Latest news with #HartfordBoardofEducation
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
100 jobs, middle schools sports targeted for cuts in Hartford schools due to $6.7M budget gap
During an emotionally fraught Hartford Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, a handful of parents, students and educators pleaded with board members to demand the city give more money to the reeling school district that is facing a $6.7 million budget deficit. More than 130 Hartford Public Schools staff members, including some teachers, are facing pink slips at the end of the school year if the district can't find a way to close the nearly $7 million budget gap, a task that advocates say is impossible without additional funding from the city. The board on Tuesday approved the district's $452 million balanced budget for the next school year, while making an unprecedented appeal directly to the city by adding a resolution asking for funds to help close the $6.7 million funding gap. The budget vote included several cuts to middle school athletic programming, security guard positions, student support and success centers, and on-track graduation programs. while also attaching a resolution that formally requests the city to 'identify an additional appropriation' for $6.7 million to fund its programs. The district, which was facing a $30 million budget deficit earlier this year, already made several reductions and realignments at their central office totaling around $15 million, according to Hartford Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez. Those reductions, along with an expected $5 million in additional state funding, have brought the budget deficit down to $6.7 million. The district expects around $3 million from the City of Hartford. Among the challenges facing the city's school system are ballooning operating costs, including tuition and special education funding, a decline in student enrollment, loss of federal funds and continued flat funding on the city level for necessitating the cuts. The city continues to flat fund Hartford Public Schools on education spending. Hartford allocates $284 million, which represents a zero increase over the last decade despite rising costs. Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam has previously contended the majority of district funding comes from the state. Also at issue is a decline in student enrollment between Hartford Public Schools and the Capitol Region Education Council or CREC, which operates interdistrict magnet schools that draw interested students by lottery from Hartford and the surrounding suburbs. Torres-Rodriguez has said that the district has seen increased enrollment of Hartford students at CREC schools, which has added to costs. The district must pay tuition for Hartford students who enroll at CREC schools and also loses funding due to decreased enrollment figures within the district. Since the 2016-17 school year, enrollment across the district has decreased by more than 4,000 students. The largest decrease in enrollment came during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with a loss of more than 1,100 students during the 2020-21 school year. Since 2010, the district has seen a 21% decrease in enrollment and a 197% increase in magnet and open choice tuition costs, according to the district. The district said that under the current plan, Hope Academy, a program that offers small class sizes for students who need support in staying on track for graduation, would lose more than half of its funding. The city's Opportunity Academy, a school which serves approximately 155 students in grades 9 through 12 through project-based learning, would be eliminated. 'It's hard to fathom the lasting impact of additional cuts to our public school system. Over the last 11 years of flat funding from the state of Connecticut and the city of Hartford, the district has mitigated almost $144 million in budget reductions, eliminating 644 positions to adopt balanced budgets,' said Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez. 'We've closed schools and consolidated programs, and we've lost many talented educators because the district did not have competitive compensation. We were able to bring back some essentials, including middle school sports or student support and success centers that are community priorities. But now we are on the brink of closing down those programs as well in order to balance next year's budget,' she said. Carol Gale, president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers, said that if the cuts go ahead they will have a negative impact on student learning and growth. The Hartford Federation of Teachers said the district has already cut 194 employee union positions over the last few years. 'Our students are taking the hit of losing 134 staff members in order to reduce an already $30 million deficit to the current $6.7 million deficit,' said Gale. 'For our students, this means higher class sizes, less course offerings, less support, less enrichment, and less opportunities. Further cuts only exacerbate the losses.' Stephen Underwood can be reached at sunderwood@
Al Bawaba
05-03-2025
- Al Bawaba
A Diploma without literacy? US student sues her high school
Published March 4th, 2025 - 11:34 GMT ALBAWABA - A 19-year-old student named Alicia Ortiz has made news after disclosing that, despite graduating with high honors, the school system has not given her the help she needs, leaving her unable to read or write. Also Read Ramadan huge crescent stolen in Jordan, sparking public outrage At a Hartford City Council meeting in May 2024, Ortiz, who was awarded a scholarship after graduating high school, told her tale, highlighting the stark deficiencies in special education programs. Since then, her story has spurred discussion about accountability and pedagogical negligence in the American educational system. Knowing that she still lacked fundamental reading skills, Alicia felt anxious before graduating, in contrast to most students who experience joy. "I've been in school for 12 years—now it's my time," she said when school authorities offered her an extended education program to help her develop her abilities just two days before she was about to graduate. Alicia has filed a lawsuit against the Hartford Board of Education and the City of Hartford, claiming that they have failed to offer sufficient learning assistance, after years of neglect. Tilda Santiago, the director of special education, is also named in the case, which claims that she suffered mental anguish as a result of inadequate support. — Notifactor4 (@factor4noticias) March 4, 2025 The case has heightened conversations about the shortcomings of special education programs and the need for systemic change, even if municipal authorities have declined to comment. Alicia was born in Puerto Rico, but her mother, Carmen Cruz, brought her to Connecticut when she was five years old in the hopes that she would have better educational assistance. She still suffered from unidentified learning disabilities, however. She received diagnoses for speech difficulties, anxiety disorders, ADHD, and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) throughout the years. She was also recently diagnosed with dyslexia, which made reading and writing much more difficult for her. Alicia's lawsuit aims to bring justice to kids who are going through similar difficulties. She wants to make sure that other kids with learning challenges get the help they need and hold school administrators responsible. Her story has rekindled conversations about special needs assistance, educational fairness, and the pressing changes required to avoid future occurrences of this kind. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
