The Board of Education announced last week that it had extended the contract of Schools Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez for one more year. Board chairman Michael Krause has the authorization to negotiate the terms, which have not yet been disclosed.
Hernandez’s current salary is $188,546. In 2015, he received a raise totaling $5,046, which was 2.75 percent. Presumably his salary went up.
Hernandez has been with the school district for almost seven years.
In thanking Hernandez for his service, Krause said, “Relationships haven’t been better.”
On Walsh: Not There Yet
Hernandez updated the board on the Walsh renovation project. While previous meetings of the Public Building Commission focused on dollars and cents, Hernandez reported in terms of educational specifications.
He said that the reduction of square footage from 193,000 to 163,000 still exceeded space standards mandated for state reimbursement. He said reductions in square footage include the combination of general and school nurse reception areas, reduction of classroom areas from 800 to 750 square feet (still bigger than anything we have now, Hernandez noted), and the combination of science prep rooms into a single room located between two teams rather than separately.
The board will receive a formal presentation on space standards at its Oct. 26 meeting (rescheduled due to the Jewish holiday).
“These are the economies we are forced to make,” said Hernandez. “We have to stay within the budget to keep the project moving.” He added that the educational specifications will be costed out by professional estimators.
“We will be over budget significantly, “ Hernandez said. “But the program is not suffering.”
On Testing
Hernandez also reported on the Strategic Success Plan (SSP), noting that the district is working with Yale to “blend changes over time.” Approved in December 2014, the SSP provides an overview of the priorities of the Branford Public Schools, which are based on an analysis of data at the district, school, and classroom levels. He said the plan will be revisited on a yearly basis and the results presented to the board.
Hernandez also said the state has re-scored the Smarter Balance Test results, taking out the performance task. The Connecticut Smarter Balanced assessments are aligned to Common Core State Standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics. According to the State Department of Education, performance tasks are collections of questions and activities connected to a specific theme or scenario and measure a student’s depth of understanding, writing, and research skills, or complex analysis.
Hernandez said that he found that upsetting. “It’s a way to demonstrate skills,” he said. He added that the 2015 – 2016 scores do not reflect the performance task and they did go up.
That implies that students’ writing and research skills brought down scores in previous testing and once that section of the test was eliminated the scores went up. It begs the question of whether there is a push to increase test scores at the loss of writing-related skills, which make up the performance task.
Hernandez said the performance task will be presented as part of the Strategic Success Plan in an effort to compensate for its elimination from the Smarter Balance Assessments.
New Hires
The Board of Education welcomed 10 new teachers into the system, described by Hernandez as the “best and brightest in public education.” He stressed the “importance of public education,” and acknowledged teaching is not without its difficulties, “Teaching is a great profession… when the rascals get under your skin, remember the call.”
They will work in various capacities at Walsh, Tisko, Murphy, and Branford High School, and one, Stephanie Byrd, is the new assistant principal at Branford High School, replacing Anna Puglia.
Assistant Superintendent Anthony Buono introduced each teacher; they were then honored at a small reception during the meeting.
Donna Andres, office administrator and bookkeeper, updated the board on the status of the Chromebooks, which have been made available to all students at Walsh, some 900 in all. She said there was a fair amount of damage to the equipment, citing the replacement of a screen at $45 and other costs amounting to $150. (Depending on the brand, they cost $259 to $329.)
She added that techs within the school often fixed the Chromebooks with parts purchased wholesale, thus saving the school some money. However, due to the increasing costs, she suggested, assessing a fee of $50 per student to cover the costs, describing it as a “next step,” given the number of Chromebooks in use.
“If a family does not have the means, we’ll work with them,” said Hernandez.
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