Milner School Principal Karen Lott has six years' experience - including as a turnaround leader in New Haven - as a school principal. Her vision for this long-troubled Vine Street school now is a point of clarity after the recent, chaotic and sad demise of the State-and-District FUSE/Jumoke relationship, so promising at one time. At Milner now, Principal Lott says, "It's about providing parents and students with a place that leaves their dignity intact."

If you are one of a dozen colleagues (not a jury!) going into a room for eight hours of analyzing legal, policy, and community issues, standing up for your beliefs (and standing down from your biases), it's going to be a long day. In the name of figuring how to work together for Hartford children, that's what happened yesterday with the Hartford Board of Education and its new superintendent.