Among the schools that the board approved was Proudly Respecting Our Unique Differences (PROUD) Academy in Ansonia, which was initially founded in 2023 as a private middle school geared toward LGBTQ+ students and their allies, but shifted to a tuition-free model to better support students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, founder Patty Nicolari said.

“Our board felt funding LGBTQ+ students’ education should be a responsibility of the state,” Nicolari said.

Two charter schools in Stamford — OLAM Public Charter School and Stamford Big Picture Learning Academy — and Taino CoLAB, which applied for campuses in Waterbury and New Haven, also received initial approval after dozens of advocates voiced support for the five schools at the school board’s meeting Wednesday.

“As a child, I experienced how the traditional school system often fails to address the individual needs of students,” said Faith Keegan, a Waterbury parent, in support of Taino CoLAB in Waterbury. “I needed a more tailored approach to manage my anxiety and navigate my education, but like so many others, I missed out on opportunities that could have changed my life.”

Taino CoLAB is proposed as a high school that would prepare students for “college and careers and empowers them to become impactful community leaders,” according to its application, which also says the school “is designed to prepare students for the future workforce through the integration of courses in media and communication arts; business and entrepreneurship; AI, machine learning, and robotics; biotech and health sciences; and social impact and global changes.”

“In our community, children deserve smaller class sizes, individualized programs and extracurricular activities that help them thrive. These critical elements are often missing in conventional public schools, leaving many, especially Black and Latino children, feeling unsupported and unable to succeed,” Keegan said. “Schools like [Taino], have the power to transform lives, providing a supportive and inclusive environment where children can grow academically, socially and emotionally.”

Stamford Superintendent Tamu Lucero, one of the charter school supporters at the meeting, said her district provides “many opportunities for our students, but we know it’s still not enough.”

“We partnered with Stamford’s Charter School for Excellence, and we decided to submit an application so that we would have permanent funding for a program that we think will add value to our school system and our city as a whole,” Lucero said in support of Stamford Big Picture Learning Academy, which if approved by the state legislature will educate students in grades 9-12 “in personalized, interest-based learning.”

OLAM Public Charter School, also in Stamford, is proposed to serve pre-K through eighth grade students. The school would also teach Modern Hebrew to “bridge cultural divides and offer students a unique perspective on history, language and the interconnectedness of global communities,” according to its application.

Representatives from the Connecticut Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state, were the only opposition to the approval of new charter schools at the meeting.

CEA Member Elizabeth Sked said the applications were “poorly announced” with “insufficient community engagement and input,” that charter schools have selective enrollment that “results in inequity, diminished diversity and concentrations of students with the greatest resource needs,” and that the state should instead focus on “sufficiently funding its existing public schools before expanding a parallel system of charter schools.”

For a charter school to open in Connecticut, applicants must undergo an extensive process that includes an analysis of the school’s curriculum, model and community need. There also must be public hearings to determine if there’s a demand and local support from constituents. Applications often take more than a year to be considered.

Prior to 2015, a charter school could begin recruiting students and building its campus as soon as it received approval from the state Board of Education. That year, however, a bill changed the process into a two-tier approval system, where the state Board of Education grants “initial” approval and then funding is approved by lawmakers. The state Department of Education said the change helped make the charter process more transparent.

Connecticut is the only state in the country that requires legislative approval in the creation of charter schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. It’s currently home to 21 charter schools, and approved funding for two more charter schools, the Edmonds Cofield Preparatory Academy for Young Men in New Haven and Norwalk Charter School of Excellencein 2023.

That same year, charter schools in Danbury and Middletown were left out of the state budget and it’s likely that advocates for both schools will try to get them into the biannual budget that’s being crafted this legislative session.

It’s also likely Connecticut will see a larger push in upcoming years towards the development of more charter schools in the state following the launch of the North Star Fellowship.

The fellowship was created out of a partnership between education organization Latinos for Educational Advocacy and Diversity, or LEAD, which has been a strong proponent in an ongoing struggle to open the charter school in Danbury, and The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that has opened over 50 charter schools in Indiana in the last 18 years.

Under the fellowship, four people — with a preference for Connecticut residents — will receive a full salary with benefits for up to two years as they undergo “personalized coaching and support from a network of educational and executive leaders,” collaborate with a cohort, travel and engage with other charter schools across the country with the end goal of creating and eventually launching their own charter schools.

Almost two years later, those same students may see some relief.

Attorney General William Tong said Friday that a preliminary settlement that would distribute $5 million to the affected students. The agreement includes providing a remedial program for students to complete their studies and allocating $150,000 for exam preparation.

As part of the settlement, Joseph Bierbaum, the former operator of Stone Academy and current owner of Bridgeport’s Paier College of Art, would be barred from opening, operating or engaging in the business of higher education in Connecticut for five years. Paier College is not currently authorized by the Office of Higher Education to confer degrees; a hearing to determine their status is scheduled for next month.

“It still shocks me … how terribly Stone Academy and its owners shortchanged its students and really let them down,” Tong said, speaking at a press conference Friday.

“These students [were] mostly women, many immigrants, many people of color — women who had other jobs, who were trying to fit in nursing and practical education, who were trying to put food on the table and work other jobs and care for their families, just to get a chance to change the trajectory of their lives.” Tong called the preliminary settlement the “best and quickest and most complete way to provide relief to students.”

The agreement resolves several legal proceedings — a “combined solution,” as Tong described it, that settles multiple lawsuits filed in the wake of Stone Academy’s shuttering.

Stone Academy students brought a proposed class action lawsuit against the school, its owners and trustees — Mark Scheinberg, Joseph Bierbaum, Richard Scheinberg and the school’s CEO Gary Evans — in May 2023. The state then sued Stone Academy that July. And the students filed a second proposed class action against the state’s Office of Higher Education and Department of Public Health in December 2023.

The preliminary settlement was filed in court Friday. It hasn’t yet been approved by students involved in the class-action lawsuits. The settlement also needs court approval, Tong said.

Perry Rowthorn, the attorney representing Stone Academy, declined a request for comment.

Tim Cowan, an attorney at Hurwitz, Sagarin, Slossberg & Knuff LLC, which has been representing the students in the class-action complaints, said he’s “hopeful” the settlement is a “path forward to resolve this matter.”

“It’s been a long and arduous process, obviously, and it’s been complicated by several factors in different ways,” Cowan said. “These folks definitely needed help, so we’re hopeful that this agreement will bring some peace to them.”

As part of the settlement, the students would be withdrawing their case against the state “with prejudice,” which means they can’t bring any further action against the state or state officials regarding Stone Academy, Tong explained. Their lawsuit had alleged officials in the state’s Office of Higher Education and Department of Public Health deprived Stone Academy students of their right to academic credits and degrees without due process of law.

In an emailed statement, OHE Commissioner Tim Larson called the preliminary settlement “the result of many long hours invested by Attorney General Tong, [Public Health] Commissioner [Manisha] Juthani, their staff and the Office of Higher Education personnel who regularly go above and beyond to protect Connecticut students.”

Cowan declined to share further details until the settlement is finalized. “All I can say is that the settlement is meant to be equitable. It’s meant to reflect the different harm to the different students, while also resolving the claims in the matter.” Cowan added that about 1,000 people are included in the litigation, but the number could change after an opt-out period, which allows individuals to pursue their own resolutions.

It’s unclear when former Stone Academy students will receive compensation provided for in the settlement, but Cowan said, “Our hope and intent is to be as quick and practical and as fair as possible.”

Sen. Henri Martin, a ranking member on the Higher Education Employment Advancement Committee, praised the preliminary settlement, calling it “encouraging news.”

“In the legislature, we have worked in bipartisan fashion to provide direct relief to former Stone Academy students,” Martin said. “We have a nursing shortage, and it is essential that we continue to work across multiple branches of government to help these students get their careers back on track and make them whole.”

Other initiatives to aid Stone Academy students are ongoing, including a request from the Office of Higher Education to the federal government to approve a measure known as “borrower defense” for Stone Academy students, which would discharge their federal student loans.

In December, OHE Commissioner Tim Larson issued a letter urging current U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to approve the financial relief for former Stone students “as they continue working toward careers in healthcare.”

Tong said he “personally” spoke with Cardona last week, and that if “it doesn’t get done by Jan. 20, I hope that Secretary Linda McMahon, as a resident and native of Connecticut, will honor those requests.”

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated McMahon to succeed Miguel Cardona as head of the U.S. Department of Education. She has not yet received Congressional approval.

Jessika Harkay is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2025 © The Connecticut Mirror.

Beginning this year, they won’t have those extra funds to rely on. But securing tens of millions of additional state dollars in funding, which the schools’ leaders say they need, could be a difficult negotiation.

In a speech to state lawmakers Wednesday, Gov. Ned Lamont called out the leadership of both systems. “UConn is gaining students and increasing costs, CT State is losing students and increasing costs,” he told members of the General Assembly, gathered for the first day of the 2025 legislative session.

