place if the Board members were apathetic and complacent and compliant. These are serious people who have a sincere vision for a better school system in which students and teachers can work and learn productively. No rubber stamps here. These people question and challenge things that were never questioned and challenged when the BOE was fully appointed.
Board members today want answers and they do not always get them from the superintendent who can't always give an answer and sometimes does not know the answer.
We need not settle for less than the best when it comes to school leadership. We certainly do not expect a highly paid superintendent to get on the job training and experience to meet the challenged we face.

Sooner or later one of the board members will go to the press and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This is a moral issue and good people cannot afford to continue to allow a politically driven mayor and a self-serving, poorly qualified superintendent continue deluging the community with propaganda and blatant lies. I hope the community will respond accordingly when they know the truth. The lives of 22,000 children are at stake. Harries has created a culture of fear and greed and if he cannot scare you he will pay you. Some people are not afraid and do not have a price tag. I hope there are some amens out there.

@Conscience "Harries has created a culture of fear and greed and if he cannot scare you he will pay you. Some people are not afraid and do not have a price tag."

This is truth! It is exactly what Harries' billionaire overlords have sent him here to do. Some of us see right through him and won't be bullied or bought.

The people are rising and speaking out against Garth Harries' cynical attack on our public schools.

Our schools need supportive, consistent, expert leadership. Instead, there has been a massive spending spree away from the classroom. We have a stuffed central office, millions wasted on outside "edu-preners", and federal $53 million in "Teacher Incentive Funding" used to purchase the cooperation of teacher union leadership.

If we pay attention, we see our child-centered board members know this truth. Their actions are very steps that must be taken to repair the damage and correct the course of the New Haven Public Schools.

I cannot understand why people continue to blame Harries about culture etc. NHPS has always been like that. People just did not know about it. As a parent for many years , the system has always been broken under previous leadership. I am not saying that Harries is a saint, but the NHPS system has struggled for years with politics, leaders, culture etc. Harries was trainned by previous leaders and why blame him regardless of his background. In reality that is all he knows.

@Bluebird: Agreed, we have had challenges in our past leadership. This is different. Many of the items on this list are new to our school district and came with the "Eli Broad billionaire package" brought in with Harries & company.

"Broad and his foundation believe that public schools should be run like a business. One of the tenets of his philosophy is to produce system change by "investing in a disruptive force." Continual reorganizations, firings of staff, and experimentation to create chaos or "churn" is believed to be productive and beneficial, as it weakens the ability of communities to resist change.

A hallmark of the Broad-style leadership is closing existing schools rather than attempting to improve them, increasing class size, opening charter schools, imposing high-stakes test-based accountability systems on teachers and students, and implementing of pay for performance schemes. The brusque and often punitive management style of Broad-trained leaders has frequently alienated parents and teachers and sparked protests."

http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/p/parent-guide.html?m=1

This move is a blatant personal and public affront to both the board and the entire city. Here you have a superintendent who says in essence, I can unilaterally take upon myself with impunity, to make decisions that "I" think are best for the system.

This move if nothing else unmasks the arrogance that exist in Harries. I believe, the nature of this move is to try and belie psychologically to the public, just whose at fault with the quandary that the board is currently entertaining.

Irrefutably, as a result of this move, we now know who to give the blame.

I think the public is confused about the role of the Superintendent versus the role of the board. The Superintendent made a temporary decision in the best interest of kids. Granted, it would have been more organized to make that decision prior to the last board meeting, but it makes since to have Robles, who is familiar with the school, start the school year until a permanent decision is made. Superintendents all over the state have made similar judgement calls all summer, when many boards did not have consistent meetings and decisions needed to be made.

When you approach education as having a career ladder you create too many chiefs...chiefs who can be used and abused and moved around. Continuity is what the suburban schools have that u an schools do not.

@Faith

I think you are confused about who works for who.

And if the best thing one can claim to elevate an intern for a $100k job in little more than a year is because of a "familiarity" with the school, then obviously you are an apologist for incompetence.