New Asst. Supt. Viviana Conner.
The Board of Education approved the hiring of two top educators — after debates on the right time to hire administrators, and whether New Haven is being proactive enough for English learners.
They voted 4 – 3 at a meeting Monday night to hire Viviana Conner to become New Haven’s assistant superintendent for instructional leadership and school improvement.
Jackson-McArthur, Goldson and Larry Conaway voted against the hire, as did non-voting student representative Anthony Fiore. Conner will take over supervision of some K‑12 schools from the other assistant superintendents. Conner will make $165,000 and start on July 15.
“The optics of hiring someone at this salary, when we have employees that can barely make ends meet … I think this is the wrong time. The optics are horrible,” said board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur.
Jackson-McArthur was echoing the concerns of fellow board member Darnell Goldson, who argued that the wave of federal Covid-19 relief dollars headed New Haven’s way will last only a few years. Goldson frequently opposes the hires of top-level administrators on the rationale that low-level employees should get those salary bumps first. Goldson particularly advocates for part-time employees who are not part of any union.
Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey argued that she is filling administrator positions that have gone vacant for years, straining existing staff. She herself filled two assistant superintendent roles before she was promoted to acting superintendent. The board filled one of those roles last summer and hired for the second role on Monday.
Conner attended Wilbur Cross High School and started out her teaching career as a substitute teacher in New Haven. Her most recent position is executive director for school leadership for Hartford’s public schools. Before that she served as world language coordinator for Greenwich’s public schools.
Jackson-McArthur welcomed her to the district and added that her vote had nothing to do with Conner as a person. (She realized after the vote that Conner’s husband was the best man at her brother’s wedding.)
The board also approved Jamie Baker as the principal of Barak H. Obama Magnet University at a $158,672 salary, based on her 17 years of experience.
Former board member Carlos Torre brought the hiring up during the public comment section of the meeting. He continued the argument in a recent op-ed that the new school was originally meant to train future dual language teachers.
“I’m disappointed that our community is always being left out — and I’m talking about our language learning community, not just Latinos. Somebody needs to lead that school who has a background in language acquisition. That’s what Strong School was,” Torre said.
Tracey lauded Baker as a longtime vice principal in the district, who started out as a classroom teacher and then a literacy coach. She was member of a “future leaders” cohort groomed by a school district partnership with Achievement First.
She said Baker exemplifies what she was looking for in this hire — someone who could lead students out of the learning disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wish someone on the BOE picked up on the fact that there are appointments on the personnel report for outside hires BEFORE the teachers at Quinnipiac and West Rock have been placed. Please keep those displaced teachers at the forefront- they are searching for new positions and now see appointments of external candidates within many of their certifications. (6th grade, special education) Please do not approve any external hires until our displaced teachers are ALL placed.