“I have been reaching out to university presidents across the country who receive significantly less state funding per student,” Lamont went on. “They maintain excellence, and yet they hold the line on tuition increases.”

Both UConn and CSCU have pledged not to raise tuition this year — for the first time since 2000 for UConn and 2021 for CSCU. Over the last two years, community college tuition has gone up 11% while tuition and fees at regional universities was up 7%. At UConn tuition and student fees have increased by more than 20% since 2019.

“It’s our recognition that we can’t solve all our problems on the backs of students,” said Reka Wrynn, UConn’s associate vice president for budget, planning, and institutional research.

But the decision not to raise needed revenue from students will lend additional pressure to funding negotiations, which begin in earnest this month, as the 2025 legislative session gets underway. The governor is expected to present his budget recommendations for Fiscal Years 2026 and 2027 early next month.

In order to keep to their promise to freeze tuition at current rates, the two sprawling public higher education systems must trim their budgets and break open their emergency piggy banks. Leaders from both systems say they’re already on their way, and the amount of funding they’re requesting this year from the state reflects efficient and responsible spending plans.

For the current year, fiscal year 2025, UConn received a total of $326.2 million in state aid, which included $98.8 in one-time funding. UConn’s request for FY 2026, $300.2 million, is technically less than what it received this year — a slimmer budget. But without the one-time funding factored in, the request amounts to an additional $73 million over this year’s baseline grant. The FY 2027 request, $284.7 million, is a further reduction but still an increase over current funds excluding the one-time boost. (These figures don’t include UConn’s Farmington-based health center.)

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities — which includes the state’s 12 community colleges, four regional state universities and online Charter Oak State College — is requesting $463 million for the coming fiscal year. That’s $53 million less than this year’s funding, CSCU spokesperson Samantha Norton said. But it still amounts to an increase of $23 million over the baseline grant, not including one-time funding. For FY 2027, CSCU plans to trim its overall request by $2 million.

Lamont offered some suggestions to school leaders in his State of the State address Wednesday. Namely, recruiting more students, expanding capacity in “high demand majors” and scaling back less popular degree programs. Connecticut’s community colleges, Lamont noted, have seen enrollment decline by 30% over the last decade.

“Our debt-free community college program makes access easier, but innovation is overdue. We must develop a balance between traditional classroom experience, and more dual enrollment, stackable credentials, and flexible, online classes,” he said.

Some of the measures Lamont mentioned in his speech are already underway at UConn.

“We’re trying to do our part and find efficiency savings wherever we can to reduce that reliance upon the state,” UConn’s Wrynn said. But, she acknowledged, “We can’t do it all in one year.” If state funding comes up short, UConn may need to enroll more out-of-state students or tap alumni donations. The school has also been reviewing its smaller degree programs for cost savings.

CSCU is in a more precarious financial position. The system faces deficits of $95 million for each of the next two years. That follows a year when CSCU worked to address a $140 million deficit by making cutbacks including $35 million in personnel cost reductions.

CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng said the system plans to balance the majority of its budget the next two years through the use of reserves and spending reductions. The $463 million CSCU is requesting from the state for next year will keep the lights on, he said, but it doesn’t reflect the kind of robust investment Cheng would like to see in the state schools.

“This is not the funding that we believe this system and our students need and deserve,” Cheng said. “It is a budget that shows that we are being incredibly mindful, responsible, accountable and very conservative.”

Freezing tuition costs is key to maintaining access to higher education for the state’s underserved student populations, Cheng said. But the tradeoff could create challenges for that same group of students. A growing number of cuts to student services and adjust faculty across its institutions have eliminated or reduced cafeteria and library services, tutoring, disability, ESL and other administrative support.

Unionized staff and faculty at both schools say while they understand the budget constraints, they believe more should be done to provide opportunities to students.

End of an era

The coming year’s budget negotiations come after several years operating with a looming funding threat: the elimination of one-time revenue, both from the Covid-19 pandemic and other one-time state investments, that helped the state’s higher education institutions balance their budgets. The governor has been urging leaders of both systems to prepare for life without that additional state support.

Lamont has also insisted the state has been making historic investments in education. But advocates and leaders in both K-12 and higher education say the state’s contributions have not kept pace with the growing number of high-need students and associated costs to educate them — as well as historic inflation and other ongoing expenses. Many have suggested the state’s funding models for education need to be overhauled.

At the same time, CSCU leadership has come under scrutiny for its spending. A recent audit of expenses and credit card use revealed a “systemic problem,” including the misspending of thousands of dollars on food, entertainment and transportation by nearly all the campus presidents, State Comptroller Sean Scanlon found.

Cheng attributed his school system’s impending deficits in large part to the loss of one-time funding, but acknowledged CSCU “did not receive enough scrutiny through the years.” He said school leaders are working to correct that. In less than three years, he said the system has cut roughly $120 million from its budget — around 10%.

“We hope that we can continue to demonstrate our responsibility, our commitment to financial stability and viability for the long term,” he said.

CSCU will be tapping $100 million in reserves and making $80 million in spending cuts in order to balance its budget, Cheng said. Those cuts won’t include layoffs to full-time employees or any program closures, but adjunct staff and student services will take a hit, he said. He said CSCU will still offer resources to help students, “but maybe the options are not quite as plentiful.”

“It is definitely being stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he said.

UConn has also made adjustments to cover rising costs.

The UConn Foundation — the university’s fundraising arm — has had several record years in a row, Wrynn said. “Year over year in our budget, we’re increasing the amount of funding that we’re drawing down from the foundation,” she said. The university is also boosting revenue by increasing enrollment, particularly from out-of-state students who pay higher tuition. “That’s helpful to our bottom line as well,” Wrynn said.

To reduce spending, the university has placed scrutiny on its hiring practices, evaluating more closely whether some open positions need to be filled and how to better optimize existing class sections.

Throughout the year, UConn has also undergone a review of programs with low-completion rates. UConn reviewed 215 programs, and at the December Board of Trustees meeting, decided to close four, consolidate eight and continue 173 of them. Among the closures: a master’s in politics and popular culture and graduate certificates in global risk management, global health and obesity prevention and weight management. An additional eighteen are being evaluated and could be shelved.

UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said the program evaluations weren’t undertaken specifically to cut costs. She called it an “administrative organizational exercise [and] something that Provost offices do on a regular basis.”

Small programs might not be worth as much time and resources as more popular programs, Reitz said. “It is not targeted to save money by cutting places based just on the dollar amount, but the result would be efficiencies, and efficiencies do save money.”

In response to Lamont’s remarks Wednesday, Cheng said he believes CSCU and UConn are in distinct positions. “I think there is a big difference between UConn, which is a state research flagship and has $400-plus million in research expenditures, versus a community college,” he said. “The large majority of the budget of any community college in the country comes from a state appropriation. …I believe we’re actually comparing apples to pineapples.

“I don’t think there’s any malintent from the governor, I think there’s an obvious call for more fiscal accountability and responsibility,” Cheng added. “Where I agree with the governor is that we need to continue to push for more innovation, to continue to evolve, and to try to serve as many more people in Connecticut as we can.”

Union doubt

Union members at each of the institutions have called for transparency regarding funding and cuts.

In January, members of the UConn-AAUP, gathered to protest their administration’s five-year financial plan. They claimed the anticipated budget cuts would “fundamentally destabilize” the university. At CSCU, members of the 4Cs, which represents staff at community colleges, and CSU-AAUP, which represents staff at Connecticut’s regional universities, have continuously called for further investment and denounced fee increases and program cuts.

At both universities, students have also pleaded for funding boosts.

Sharper criticisms from the unions are now being directed at Lamont and state spending rules, known as “fiscal guardrails,” that force Connecticut lawmakers to set aside a significant portion of state revenues in savings and set strict spending and borrowing caps.

State officials say the guardrails have eliminated deficits and reduced debt. But as the government has piled up cash, many social service, health care and education programs say they’re facing dire financial circumstances.

“The bigger story that’s animating everything is the fiscal guardrails,” said Chris Vials, the union president at UConn. “Those have outlived their function, and they’re actually starting to just hobble the state’s ability to fund basic things.”

Vials said the viability of smaller programs, union contracts and tuition rates are almost entirely dependent on whether schools receive state funds.

Seth Freeman, the 4Cs president, said a reduction in state funding for higher education could exacerbate economic inequality in the state. “Attacks on public higher education are an attack on income and on equality,” he said. “Our students and those who come to our colleges to uplift themselves understand that as well. When we’re talking about education, it’s not just a line item on a spreadsheet for the governor to try to balance the budget.”

Manoj Misra, an associate professor of sociology at Western Connecticut State University, said the government has a responsibility to students. “They use those fancy terms — rationalization, budget mitigation — and this is not about budget mitigation,” Misra said. “This is really a social justice issue. It’s an equity problem. They are really hurting the students who really need the most help.”

