Maya McFadden file photo
West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith: This is a "disrespect to taxpayers, the teachers they moved out of Brennan-Rogers, and to the students and families they didn't give notice to."
(Updated) The city’s public school district is looking to hire a new “chief of school operations,” even as New Haven Public Schools has cut 76 vacant teacher and central office positions and closed a school to help mitigate a budget deficit.
The new position would be responsible for supervising the principals of Adult Education and Elm City Montessori School, as well as the NHPS athletic director, the physical education department, and student transfers.
The role, which was posted July 2 for internal applicants only, does not list a salary. It’s described as a “critical senior leadership position.”
Click here, and see below, for the full job posting.
Update: On Wednesday, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon described the new position as “a slight recast of an existing, funded and vacant position, which was called chief operating officer. The emphasis of the job is supporting schools’ operations, to help them maximize their own focus on instruction. We often post such positions internally first because we like to encourage members of our community who may have relevant experience and the needed leadership skills to step up. If we don’t find the right candidate internally, we post externally. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.”
The last employee to hold the job of chief operating officer was Thomas Lamb, who was put on paid leave in May 2024 and wound up resigning last October. Former top city official Mike Carter filled in as an operations and facilities consultant from last July through this March.
Harmon also told the Independent Wednesday that the district is currently looking to hire a new in-house director of facilities to oversee all NHPS facilities work. In the interim, the district has its contractor ABM filling in to “serve as a proxy for the district,” with the help of ABM Executive Director of Facilities Astor Pagan.
The new job posting comes as the school board recently voted to approve a $220.7 million budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. As part of that budget, the district will close Brennan-Rogers School due to declining enrollment, eliminate a total of 76 teacher and central office positions, and reduce funding for athletics travel in order to avoid a previously pitched plan to lay off up to 129 student-facing school staffers. The mayor also recently proposed sending an additional $3 million to the district to help close a deficit and avoid teacher layoffs.
The school district’s new budget specifically plans for $820,000 in cuts to central office positions, by cutting seven vacant positions and two filled positions. One of those filled positions was a central office-assigned library media specialist. Harmon did not respond to the Independent’s requests to know what the second active central office position being cut is.
The oversight and leadership responsibilities for the newly posted job are similar to the responsibilities of the district’s four assistant superintendents.
At recent school board meetings, school staff and community members have called on the district to prioritize cuts at central office before cutting student-facing staff.
Reached for comment Tuesday, West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith said the district’s decision to hire a new central office administrator is a “disrespect to tax payers, the teachers they moved out of Brennan-Rogers, and to the students and families they didn’t give notice to.”
She described it as a smack in the face after the school board voted “wrongly” to close Brennan-Rogers. She questioned where the district will get the funding for the new position.
“What are you teaching the children? ‘I’m going to get what I want to get on the backs of the urban community,’ ” she concluded.
“We are certainly interested in learning more about this position and how this will fit into the existing executive management team,” New Haven Federation of Teachers Vice President Jenny Graves told the Independent Tuesday. “With the addition of this position and the new position of director of facilities, it’s alarming that new management positions are being created while classrooms and schools are being closed. If this is restructuring of the existing executive team, the community would benefit from that clarification.”
