Sport and Medical Sciences Teacher Anne Nguyen is the 2011 National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship Teacher of the Year.  She extols the enterprise and ingenuity of her students.

At this week's Board of Education Meeting, the District announced national honors given at the school, teacher, and administrator levels in Hartford and brought forward 20 student winners of the District-wide Academic Competition - and their parents and coaches - to receive personal congratulations.

Here is a summary of these national and student honors:

Hartford Magnet Middle School this week was given the top national award from the Magnet Schools of America (MSA), citing it as the best magnet school in the United States.  Chosen from 57 schools of excellence from around the country, HMMS becomes the first Hartford - and the first Connecticut - school to be so honored.  Here is the Fox CT News broadcast on the award.  

This is truly a unique distinction: only one magnet school among the roughly 6,000 in the country is selected for the Dr. Ronald P. Simpson Distinguished Merit Award, which is given to the school that most exemplifies a commitment to diversity, high academic standards, and curriculum innovation.  HMMS Principal Sally Ann Biggs accepted the award - and a $5,000 cash prize for the school - at the MSA's conference in Indianapolis. 

In related action, the Board voted 5-0, with Board Member Robert Cotto, Jr., abstaining (and Board Members Israel Flores, Ada Miranda, and Luis Rodríguez-Dávila absent), to approve a new "early college" model for HMMS.   

The plan calls for the school to enter a co-management agreement with Trinity College and to grow over time from its present Grade 6-8 configuration to a 6-12 format.  The Board action this week will enable the launch this summer of a pre-9^th Grade writing and study skills program for this new grade to be added in the fall.  The plan is for HMMS to now become the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy, in which qualified students can take college courses at Trinity before they graduate.  Dr. Adamowski called the concept "the first of its kind in the nation at a school that is a junior-Ivy."   

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In another first for Connecticut, Hartford Chief Academic Officer Penny McCormack has become one of the four public sector leaders selected to participate in the 2011-12 Broad National Superintendents' Academy.  This academy is recognized as the gold standard for urban superintendents - and Dr. McCormack is the academy's first district administrator from a school district with an under-100,000 student enrollment.

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Sport and Medical Sciences Teacher Anne Nguyen has been selected as the 2011 Teacher of the Year by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship; her marketing students have won national honors and college scholarships for a web-based business they have launched.

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The citywide student champions of the Hartford Academic Competition, in Grades 3 through 8.  Noah Webster MicroSociety Magnet School students took home the prizes for both Grade 3 Vocabulary and Grade 8 Writing and Recitation.  

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Trinity College Secretary William Reynolds, hearing the award announcements and initiatives discussed Tuesday night, told the Board that "Sitting through a meeting like this one tonight, Hartford is a city on the move - and it's pretty damned impressive."   

We couldn't agree more - and we send along our heartfelt congratulations to all of these educators, students, and parents. 

Teacher Support Program Deadline is May 31   

Chief of Staff, Four New Principals Named 

On Tuesday evening, the Hartford Board of Education voted 6-0 to approve the appointment of Chief Operating Officer Alex Nardone to become the District's Chief of Staff.  In the same vote, the Board ratified the appointments of four new school principals.

As part of her reduced Cabinet, Superintendent-designate Christina Kishimoto explained to the Board, Dr. Nardone will apply his experience to the important task of monitoring the progress of the District's Strategic Operating Plan indicators.  Dr. Nardone, a former deputy superintendent in West Hartford, has been a cabinet member for three years.

The four new principals who were named are:

·        Stacy Chambers for McDonough School; Dr. Chambers served this year as a Travelers Leadership Academy Resident Principal under the mentorship of Supervisory Principal Sally Biggs at Hartford Magnet Middle School;

·        Martin Folan for University High School of Science and Engineering; he will succeed Dr. Elizabeth Colli at after serving as the school's program dean (and more than a dozen School Governance Council members attended and stood to applaud him Tuesday night):

·        Sylvia Hall for America's Choice at SAND; Dr. Hall is a charter school principal who hails from Miami and has three years of America's Choice background;

·        Darren Schwartz for Moylan School; Working under Leadership Coach Tom Faniel, he has created useful protocols for addressing behavioral issues.  According to Mr. Faniel, the Intervention Resource Specialist "will deliver the theme, no exceptions, no excuses."

This is an impressive list of new principals.  We wish them well - and believe their appointments have been strengthened by School Governance Council and other parent input into the selection process. 

It is heartening that the District is seeing signs of increased public involvement lately, such as the strong parent attendance at the recent District-wide Academic Competition events. 

We are so pleased to see this, because for school reform in Hartford to be sustained, parent involvement is crucial.  Indeed, both family responsibility for education and strong leaders directing every school are among the fundamental goals of Achieve Hartford's Theory of Reform. 

In that vein, as part of our comments to the Board May 17^th, we reviewed two critical areas of parent involvement: the recent Choice process and the efficacy of the SGCs. 

We are hopeful that the upward trajectory of parent engagement will continue - and committed to lending ongoing support to the cause, because parent engagement is both integral to maintaining the momentum of reform and accelerating it in the future.