Jessika Harkay is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright @ CTMirror (CTMirror.org).

But this year, committee leaders have also pledged to make concerted efforts to address special education funding and services — costs that can account for as much as a quarter or more of some public school districts’ budgets.

Among the proposals the committee is considering is a change to the way Connecticut pays for special education that would add weight to the state’s “Education Cost Sharing” formula for districts that enroll higher numbers of students in special education programs. The proposed changes are similar to weighted funding that currently goes to districts with large populations of multilingual learners and students from low-income households.

This and other proposed reforms are based on the recommendations of a 14-member task force convened by statute in 2021 to study special education services in the state. The task force, which has been meeting monthly since spring 2023, included lawmakers, teachers, parents, school administrators, education department officials, specialists, advocates and others.

Educators and advocates say special education costs take up a large share of many districts’ budgets. The funds go toward everything from hiring specialized teachers, paraeducators and other support staff, to expenses associated with sending students with disabilities to non-district schools that can better meet their needs.

“We annually come up about $74 million short, and that’s $74 million that cities, towns and ultimately boards of education have to absorb in unreimbursed special education expenditures,” said Kate Dias, the president of the Connecticut Education Association, the largest teacher’s union in the state.

“You look at who’s being impacted by the $74 million of unfunded special education costs and its communities that don’t have the ability to absorb that,” Dias said.

Namely, it’s Connecticut’s urban school districts. District leaders in Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven say between 20% and 30% of their budgets went toward special education expenditures in 2021-22, totaling between about $80 million up to $140 million. A majority of those expenditures were on tuition at private schools with programs designed for students with severe disabilities.

Rep. Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield, incoming co-chair of the Education Committee, said lawmakers intend to explore ways to tamp down on these costs — in some cases by encouraging districts to develop ways to offer specialized programming locally, rather than outsourcing those services.

“There’s lots of partnerships that some districts are already participating in for students with really acute mental health needs for example, that have essentially partnered with the district to offer some like therapeutic services in the district, which of course, brings the out-placement costs way down,” Leeper said. “So, we’re trying to find ways to help districts address those unique student needs in district.”

[RELATED: For CT parents, special ed meetings with schools are ‘a battlefield’]

Leeper is replacing former committee co-chair Rep. Jeff Currey, D-East Hartford, who did not seek reelection. Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, will serve as Leeper’s co-chair.

The state Department of Education has put forward financial proposals to address the costs of special needs programming, including setting a tuition schedule for private special education services that would “assist [districts] to appropriately prepare for current and subsequent year tuition costs.”

The education department also proposed clarifications to existing laws, making each local district responsible for funding the “actual cost” of special education at choice schools, which includes magnet, charter or technical schools. The law currently requires districts to cover “reasonable costs.”

The department is requesting the clarification after a declaratory ruling at Brass City Charter School earlier this year that said school districts are responsible for reimbursing the “actual costs” to choice school programs that provide special education services.

As written in law, the families of students with disabilities are also required to be given an “informational handout” that explains what it means to have a student who requires an Individualized Education Program. The state Department of Education further proposed changing the requirement to instead offer “resources” and refer families to the Student Bill of Rights, which outlines that families are entitled to enroll their child in public education, regardless of immigration status, and receive translation services and important documents in their native language.

Teachers’ union agenda: ‘It’s time to invest’

Beyond special education funding, the teachers’ union has several proposals on its agenda this year that would also call for significant additional funding.

In recent years, Dias and union Vice President Joslyn DeLancey said the teachers sought changes that were programmatic and focused on improving the teaching profession. For example, the CEA lobbied for what’s known as “play-based learning,” for children in preschool and kindergarten, which is an educational approach that “emphasizes play in promoting learning and includes developmentally appropriate strategies that can be integrated with existing learning standards.”

The association also sought changes to the professional evaluation system that they found to be more supportive. Those efforts were successful, and not particularly costly, DeLancey said.

This year, that will shift.

“This session our real ask is — it’s time to invest,” DeLancey said. “We keep kicking the can down the road, and we keep seeing further and further consequences to the fact.”

Gov. Ned Lamont, in his State of the State Address last year, said his administration has made Connecticut’s “largest ever commitment” to K-12 education. And his administration said the current budget includes “historic levels” of funding.

But educators and municipal leaders have pushed back, saying while the actual amount of state funding may have reached a historic high, the state’s share of education funding, as a percentage, has actually decreased when inflation is factored in. As a result, districts are covering a larger portion of their education budgets, they say.

“Out of the gates, our education funding is substantially held back,” Dias said.

To correct for the shortfall would cost $500 million over the next two years, Dias estimates.

This year, the teacher’s union is also seeking to expand a program known as the Aspiring Educators Diversity Scholarship, which provides up to $10,000 to graduates of Connecticut’s lowest-performing districts (known as Alliance Districts) who enroll in training to become educators. CEA hopes to expand the opportunity beyond those who have graduated from Alliance Districts.

Sen. Eric Berthel, R-Watertown, and a ranking member on the Education Committee, wants to continue work on previous initiatives last year centered on funding accountability.

“I’m not saying that we should directly tie funding to the ability of your school system to produce … but right now, there’s a big, big void between money that we spend and the accountability for that money,” Berthel said.

“We have an opportunity to fix this,” he said. “It’s going to require us to make some difficult decisions and have some very candid and open discussions with our labor unions.”

Early childhood, charter schools, safety and standardized testing

Lawmakers say it’s not just that additional funding is needed, across myriad educational programs, but the committee needs to be thoughtful about how funding is allocated and the logistics of funding approvals.

Leeper said proposals before the committee will go beyond just K-12 funding — early childhood education also needs further consideration and investment.

“All the research says every dollar spent in early childhood is the best dollar you can spend, because you get the best bang for your buck,” Leeper said. “As often as we talk about K-12, I don’t want to lose sight of that early childhood part of it. We need to be thinking more connectedly and comprehensively about kids’ development and education through every age.”

The state Department of Education, meanwhile, has proposed changing the approval timeline for charter schools from annually to every other year to better align with the state’s biennial budget process.

Prior to 2015, a charter school could begin recruiting students and building its campus as soon as it received approval from the state Board of Education. That year, however, legislators changed the process to a two-tier approval, where the state Board of Education grants “initial” approval and lawmakers then determine whether to fund the school.

That slowed the approval and launch process for new charter schools, with many being held up at the legislature and waiting years to get funding. The latest proposal is an attempt to make the process run more smoothly, and potentially improve a school’s chances of getting funding, though it’s unclear whether it could delay some approvals.

Leeper also expects the committee to consider changes to mandated school safety drills and modifications to standardized testing in the state.

Last year, Leeper sought to pare back school safety drill requirements, but her proposal drew strong criticism, particularly from Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, R-Newtown, who said the legislation took “chances with the lives of children.”

The committee will reconsider drill requirements this year following the work of a task force — chaired by Leeper, Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington, and Amery Bernhardt, director at the Center for School Safety and Crisis Preparation — which has identified some best practices.

“We don’t want to do anything that makes our Newtown friends feel like they could possibly be less safe,” Leeper said, acknowledging the trauma of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. But, she added, the drills themselves can often be distressing to children. “We have a responsibility to ensure all of our kids across the state are safe and not being traumatized by these practices,” she said.

As for standardized testing, Leeper said the committee will have a “unique opportunity” to consider changes based on the results of a school testing audit, expected in early January. “Annual testing, in my opinion, has been a failure every year. We learn the same things about our students and have not made any meaningful growth towards closing our opportunity gaps or achievement gaps,” Leeper said.

Leeper acknowledged the importance of transparency when it comes to student and school performance, but she said she’s not sure the current methods are working. The legislature will need to find “the right balance,” she said.

“The testing comes at a cost, both financial and in terms of time and in terms of driving what our students are learning,” she said. “If we have an opportunity to scale that back … I think that would be a step in the right direction.”

Jessika Harkay is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (ctmirror.org). Copyright 2025 © The Connecticut Mirror.

“I can’t talk to Santa. I’m deaf,” the girl signed. She set her hands on her hips and was refusing to approach him.

Little did they know, Smith, who’s from Bethlehem, had worked as a sign language interpreter for the State of Connecticut for decades. He looked at the girl and signed, “Do you want to talk with Santa?”

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To this day, Smith said, he still remembers the smile on her face and the tears in her mother’s eyes. The 7-year-old ran and jumped into his lap. “She had missed out on seven good years of chatting with Santa,” Smith said. “After that, I said I have to continue to do this as long as I can.”

He was hooked.

He especially wanted to make sure children who use sign language would have a chance to talk to Santa.

Smith’s story is one of hundreds, even thousands, of the memories shared by those who play Santa and other festive roles during the holiday season. They also helped inspire the creation of the Connecticut Society of Santas, with partners Charlie Allen and Bill Dexter.

