Board of Ed Shifts The Chairs

By all means, bump and pay. Harries doesn't expect to add more administrative jobs but he doesn't explain how that will be accomplished while adding a new position. This is like watching one of those street performers move the pea around under overturned cups and having to guess where the it is. Given the great pay Cannelli already enjoys, the rich benefits she already enjoys and the finances of the NHBOE - how about no pay increase? And how about weeding out some of those administrative jobs? Even a "C" rated administrator should be able to do that.

This is why we need an elected Board of Education. There is no accountability to the public. The BOE keeps creating new positions to perform duties which could be done by current staff. Administrators now are getting paid more to do less work!
It is quite disturbing that money can be found to create totally unnecessary new administrative positions, while some schools have part-time nurses, insufficient numbers of teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals,& teacher aides . Some schools have no libraries or librarians. Many schools struggles to get adequate supplies and books.
Yet the superintendent says 'we need two new administrative positions' and the BOE unanimously approves! What a joke!
Want to hear another joke, New Haven?
Hillhouse High School currently has three principals. The schools population has not tripled! Someone in the system came up with the idea of dividing the school into three separate academies, each headed by three principals, drawing full principal salaries! Taxpayers are paying for three principals, and several assistant principals to run a school no larger than it was when it had one principal! This has been a costly experiment which has not improved school morale, discipline, academic performance, attendance, graduation rates or test scores. Three heads in one building has lead to a confusing disorganized mess. Ask the superintendent when was the last time he visited Hillhouse and toured the building to speak to teachers and students about the new set up.
Here's just one example. Several months ago Hillhouse had a fire drill. Two of the principals decided to keep their academies in the building, while only one followed procedure and law and had that academy evacuate the building. This should have been investigated and reported. It was not.
This grand administrative bureaucracy created by this superintendent and BOE costs New Haveners millions more than it has to.
Mayor Harp,the alders & the people must challenge this BOE's expenditures.

Perhaps more of us can attend the Board meetings to speak up about how we do not want our tax money paying for more administrators and increases in administrative salaries. As a New Haven resident, I would like my sizable property tax money to pay for additional teachers and support staff. Our schools need more people to work with students, not administrators and coaches turning schools upside down to schedule district and state tests, collect data, create reports, and sit in meetings discussing what to do to increase low scores. Most of those scores are meaningless anyway. What a waste of time and money.

I don't usually comment on stories in the Independent and my views here are my own and not those of my employer, but I felt it important to provide some perspective on part of the story above. I was a New Haven teacher for 12 years (out of a 22-year career) and have continued to work with the school system since then. For the past decade or so, I've been privileged to work closely with Imma and have learned a tremendous amount from her. There are few people in the New Haven system who are as committed to the education of all kids and to the valuing of all teachers as she is. I hope recognition of that fact isn't lost in the debate about how New Haven chooses to spend its money.

Rsexton, I was about to say the same thing. Canelli is really level-headed and has been good for the system and its kids.

Taken from an earlier NHI article on BoE "reorganization" under newly appointed Superintendant Garth Harries:

Seems like the Board members and its Superintendant have short attention spans. Or have things changed so drastically in the 12 months since the last reorganization planning sessions?

I don't see this as an issue of any individual person. Ms. Canelli may be competent, qualified and valuable, but when schools are being underfunded, the question becomes how does one justify a raise of any amount for an administrator at Central Office? The issue is not whether Ms. Canelli is "worth" it; it is about funding schools and children adequately. It is inconceivable that more administrative positions and raises are being generated at the same time that NHPS parents are fundraising and writing personal checks to pay for interventionists and specialists to work with NHPS children inside of NHPS buildings during the school day. In addition to the very high property taxes New Haven residents pay, parents are paying out of pocket for intervention, enrichment, and support services for their children because the District hasn't funded those positions.
Enough is enough.We have Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, Executive Manager for District Strategy and Coordination ($117, 869) and Mike Crocco (salary unlisted:http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/mike_crocco_victor_de_la_paz/), Talent Director, drawing a hefty amount in salaries. Between their positions, Lumpkin and Crocco can't absorb the responsibilities of the Chief of Staff? We're currently paying Adriana Joseph's salary (Harries has been supervising her interim work) for wrap-around services but we have no after-school programs at many schools? There is something very wrong here; perhaps Mr. Harries has all the wrong people in all the wrong seats which once again begs us to questions his abilities as a leader. If Harries and his team can't get the work done, perhaps the BOE needs to deeply reconsider the "effective" rating they handed him rather than funnel more taxpayer dollars away from children and into 54 Meadow Street.

Teachers, who are usually paid less than half of what the folks mentioned in this article are paid, continue to have more responsibilities "distributed" (to use Garth Harries Newspeak) to them. These are the people who actually work with children and who continuously tell us what would make the difference: more specialists who WORK WITH CHILDREN to provide services (intervention, language, enrichment, social-emotional) that meet the individual needs of our children in smaller settings.
A huge problem: Harries has never worked in a public school. He's never taught in a public school or been a building leader, nor has he been a parent in a public school. It's time for the Board of Ed to stand up for the residents of New Haven and the parents of NHPS children and insist that public dollars go to the children; not to the adults. Let's face the facts. Harries is invested in New Haven from Monday through Thursday until he leaves town for his other home. The fact that high property taxes, a very flawed "choice" enrollment process, and the poor leadership of our public schools continue to cause middle-class people (including NHPS teachers) to move out of the city doesn't really affect him, does it? We need to take our upcoming BOE elections very seriously; this superintendent is not working for New Haven and we need a BOE who will hold him accountable or else take the steps to remove him and bring in a superintendent who understands what children, education, and public schools are all about.