Saving the Best for Last: Weaver Senior Academy Class of 2011 

Weaver Senior Academy's once and future alumni, from left: Terrence Newtondaley, Shavaughn Bailey, Principal Sherlye Jackson, Meadeshia Mitchell, Michael Madden, and Shadae Sweeney

Sherlye Jackson graduated from Weaver High School in 1975, went to college in Boston, and now, as the principal of Weaver Senior Academy, is shepherding its 2011 class toward graduation June 14^th.   

The theme for the class yearbook is "Saving the Best for Last," and Principal Jackson agrees with that sentiment, based on the accomplishments of her seniors.  Here is a sampling:

·        Shavaugn Bailey is headed for Southern Connecticut State University to major in Business and Accounting.  With his family originally from Jamaica, he has appreciated the different cultures represented in the academy.  He says he didn't really take school seriously until a 4^th grade math teacher got hold of him and directed him to use his talent - after persuading him that he possessed it.

·        Michael Madden will enter Howard University in the fall, planning to major in psychology and hoping to become an orthodontist.  At Weaver, he reflects, there is a quality of unity among the 138 seniors and their teachers that he will miss.  It's like a little community; a family, he says.

·        Meadeshia Mitchell faced a life-threatening illness at age 12 and, recuperating, then made a decision to become a surgeon.  Her family and her teachers have instilled in her the attitude that anyone can accomplish what they want.  "Just do what you want to do," she says.  She runs middle-distance track and will go next to a post-grad year at Loomis Chaffee School, then to Williams College. 

·        Terrence Newtondaley is of Canadian descent and is returning to study nursing at Cégep Vanier College in Montreal.  At Weaver, he says, the teachers have provided tremendous support, treated him with respect, and in that way helped him to gain self respect.  After he got an "F" in freshman year, he says, his teachers helped him see that life is not a game, but requires focused effort.

·        Shadae Sweeney faced blindness and learned Braille when she was younger.  Having recovered, she is planning to volunteer to read for the blind - and is going to enter UConn, with plans to become a pediatrician.  Stereotypes might have it that Weaver students are violent and don't use their brains, she says, but, "Look around: It's quiet here.  We're working."

These Weaver Senior Academy students, soon to join their principal as alumni, have a bittersweet feeling about leaving.  But they also have a true appreciation for the high expectations and supportive atmosphere they found in their small school, where, as Shadae says, "teachers will hunt you down" and find out about any overdue work or underachievement.

We hope that in its next phase, Weaver keeps these qualities forever.

Renovation Steering Committee Announced

To help prepare for the next phase of the historic high school, Superintendent Steven Adamowski this week announced the formation of an 18-member Renovation Steering Committee designed to elicit multi-level public input on the planned updating of the building and programs at Weaver by 2016. 

The school opened on Blue Hills Avenue in 1924, moved to its Granby Street site in the 1970s, and, given the difficulties there, has been the focus of efforts to physically and programmatically redesign it; the initial plan is for it to keep its name as well as its Culinary Academy and perhaps add two new college prep models in collaboration with the University of Hartford.

The new steering committee will be co-chaired by Weaver PTO President Precious Ross-Ellis and District Director of School Design Kevin McCaskill, and will include State Rep. Douglas McCrory as well as students, parents, teachers, principals, and leaders of the Blue Hills Civic Association and North Hartford Education Task Force.  Please see the Courant article for details.

What Is an Intervention Resource Specialist . . . and Who Are the Three to Consecutively Move from that Position to Become Hartford School Principals?

This versatile position was designed by former Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education James Thompson to support teacher and principal effectiveness across the full spectrum of emergent and complicated situations in schools. On a given day, that spectrum can be very broad - and can require real-time and wide-ranging skill sets, encompassing crisis management, professional and curriculum development, instruction, and data analysis.  With its on-the-job training, according to Dr. Thompson, the position was envisioned by Superintendent Steven Adamowski as a pathway to the principalship.   

The past three Intervention Resource Specialists for the Hartford Schools became, respectively, past Principal Desi Nesmith at America's Choice at SAND School, Principal Brenda Greene at Batchelder Elementary School, and, as of this past Tuesday night, Principal Darren Schwartz for Moylan School.  All three "graduated" to become principals after sharpening their skills during their intensive work as Intervention Resource Specialists.

A Community Conversation Engaging the Greater Hartford Community and Citizens on the Topic of Education, 5:30 p.m., Friday, May 20, 2011, at Capital Preparatory Magnet School, 1304 Main Street; followed by a Scholarship and Community Recognition Reception at 7 p.m.  This event is sponsored by the Hartford Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.  For more information, please call Cheryl Hickmon at 917-328-7931 or email htfdalumpres@aol.com.

Application Deadline May 31, 2011: The Achieve Hartford! Teacher Support Program, helping teachers with innovative approaches to build literacy skills in Grades K-8; please click here for more information.

North Hartford Education Task Force Meetings on the Timeline on Redesign for Weaver High School and Other School Redesign Projects in North Hartford, 6 p.m., Thursday, May 19, 2011 at Weaver High School, 415 Granby Street; and 10 a.m., Saturday, May 21 at Parker Memorial Center, 2621 Main Street, sponsored by the Blue Hills Civic Association.

The Hartford Votes ~ Hartford Vota Coalition Mayoral Candidate Forum, light refreshments at 5:30 p.m., forum at 6 p.m., Wednesday June 8, 2011; at the Hartford Public Library, 500 Main Street.  This is the first in a series of forums where the public will have an opportunity to meet the declared candidates.