The Connecticut Society of Santas is a nonprofit that was organized nearly 20 years ago. It is now a network for over 75 individuals who have taken on roles as Santa, Mrs. Claus or elves. They feature at events across the state — and year-round — like Christmas in July parties, Zoom calls to the North Pole, weddings. Their most common job, though, is hearing the holiday wishes of countless children, seated happily upon their knees.

Members of the CT Society of Santas come from a variety of backgrounds, from veterans to teachers, bankers, state employees and health care workers. What they share is a love of spreading and being surrounded in Christmas joy — with children, and children at heart.

The Connecticut Mirror interviewed a few members of the CT Society of Santas, or CTSS, about how they came into their role and their favorite, or most memorable, experiences.

Some children climb into Santa’s lap and ask for a new iPhone or a puppy. But sometimes their wishes are more poignant: for family members to come back to life or for parents to love each other again.

Louise and Phil DesJardins, who play the Claus couple, keep a prayer book at home with the names of children who have shared difficult Christmas wishes. Louise said while some wishes may not come true, or might not be within the scope of Santa’s capabilities, they want to make sure the wishes aren’t forgotten.

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“I find that children will whisper into your ear and tell you something that they wouldn’t tell their parents,” Phil said. “It’s like a priest with a confessional. When kids tell you [their wish], that’s sacred. That’s between you and the child.”

The DesJardins were high school sweethearts, and they’ve been married for 53 years. Phil, who has a big white beard, became a Santa after a friend suggested he join the organization. Louise DesJardins was roped in not long after her retirement. The pair has been a Santa and Mrs. Claus team for nearly two decades.

They have their share of sweet memories of the remarkable, and thoughtful, kids they’ve met along the way.

Louise recalled one boy who made her feel extra special. “Last year, this little boy said to me, ‘I know Santa always gets cookies, but I want to give you flowers. So on Christmas Eve, I’m gonna leave flowers for Santa to bring back to you, because you deserve something too.’” She smiled. “His mother [said] it was all he was talking about.”

One of Phil’s favorite stories was when he observed a young teenage boy who was taking care of his younger sister who had disabilities.

“He took such care of her with empathy and love,” Phil said. “He was right by her side, soothing her, calming her. And I said [to his mother,] ‘You should be very proud of that boy you raised.’”

David Sizemore first played Santa for his family, a role passed down to him from his uncle who died in the late 2000s.

Sizemore was an educator at Xavier High School at the time, and he enjoyed the role with his family so much that he brought it with him to work. Every Friday around Christmastime, he’d dress up as Santa and take selfies with students — in exchange for a donation to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

From there, it snowballed. Sizemore began to attend conferences. He connected with other Santas to learn more. Sizemore was fully immersed in Connecticut’s Santa community, even serving as vice president of CTSS for a few years, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020.

With social distancing measures, Santas had to get creative. Sizemore bought a tapestry with a scene of Santa’s workshop, and he visited with families on Zoom, offering them a glimpse of the North Pole in his background.

“I ended up Zooming with 250 clients across the world in 46 states and three countries,” Sizemore said. “The parents would send me the information in advance, so I knew everything about the kid. You can imagine, their eyes were like saucers.”

One of the memories that stands out to Sizemore — and one of the more difficult Santa experiences he had — was when he was contacted by a children’s hospital in Oakland, Calif. “They put Santa on a cart, on a laptop … and they would wheel me into each room,” Sizemore said. The visits lasted for hours.

He remembered some of the children were so young they were in cribs. It was a difficult experience because “you cannot break character,” Sizemore said.

“You have to find a way. You can’t break down. You have to just try to be as much a part of that character you can be,” Sizemore said.

“Every kid is slightly different. Some were in the hospital and knew they were going to get released, maybe the day after Christmas. But some kids were really sick and you don’t see that in a hospital setting a lot.” When he disconnected from those calls, he said, “It was time to exhale.”

As a Connecticut Probate Judge, Marty Landgrebe spends his days at a courthouse. So playing an elf and entertaining kids in his off-hours offers a nice contrast.

“It’s just great to see the kids’ faces, how they light up and see that there’s Santa,” Landgrebe said. “I think Santa brings out that extra little charm and joy in kids when they see him. Even the grownups say, ‘Oh, that is Santa. I want to remember those days.’ That’s a great thing to go back in time.”

Landgrebe was approached by one of the founding members of CTSS in 2010 and asked to be an elf to help “add to the whole presentation,” for children.

In the last decade or so, the experience has allowed the Santas, Mrs. Clauses and elves to develop relationships with families who visit year after year.

Landgrebe said he’s visited with one family every year. Their daughter who was 4 years old when they first met is now entering high school, he said.

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He’s also provided the entertainment at weddings. The couple who requested the performance told him, “You have to come dressed as an elf.” He responded, saying, “Alright, well, I’d be more than happy to then.”

As Landgrebe told the story, surrounded by his fellow Santas, their laughter was contagious. He recalled he wasn’t the only person who showed up in character to the wedding. There was Mother Nature, a werewolf, Peter Pan and other costumes. “It was one of the most entertaining weddings I’ve ever been to!”

Jessika Harkay is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror

Aleysha Ortiz filed the complaint in Hartford Superior Court Friday against the City of Hartford, the local board of education and a special education case manager in the district. Ortiz alleged she was bullied, harassed and neglected by district staff, including the case manager.

In a letter  State Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding and Sen. Eric Berthel, a ranking member on the Legislature’s Education Committee, asked Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker for her reaction to the latest legal action.

“The student was allegedly denied services — over 12 years — due to lack of funding and roadblocks to learning at many levels,” the letter read. The senators inquired whether Russell-Tucker has discussed the case with local officials in Hartford, and they asked for “a summary of state education funding for Hartford for the past 12 years.”

“We continue to seek accountability as to how this student was illiterate when she graduated and how the system failed her year after year,” the letter read.

Ortiz’s plight was the subject of an investigation by The Connecticut Mirror published Sept. 29. Her earlier lawsuit, a special education due process complaint, was filed over the summer and is still in process.

In the days following the story’s publication, several lawmakers from both parties expressed concern about the oversight of public school funding. Some said they plan to push the Legislature to weigh education reforms that address the issues Ortiz’s case has raised.

The latest communication is one of several similar letters Republican lawmakers have sent to the education department in response to Ortiz’s story and subsequent developments.

Berthel, Harding and Sen. Lisa Seminara, R-Avon, contacted Russell-Tucker in early October for her response to the CT Mirror’s initial report. In a letter to the lawmakers Oct. 15, Russell-Tucker said she shared their concerns, writing, “No child should ever graduate high school without learning to read or write.”

The commissioner further highlighted state efforts to prevent more students ending up in positions like Ortiz, including the recent passage and implementation of Right to Read legislation, new supports for multilingual students and their families and an ongoing audit of Hartford Public Schools and the district’s fiscal health.

The lawmakers wrote Russell-Tucker again in late October following a Hartford Board of Education meeting. During that meeting, Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez acknowledged the investigation and pledged to conduct the district’s own probe. In public comments at the meeting, teachers made the case that Ortiz was denied services because of a lack of funding.

Russell-Tucker responded to that letter on Nov. 13, saying the department had requested Ortiz’s education records from Hartford and would be reviewing them. She also said the department would meet with Hartford’s superintendent and work to assess the programming and funding available at the schools Ortiz attended.

“We are also in the process of compiling the requested information pertaining to state education for Hartford for the past 12 years; however this may take several weeks to complete,” the letter read.

In response to a request for comment on the latest letter from lawmakers, department spokesman Matthew Cerrone pointed to the commissioner’s previous responses, saying they address much of what was requested in Wednesday’s letter.

Earlier this week, at the Hartford Board of Education’s December meeting, Ortiz spoke publicly for the first time since the CT Mirror investigation published.

She fumbled with the microphone, gathered herself and took several deep breaths. Her voice cracked as she started speaking.

“I wish I could say I was a proud graduate of Hartford Public Schools, but I consider myself more as a survivor,” Ortiz said. “My chance at a successful future was supposed to be my right, but instead, you made it a tease and that should be illegal.”

Ortiz’s eyes were welling up, but she gained confidence as she spoke. She said her inability to read and write makes daily life a challenge. “Every milestone I am supposed to have here is now a struggle. I cannot read road signs, how am I supposed to get my driver’s license? Text-to-speech shouldn’t be the only way I can express myself. How am I supposed to work my first job?” Ortiz said.

But she said she’s determined to be part of the solution. “I am here for the kids who suffered and continue to suffer just like me. I believe in a future where each student will leave Hartford Public Schools with a story of success, a story that will show the entire state that being from the capital is something to be proud of.”

 Jessika Harkay is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (ctmirror.org). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.

The audit was released Wednesday morning after Gov. Ned Lamont requested “a comprehensive report” on CSCU’s finances — including a review of purchases made on state P-Cards, spending on meals and entertainment, use of state-owned vehicles and tax reporting by CSCU leadership, as well as an audit of the system’s financial practices — in late October.

The probe came after a CT Insider report on CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng’s expenditures from his hiring in July 2021 through May 2024. The report highlighted expensive meals including $60 steaks, $490 chauffeured rides and other questionable spending.

“Based on our findings, this is a systemic problem that is impacting the entire CSCU leadership and their staff,” Comptroller Sean Scanlon said at a press conference Wednesday.

“The things we found range from expensive meals, to livery services, to room service, to dry cleaning, to improper tickets to events that were not school related functions, paying for the cellphone bills and Eversource bills of students without clear adherence to a policy,” he said.

The comptroller’s office received information on over 600,000 transactions from the CSCU financial system, and another 180,000 transactions from system leaders’ state credit cards, Scanlon said. For the audit, his office reviewed a sample of roughly 1,000 of those transactions “for the sake of time” and public interest in the matter, he said.

In response to the comptroller’s report, system chancellor Cheng said in a statement that the university system is “reviewing the recommendations and findings from the Comptroller’s Office and are committed to implementing stronger controls, policies, and comprehensive training.”

“These recommendations will support the goal of accountability and transparency across the system and protect taxpayer dollars and student funds,” Cheng said. “The system has begun to take steps in this direction and over the next 100 days, I’ve instructed my team to implement recommendations to improve compliance and reporting.”

According to the report, Cheng spent over $27,000 on his state issued credit card over a three year period from July 1, 2021 through Oct. 24, 2024. The majority of those expenses were spent on meals, totaling about $19,000, the report said. During that period, Cheng purchased alcohol, several meals over a $50 limit and tipped over 22%, which is considered “excessive,” Scanlon said.

Cheng also used taxpayer money to hire a car service three times, despite having a state vehicle at the time, according to the report. Cheng lives in Salem, N.Y., and commutes roughly 90 minutes to Hartford.

Scanlon said Cheng “technically did not violate” any spending policies because the way they’re written allows the chancellor to “override the policy at his own discretion.”

“In the absence of these sound and comprehensive policies, the chancellor certainly utilized poor judgment when making P-Card purchases that were troubling, given the financial stress that the system he oversees is currently under and has been under for some time now,” Scanlon said, referring most recently to a $140 million deficit the CSCU system had to mitigate this fiscal year.

Republican lawmakers called for the termination of Cheng’s employment and said the misspending “is a black eye for the State of Connecticut.”

“Restoring public trust demands bold and decisive action, that begins with terminating the employment of CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng. His continued leadership over a system in clear disarray undermines efforts to restore stability and confidence among students, parents, staff, and taxpayers alike,” said Republican Minority Leaders Sen. Stephen Harding and Rep. Vincent Candelora in a joint statement.

In addition to Cheng’s spending, the audit found that the president of Charter Oak State College, one of the schools in the CSCU system, “charged half a million dollars on his credit card over the course of several different transactions for marketing money.”

Scanlon said the charge was “not nefarious,” but “certainly a violation of state policy to put that much money on a credit card for something like marketing.”

The report also highlighted concerns about Southern Connecticut State University’s interim president Dwayne Smith, who spent “almost double what Chancellor Chang spent, in a lesser period of time” for services including car washes and dry cleaning, as well as a ticket to a Yale University football game and other items.

“Each one of the university presidents during the period we looked at, with the exception of the new president of Eastern, was using their P-Card for things that were a violation of state policy. Staff members at each of those institutions were also using P-Cards in a violation of state policy,” Scanlon said.

“Across the spectrum of all these things, there was bad judgment and poor judgment, but another problem — and that bigger problem from our perspective — is the lack of clear policies and procedures,” he said.

Scanlon’s team recommended several policy reforms which included:

• Reinstituting an internal audit function
• Establishing a centralized P-Card policy with review procedures and accountability measures for misuse
• A recommendation to use foundation funds — money contributed by donors — for meals and entertainment
• Establishing a vehicle use policy
• Establishing a residency requirement for executives
• Adding CSCU to OpenConnecticut, a publicly-available online database of government financial reporting
• Submitting transactions to the comptroller’s office for a post-audit
• Providing consistent training

Scanlon said further action, including whether to continue the investigation, is up to the governor and state lawmakers.

Harding and Candelora said they would support an extended investigation.

“The troubling transactions revealed in today’s report may well be just the tip of the iceberg, emphasizing the critical need to extend the audit process and fully expose how this system has been mismanaged,” the two Republican lawmakers wrote. “Failing to act decisively not only excuses unacceptable behavior but also risks eroding trust in all our public institutions.”

Co-chairs of the Legislature’s higher education committee, Sen. Derek Slap and Rep. Gregg Haddad, both Democrats, said they’d welcome “proposals this session to improve accountability within the CSCU system.” In an emailed statement, the pair said they would consider “further action as more information comes to light.” The General Assembly’s 2025 session begins Jan. 8.

In her complaint, Aleysha Ortiz, 19, alleges she was bullied, harassed and/or neglected by staff in the school district, including her special education case manager.

The lawsuit alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligence. Ortiz is seeking $3 million in damages, said her attorney, Anthony Spinella.

“We’re not suing for any services. We’re not suing for their inability to teach her basic skills,” Spinella told the CT Mirror Friday. “We’re suing for the emotional damage that was caused when [Ortiz] went through the processes of trying to get [the district] to help her and how she was treated by some of the administrators and the teachers.”

Cristian Corza, the deputy chief of staff for the City of Hartford, and Jennifer Hockenhull, the chair of the Hartford Board of Education, said they were unable to comment on ongoing litigation.

The legal filing marks the second lawsuit filed by Ortiz and comes months after The Connecticut Mirror published an investigation about Ortiz’s educational experience that included a review of audio recordings with district officials, her student records and other documents. In that story, Ortiz said she not only experienced educational neglect and was never provided proper services, but was also ridiculed by staff.

In her first lawsuit, which was a special education due process complaint and handled by special education attorney Courtney Spencer, Ortiz sought services to learn how to read, write and other things she wasn’t taught in the public school system. Spencer said that complaint is still in process.

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The new complaint is rooted in allegations that Tilda Santiago, a special education case manager for Ortiz from September 2022 through May 2023, bullied and harassed the high schooler for several months.

The complaint alleges that Santiago “exhibited controlling and possessive behaviors when it came to other teachers that would speak to or help [Ortiz] and would raise her voice and engage in conflict with those teachers.”

The lawsuit also said that Santiago would “yell at, belittle, ridicule, and humiliate” Ortiz in front of other students or teachers, verbally abused, belittled and intimidated the student, “would stalk” her during school hours and altered her attendance records.

Santiago did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit also alleges that several people employed under the Hartford Board of Education did not “timely and adequately address” reports of misconduct against Ortiz.

“Despite the reports to administration, nothing was done to timely and adequately address Tilda Santiago’s inappropriate and prohibited conduct, except that Assistant Principal [Elvis] Minga removed Tilda Santiago as the Plaintiff’s case worker approximately four weeks before the end of the 2022-23 school year because of the dysfunctional relationship between Tilda Santiago and the Plaintiff,” the lawsuit said.

The board and several other school employees failed to report, investigate or respond to reports of bullying, harassment and suspected abuse which resulted in Ortiz experiencing psychological and emotional injuries, the lawsuit alleges.

“In February 2023, because of the relentless bullying and harassment by Tilda Santiago, [Ortiz] experienced suicidal ideation and suffered an emotional breakdown and put herself at extreme risk when she opened the door of a moving vehicle,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also names a number of teachers and staff professionals as employees who allegedly also bullied, harassed or neglected Ortiz.

“The involved teachers and administrators were aware of the [Ortiz’s] disabilities and pre-existing conditions that made her especially vulnerable and more likely to be harmed by the aforementioned conduct,” the lawsuit read, adding that school administrators put Ortiz “at risk of imminent harm of extreme emotional distress and aggravation of her underlying conditions.”

Because of the district’s inaction, Ortiz has since paid for counseling and will “likely incur additional expenses for such treatment/counseling in the future, has been prevented from and deprived of the opportunity to fully enjoy her childhood … and will continue to suffer in the future,” the lawsuit alleges.

Jessika Harkay is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (ctmirror.org). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.

Since March, votes have taken place in four school districts — Waterbury, Stamford, Bridgeport and the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System. The Salem Teachers Federation, which issued its own vote of no confidence in May 2023, also has an ongoing conflict with its administration.

The uptick in votes of no confidence is “not normal,” said Fran Rabinowitz, who previously served as superintendent in Bridgeport and Hamden and now is executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. She said it’s becoming a growing trend across the country.

“I think it’s become more common nationally to have votes of no confidence,” Rabinowitz said. “There’s a lot of emotional unrest right now… I see opposing views and an inability, many times, to come to the middle, to come to consensus, to really understand the other person’s perspective moving forward with something. And I think it affects all of our relationships. You just see it nationally. You see it in government, and I think now we’re seeing it in education.”

Educators have consistently referred to public education as reaching a “breaking point,” with an increasing frustration in classroom conditions centered on issues like safety, workload, class sizes, limited support personnel and curriculum changes.

A survey released recently by the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, shows that 63% of educators in the state are dissatisfied with school conditions and 62% are planning to leave the profession earlier than expected.

Still, CEA President Kate Dias said that votes of no confidence show “an incredible amount of investment.” She said educators who could have walked away are instead “insisting on better.”

“We are going to hold you accountable for doing what we know you should be doing,” Dias said. “The invested parties are standing up and making demands of leadership, and that means that we’re really focusing on improvement. We’re focusing on how do we do this work better and treat our communities and students better.”

Despite the unique district circumstances that led to the votes of no confidence, interviews with union presidents show similar underlying issues — ranging from severe disconnects in communication, concerns about transparency when it comes to district changes (like scheduling or curriculum), growing fears of retaliation and a general feeling that their concerns have gone unheard.

Even some unions across the state that did not issue votes of no confidence in their superintendents have conducted surveys or organized other efforts to showcase their continued dissatisfaction.

“If you look at sort of the consistent theme of where these situations emerge, it’s often where there’s a breakdown of communication and respect between staff and administration — particularly the superintendent,” Dias said, adding that though a consistent call to action to improve the teaching profession has been rooted in salary increases, “there’s no amount of money that overcomes rampant disrespect.

“It takes time to change and move salaries. It does not take time to improve the working conditions,” Dias said. “You can decide tomorrow, ‘I really need to listen to my staff. How am I going to do that in a way that they can see it, feel it and know that I’m respecting them?’”

Rabinowitz also stressed the importance of relationship building and balancing teacher involvement.

“Sometimes superintendents see what is lacking and they see it very clearly … and they just want to take care of that really quickly,” Rabinowitz said. “What they don’t realize is, you can’t just plow ahead without getting buy-in from the pioneers — the teachers and the administrators who are going to carry out what you want to carry out. You’ve got to sit down with them and listen to their perspective and figure out whether the direction you’re taking is the right direction.”

One proposal some educators and union leaders think could make a difference is changing the minimum requirements for becoming a school administrator, in particular the number of years of experience in a classroom setting. It’s a measure they plan to bring up during the legislative session that begins next month.

Departures

In some districts, conversations between superintendents and staff either did not take place or were not fruitful enough to make a difference before the superintendents were either replaced or took a leave of absence.

In Waterbury, CTECS and Bridgeport, the unions’ votes have been followed by changes to the district leadership.

Back in March, the Waterbury Teachers Association conducted a survey with over 700 participants that mainly focused on safety concerns in the classroom. The majority of the survey’s respondents said Superintendent Verna Ruffin did not effectively address safety-related issues (80%), did not foster an environment for staff to handle discipline issues in an effective manner (86%) and did not prioritize teacher and student safety (85%).

“We just felt that Dr. Ruffin had really lost touch with the teacher corps in the city of Waterbury, and had really, really lost touch with the types of things that teachers were experiencing in the classroom,” said local union president Kevin Egan. “Those types of things ranged from a lack of support, which was the big one, especially in types of discipline issues and addressing negative behaviors in the classroom, where teachers were really starting to feel afraid and nervous to go to work.”

There were over 960 individual student-based arrests in Connecticut in 2021-22, the last reported data from the state’s education department that was broken down by district. Of that number, about 220 occurred in Waterbury Public Schools.

The unions’ concerns “arguably ended up” as a vote of no confidence, though it was not “officially designated,” as one, Egan said.

“What you’re seeing across the state is a byproduct of lack of respect and just the idea that they’re not valuing their teachers and teachers are feeling it,” Egan said. “When you’re trying to get responses from the superintendent, and teachers are throwing their hands up in the end and screaming for help, and nobody’s coming to the aid, … that is the definition of a breaking point.”

Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski ultimately vetoed Ruffin’s contract extension despite an initial approval from the local board of education.

Ruffin did not respond to a request for comment on the local union’s dissatisfaction, but provided The Connecticut Mirror her final email to the local board of education. In her correspondence, she highlighted wins in her district including the opening of a dual language school, reopening of classrooms after the COVID-19 pandemic and investments into extracurricular programs.

“As I move to my next chapter, I wanted to express my profound gratitude to you Commissioners individually, and collectively as you continue to do what’s best for all children,” Ruffin wrote on July 11. “Your confidence in me is deeply appreciated and I will forever be grateful to you to the teachers, the principals and administrators as well as the central office team, the parents, students and community.  I will especially miss the students and wish them continued success as they dare to dream big and never lose sight of their goals.”

Several months later, in October, the State Vocational Federation of Teachers, the union representing certified teachers at the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, issued its own vote of no confidence in executive director Ellen Solek after concerns over transparency.

Solek oversaw the superintendent position, which has had several personnel changes in recent years as the CTEC system has branched off the jurisdiction of the state Department of Education and instead operates as a state agency.

Makenzi Hurtado, vice president of the SVFT union, said Solek was responsible for the system’s finances, legislative proposals and industry partnerships. Union members felt the needs were not being met in those three areas and this ultimately “trickled down into the classrooms.”

“We would hear that all the time we’re in a ‘soft [hiring] freeze,’ … but no one really understood why we were in a soft freeze, where the monies were going and when we would ask for clarification or insight or transparency, we would not get any answers,” Hurtado said. “In terms of the legislation, there’s a lot of things that we have to advocate for. … There’s a lot of different bills and things that affect us, and we weren’t finding out about it until after they were going into effect.”

Hurtado said the CTECS had a large number of staffing vacancies, which overwhelmed the existing workload of hired staff and made them more prone to burnout.

“Every single subject we had, they were missing things that they needed. Science labs didn’t have the materials that they needed. English classrooms didn’t have the books. It was everywhere,” Hurtado said.

“It got to a point where people were feeling like they could not give kids the education that they deserved, and they didn’t have the resources to give the education to kids that they deserved, and that was really the breaking point for us,” Hurtado added. “I think a lot of the concerns that we have in our district are very similar to concerns that teachers and other districts have. Teachers are extremely passionate about what they do, but … they’re very rarely listened to as experts in what they do.”

Solek, who was the district’s first executive director and took over the role in June 2023, announced her plan to resign on Halloween.

Solek declined a request for comment.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Alice Pritchard, who most recently served as the director of workforce development and strategic initiatives for the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services and previously served as the chief of staff and chief strategy officer for the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system, as Solek’s replacement on Nov. 27.

In a statement to the CT Mirror, Pritchard said she looked forward to working with stakeholders to “help the system reach its full potential.”

“My priority is to listen to our community, promote open communication, and ensure transparency and collaboration with all stakeholders. I recognize that while there is important work to do, we have the people and passion to achieve great things on behalf of CTECS students,” Pritchard said.

The CTEC is also under investigation by the state Department of Education after a leaked email from then-interim superintendent Justin Lowe described a process that was apparently meant to deny admission to students with disabilities.

Lamont appointed Freeman Burr, a former superintendent in Shelton and former Hartford educator, as the new interim superintendent on Dec. 5.

Still at odds

Bridgeport was the most recent of the three no-confidence votes, with Superintendent Carmela Levy-David taking a leave of absence in early November shortly after a CEA survey revealed 93% of respondents felt Levy-David was unprofessional in dealings with teachers and staff, feared retaliation if they voiced concerns and that the superintendent was not open to differing points of view and 80% had considered leaving Bridgeport Public Schools.

Levy-David was hired in August 2023 and committed to staying 10 years in the district to form a “new era of stability.” She had announced a complete system overhaul earlier this year, beginning with right-sizing its organizational leadership, schools and classrooms.

Over the summer there was pushback on the superintendent’s plan to close six schools, and contention grew as educators say the district was changing its class and bus schedules, teacher assignments and curriculum “on the fly.”

“You had teachers doing everything in their power to try and create a sense of stability and security, but at the end of the day, if they don’t have the materials, they’re being reassigned, they are not sure what is being communicated — all those things put together just created this sense of heightened agitation at all times,” Dias said. “It was like this intense layer of stress that everyone was kind of experiencing, including the kids.”

Shortly after the survey’s results were released, the district issued a statement saying they were “disappointed that the CEA did not communicate those results to us first so we could have worked collaboratively,” and that they took the “concerns raised about teachers’ confidence in our leadership seriously.”

“We understand that feelings of fear and apprehension can significantly impact our staff’s willingness to communicate openly, but their feedback is essential to continue to make things better for them moving forward. We are committed to fostering a safe and supportive environment where educators feel empowered to express their thoughts and concerns without fear of retaliation,” Levy-David said in the statement.

Bridgeport’s local board of education has now entered contract negotiations that could end Levy-David’s employment in the district.

Stacy Graham-Hunt, the spokesperson for Bridgeport schools, said the district “remains committed to fostering a positive and collaborative work environment for all staff members,” through efforts to “streamline communications, enhance stability and address any operational challenges to ensure that schools run smoothly and effectively.”

“While the District acknowledges the concerns raised by the union, we are assessing areas for improvement and identifying strategies to address challenges. Ensuring a supportive environment for educators, administrators, and students is our top priority,” Graham-Hunt said. “We are currently reviewing internal processes to enhance clarity and coordination, and we are prioritizing efforts to ensure all stakeholders feel informed and supported.”

Stamford shared concerns similar to some of those raised in Bridgeport’s survey and vote of no confidence, though the district has kept its leadership.

Stamford educators have faced an ongoing challenge regarding class scheduling at its middle and high schools.

Stamford Superintendent Tamu Lucero proposed a schedule change that would add an extra course to teachers’ existing class schedules and would increase workload. Local teachers argued that they’re already strained and issued a vote of no confidence in March.

“Who knows what’s going on in the classroom better than the teachers that work with those kids every day?” said local union president John Corcoran. “The further you are removed from the classroom, the less impact you have. There’s a superintendent, and there’s associate superintendents, but you’re making decisions three levels removed from the classroom. … [To make changes,] it’s about building relationships. It’s about maintaining relationships. It’s about trust. … We’re trying hard to build that relationship with the superintendent, but we run into quite a lot of hurdles in doing so.”

Stamford Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.

A legislative push

At the root of teachers feeling unheard is a sentiment that district administrators are inexperienced when it comes to what’s happening in a classroom setting.

Currently, state law requires school administrators to have at least 50 months of “appropriate teaching experience,” or about five years, a master’s degree and additional coursework in special education, school administration and other topics.

But several educators and union leaders across the state have advocated for several years to raise the minimum requirements, particularly in regard to the number of years in a classroom setting.

It’s a proposal they plan to fight for again in January.

“We believe 10 years would be a far better minimum, and I get that it puts that point of transition out a little bit, but let’s give our administrators a fighting chance. If they haven’t had enough experiences to convincingly lead, we’re setting them up for failure,” Dias said.

“We really believe that in order to lead a building, you have to have a credible amount of experience, and you have to have had the worst day, the most challenging student, a difficult parent conversation, a challenge with your colleague, to have led a classroom through difficult times, before you’re ever going to be able to lead a building credibly,” she said.

Jessika Harkay is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (ctmirror.org). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.

But most high schools in Connecticut offer students an opportunity to address some of those concerns before they even graduate through dual enrollment programs. These programs offer students coursework that allows them to earn both high school and college credit in one class — saving both time and money for those in pursuit of post-secondary education.

This can be a relief for students worried about how they’ll fare academically and a lifesaver for those who would not be able to afford a college education otherwise.

These courses are “a huge equalizer for a lot of students,” said Christopher Todd, the executive director of the Office of Early College Programs at the University of Connecticut. UConn’s Early College Experience program educates over 17,000 Connecticut students across 188 schools.

UConn is the largest state provider of dual credit courses, followed by the Connecticut State University and College system, the University of Bridgeport and Goodwin University.

Unlike Advanced Placement courses, where a student has to take and pass a standardized test at the end of the year to determine whether they qualify for college credit, students in a dual enrollment program start a college transcript and are graded normally throughout the year, allowing a “true demonstration of mastery,” Todd said.

Across Connecticut high schools, dual enrollment courses are diverse — offering core classes like English or biology, but also other subjects like leadership, natural resources and environment, genocide studies, emergency medical technician training and individual and family development.

“(There are courses) that a lot of students would be excited about and interested in and this might be that step or reach, where they might not have seen themselves sitting in a college course and then suddenly they’re sitting in a college course and they’re saying, ‘I can do this. I can be successful,’” Todd said.

Research has shown dual credit courses are particularly useful to first-generation and low-income students because it familiarizes students with what a college workload looks like and gives them a head-start in their postsecondary education at a fraction of the cost. UConn ECE courses are free for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch, or $50 a credit otherwise, compared to $709 a credit for an undergraduate course if it’s taken on campus.

But, accessibility is a problem.

For thousands of Connecticut students who have access to the opportunity and can earn up to two years worth of college credit based on their school’s offerings, thousands of others aren’t as lucky.

They miss out, not because of a lack of interest or ability, but because their schools offer few or no dual credit courses.

And whether a school offers dual credit courses is often dependent on teacher recruitment, training and retainment and the resources districts’ and high schools’ leadership place into the programs, The Connecticut Mirror found in an analysis of data from UConn’s Early College Experience over the last 10 years and interviews with leaders of some traditional public high schools.

The analysis did not include magnet, charter or technical schools, because Connecticut choice schools have limited admission slots and often have targeted academic approaches or themes.

The analysis found that suburban towns generally have averaged more course offerings compared to rural and urban districts, which often struggle with high staffing turnover. Because most high school teachers have to undergo additional training or higher education coursework when they want to teach ECE classes, the expertise and course goes with the teacher, unless there are multiple teachers approved to teach the same course.

“Once an instructor is approved by UConn, they, as the instructor, are now an official affiliate of the University’s department. So if they were to move schools, it doesn’t change their ability to offer the UConn ECE course, it would change their site that they would be designated,” Todd said. “For some of our districts, it’s the turnover of teachers that creates challenges for sustainability of the program or course offerings.”

Educators used to be required to have a master’s degree in a subject, but UConn has since developed more pathways to open ECE certification up to more applicants, especially if they only have general education degrees.

Veteran teachers are more likely to pursue the certification because through their teaching experience, they’ve developed an “expertise in a subject matter,” and now wish to expand the scope of their teaching matter, said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state.

“If you have a high turnover in your district, you’ll have fewer people that you can tap into, and you might find yourself in a space where you’re just trying to get the basics met. With high turnover, there’s always new people and never getting to the point where you can develop them so they can offer college-level courses,” Dias said. “There’s multiple ways that this plays out, and that’s where you are talking about equity of opportunity.”

Staff stability can widen opportunity gaps

Even within similarly-sized districts that face some of the same issues or have similar demographics, the CT Mirror found that teacher certifications and the leadership of a school or district can make all the difference.

Major urban districts like Hartford and Waterbury are home to three traditional public high schools each.

Hartford Public Schools, which educates nearly 17,000 students across the district, teaches just over 2,000 students across its three traditional high schools because of its high number of choice-school programs. Of those 2,000 students, 84% qualify for free or reduced lunch and the majority of students of color, with less than 3% of students’ identifying as white.

Waterbury educates a total of almost 19,000 students, with about 4,000 of those spread across the district’s three public high schools. Around 83% qualify for free or reduced lunch and less than 8% of students’ identify as white.

In Hartford, two high schools didn’t offer any ECE courses in the 2023-24 school year. One campus offered three classes. In Waterbury, meanwhile, the lowest number of courses offered at one of its campuses that school year was three, but at its other two schools they ranged between 10 and 14.

Leadership stability is a major factor in why some schools’ programs are more successful than others, educators said.

“It’s really important to recognize that some district leadership have preferences to engage in partnerships with other higher ed institutions. Some of it is just building leadership preference, … a building principal could come in and totally rearrange what the pathway is for students in terms of dual credit opportunities. They could say, ‘We’re going to double down on AP and AP is going to be the primary thing we add in,’” Todd said. “The problem starts to become if you have a lot of leadership transitions, you’re sort of ping pong back and forth between those things.”

For example, Bulkeley High School in Hartford had five principal changes between 2014-15 and 2023-24. The school once offered seven dual enrollment opportunities with UConn but now has zero.

In contrast, John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury only had one principal in the same timeframe and saw their UConn ECE courses grow from three to 10.

The vision of the people in these positions also impacts long-term planning and school climate.

Once certified, the workload generally increases for ECE educators, Dias said, adding that it makes a difference when the teacher feels valued at their school. Feeling like an asset in the building is what drives an educator to undergo additional training, but also stay in a district long-term, Dias said.

“Teachers tend to leave when they feel not valued and they feel like their voice is lost. … There are spaces and there are people who never leave some of the most difficult teaching environments, (because of) building level leadership and the idea of ‘We’re all in this together,’ and when there’s opportunities for teachers to be leaders from their classrooms,” Dias said.

Data from UConn shows districts like Southington, East Lyme and Waterbury have built up the number of ECE-certified staff considerably over the last decade.

Southington saw an increase from six to 19 certified ECE educators. East Lyme increased its lineup from three to 16, and Waterbury had 31 certified ECE staff across its three high schools in 2023-24, with 15 at Crosby High School.

Southington High School educates nearly 2,000 students, with less than 20% of students of color and about 20% qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Wallingford Public Schools, shares similar demographics, except spread among two campuses: Lyman Hall and Mark Sheehan.

While Southington has seen an increase of 10 courses in the last 10 years (from seven to 17), Wallingford’s high schools have netted a four-course decrease between the two campuses.

Similarly, rural districts East Lyme and New Milford have high school student bodies between 950 and 1,300, a majority of whom are white (over 70%) and with about 20% to 30% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.

East Lyme however offers 15 UConn ECE courses, up from four in 2014-15. New Milford has remained at zero for the last decade.

And even when staff is certified to teach dual credit courses, it doesn’t mean their skills are being utilized.

For example, only three of eight certified staff across Bulkeley, Hartford Public and Weaver high schools in Hartford actually taught ECE courses in 2023-24.

“It’s been a really interesting conversation because (some districts) want to add all these new courses, but then at the same time, you have to have that conversation with them and to say, ‘Look, you’ve got five or six certified instructors at your school that currently aren’t teaching the course that they’re certified to teach,'” Todd said. “Part of that growth conversation also has to be ‘You already have a pool of instructors ready to go. So how do we get their classes going?’”

The underutilization of teachers with these certifications can lead to retention issues.

“It is disincentivizing (for a district to say) ‘We want you to get certified to teach these courses,’ and then don’t offer them,” Dias said, noting that those teachers may seek an opportunity to use those skills they’ve learned elsewhere.

“That’s where you start to build a whole cadre of haves and have-nots. If we’re not able to offer these courses, and my teachers, who are skilled to offer them leave, then you end up in a vicious cycle,” Dias added.

“I think that there’s an incredible opportunity to talk about how we’re certifying people to take on these roles, how we’re supporting them, how we’re incentivizing them to do this work, recognizing that it is, in fact, more work and how are we following through to make sure the courses happen,” Dias said.

Staff turnover was likely the case at a school like Bulkeley in Hartford, that had offered seven courses in 2014-15, but 10 years later, didn’t have a single section, Todd said.

“A lot of (offerings depend on) teachers. A lot of it is that if certified instructors leave, [leadership] may or may not be pushing to get somebody in the department to get certified to replace that person, or there wasn’t an intentional long-term approach,” Todd said.

Where districts would historically only send one or two teachers to receive their ECE certification, long-term planning now means certifying multiple educators in the same discipline to maintain offerings regardless of attrition.

“We have schools that are getting more strategic about having multiple instructors certified so that they can ensure continuity of course offering just given the turnover that’s happening in a lot of our partner schools,” Todd said.

In a district like Southington, Amy Zappone, the director of teaching and learning, said they’re often looking at their existing staff and trying to find if there’s multiple people who can apply “to have them on backup.”

“Sometimes there may be two teachers teaching a course, so even if one left, we can still maintain it,” Zappone said.

Challenges unique to certain districts

Some staffing challenges, however, are more unique to the type of district and region the town is in.

Urban districts are more prone to high turnover and low retention, because of growing student populations (particularly students with high needs), limited staff, extensive workloads and funding challenges.

“If you have a more transient staffing community like Hartford, then you have to start all over from scratch the next year or wait until we get another staff member,” said Tracy Avicolli, the director of secondary teaching and learning at Hartford Public Schools.

Without stability in staffing, the focus of these schools becomes rooted in providing equitable core classes across campuses before opening new sections.

“Our kids just want the same experiences that all kids have. At the end of the day, they just want what the kids in Glastonbury have, what the kids in Simsbury have, and in many cases we just aren’t there. … While we have University High School of Science and Engineering and Classical High School Magnet School — some that do offer more of our ECE courses — some of our comprehensives are still possibly not able to offer as many because of staffing issues that we have. We have to make sure that we get our kids credited and offering our core courses takes priority,” Avicolli said. “We’re focused on what exactly the core curriculum is to make sure that it’s rigorous, it’s consistent and that teachers are feeling confident and supported in that core content.”

“When you have a school that is stressed staffing-wise, those are the programs that are the first to go because we have to have our basic needs met,” Dias said.

In some rural districts, outreach and information about different or new opportunities can be a challenge both in and out of their schools.

At a school like New Milford High School, which hasn’t offered ECE courses in at least 10 years, building up a dual credit program starts with staff, said Principal Raymond Manka said, who joined the district from Stamford in 2021.

New Milford High School used to partner largely with Western Connecticut State University, but those classes fizzled out with retirements, Manka said.

“Some of the challenges that existed previously had to do with having too few staff members holding the keys to the opportunities, and then when those teachers leave, and you don’t have anybody behind them who are certified then to take over the reins,” Manka said, adding that he plans to build up more dual credit opportunities.

“We’ve been moving slowly but responsibly, to inform and develop our staff about what ECE programming is,” Manka said. “Whenever you’re talking about introducing something new, you have to go slow to go fast and you have to look at an effective and clear communication plan. All stakeholders need to know what’s going on, that means that my teachers have to know what ECE is, what it stands for and even if you’re one of the 20 teachers who are teaching ECE, I still have 80 other teachers and I need them to know what ECE is. ‘This is what our school is doing. This is what our school believes.’”

For both urban and rural schools, course expansion may also be a budget issue.

A district like Hartford is home to 11 high schools when choice-schools like magnet and charters are counted, which means the district can have small populations spread across each of their buildings. At the three traditional high schools, the student body ranges between 550 to 700 students.

Rural districts generally have smaller schools as well.

Without established dual credit courses, these small schools may struggle with class enrollment, especially if it’s a first-time offering and may be intimidating.

“Just because you offer (the courses), if the kids don’t know what it is, or if they’re bewildered, or if they’re scared, they’re not going to sign up for the course,” Manka said.

Sometimes only a handful of students sign up to take a new class offering. In districts with already limited staffing, it’s hard to justify running a course with small interest, even if it could pay off later down the road.

“It’s a big ask and it’s a big expense to take full-time educators and run a class with only five or six students, but at a certain point, you have to start to build the momentum. It’s hard to recruit students to a class that they’d never seen or don’t have siblings or don’t have older peer group friends that have taken the class,” Todd said. “A lot of the courses that we chose to take with certain teachers were because we had a friend who told us that it was a great class. And so getting our partner schools to say, ‘Look, this is a long-term investment, you may have a couple of years where you have low enrollment, but that low enrollment is going to build momentum.'”

Even in schools with high student interest, already stretched funding or staffing can be a deterrent for any additional certification a teacher may need.

“We’ve increased our number of courses because of the number of students who want to take them,” said  Nyree Toucet, the director of college and career readiness in Waterbury. “(A problem is) the number of sections of dual enrollment courses, because we have so many students who want to take them, but do we have the number of certified teachers to be able to teach them?”

Last year, the state Department of Education started a grant program for dual credit expansion that schools could apply for and receive additional funds to get staff trained. UConn also provides reduced fees for educators who may need to go back and take more classes to have the equivalent credentials to teach college-level courses at a high school. These initiatives have eased the financial burden, but Dias also said there’s a “barrier of time.”

Some teachers are “already under the gun,” and working multiple jobs, Dias said, adding that the likelihood for them of them taking more courses is “just not happening.”

“It begs the question of how do we incentivize people to take on these roles and how do we encourage them to stay to do them? It’s a really powerful conversation that I’m just not sure a whole lot of people are really having at this point,” Dias said.

Similar approaches

Even with districts’ differing approaches to dual credit offerings, there’s a general consensus about working toward providing opportunities that will open more doors for success post-high school.

“When you’re talking with students, you help them to be able to dream bigger than what they’ve ever imagined, and to also believe in the power of being themselves…. Perseverance is very important. I think it takes everybody working towards that, the school counselors, individual teachers to be able to tap into students talents that they may not even recognize,” said former Waterbury Superintendent Verna Ruffin. “There’s an increase in the number of students that are interested in post secondary ed because they see an opportunity and they see an open door that they can walk into with support.”

“It’s really important to give kids the opportunity while they’re young to experience different content. I think it’s very hard for kids to choose a career at such a young age, and so being able to provide opportunities in a variety of different areas helps students to focus and narrow what they feel is a strong interest that they’re going to want to pursue outside of high school,” said Wallingford Superintendent Carrie LaTorre.

How that looks is similar among districts, with a strong emphasis on student feedback for course offerings and using similar methods, like staff recommendations, course fairs and easily-accessible programs of studies, to target students for more rigorous course work.

“We try to be really mindful, as we’ve added classes, that we choose things that are as accessible to as many kids as possible,” said East Lyme High School Principal Deborah Kelly. “With collaborative work with the counseling department, we’re understanding what kids need, that we’re offering it in a way that supports them, and that we’re using the same language when we have those conversations so we’re not guiding kids into classes where they don’t necessarily need to be or want to be. But by expanding those offerings and having those conversations, it makes kids aware of what we have, then when they sign up for it, it’s not just ticking a box for them. I think it’s meaningful for them to take these classes.”

Jessika Harkay is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.