An attempted air-clearing meeting between top school officials and their most vocal critics backfired into a new round of recriminations.
In a city with a muted public discourse about the Board of Education (BOE), the occasional criticisms of an advocacy group called ConnCAN (Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now) have stood out. Mayor John DeStefano (pictured with schools chief Reggie Mayo) and his appointees on the school board have attacked the group for its criticisms. The two sides met on Nov. 29 with the aim of airing differences and moving forward — then emerged as divided as ever, with starkly different accounts of what happened.
City officials resumed attacks on the group. ConnCAN’s board chair called the mayor and school officials more interested in “happy talk” than “straight talk” about the state of public education.
Click here for an earlier story on the dispute, which centers on accountability and performance of the public schools.
At Monday night’s Board of Ed Meeting, Mayor DeStefano, Chairman Brian Perkins, and Superintendent Mayo offered their version of the Nov. 29 meeting with members of ConnCAN’s board headed by Jonathan Sackler. Sackler and other ConnCAN members did not attend Monday’s board meeting.
The aim of the Nov. 29 get-together, according to the mayor, was to ask ConnCAN to temper what is perceived as public-school bashing on a wide range of issues, such as the slow pace of closing the achievement gap. DeStefano said he went to protest what the BOE considers inaccurate data showing off the success of charters and under-appreciating the NHPS’s student achievements. He said he asked ConnCAN demonstrate that it is not simply a pro-charter school organization by accepting a mayor, a superintendent, and a board of ed chair from a public school district — and DeStefano, Perkins, and Mayo volunteered — to be on the board.
Their offer of service was not accepted by ConnCAN.
The Board of Ed’s Side
Here are some excerpts from the transcript of the lively BOE discussion on the subject Monday night:
Mayo: “It was a very disappointing meeting. Their leadership had an opportunity to pledge to stop this bashing, and they didn’t seize it …They as much as admitted they were less about closing the achievement gap, and more pro-charter.”
Perkins: “This board is not hostile to charter schools. But ConnCAN is really an interest group focused on pitting charter against non-charter when we are both public. Their agenda is unfair, full of disingenuous information. There are countless children let go from charters for behavior issues.”
Ann Levett:“ That’s right. The playing field is not equal. We do not and cannot let children go for behavioral reasons. I’m happy for this discussion, and we must publicize this.”
Michael Nast: “Data about students coming back to us from the charters and the 2500 special ed kids and the English language learners we have that affect test scores… these kind of data need to be better known.”
DeStefano: “Look, the record of charters in New Haven and nationally is inconsistent. Why is the talk always comparing New Haven? Because we have here Amistad, a highly funded charter, and, to make their case, to compare to us, they need us, to bash us to make their point.”
Perkins: “We’ve received many awards in our system, and we need to call for responsible reporting of it… And I feel that board’s [ConnCAN’s] leadership is not legitimate. As the mayor says they don’t meet regularly…”
DeStefano: “There’s a lot at stake. Funding is at stake. When charter funding is increased, it is at the expense recently of the fine magnet schools… Well, I’m not sure where it’s going to go next. We wrote a letter to them after the meeting, but haven’t yet heard back.”
Here are excerpts from that letter:
“Dear ConnCAN Director and Advisory Board…
“I remain concerned about ConnCAN’s using inaccurate information… We have been disappointed over the past year by several disparaging comments made by members of ConnCAN staff regarding public schools in general and NHPS in particular… your refusal to acknowledge our concerns is disheartening… We would like a commitment in writing that ConnCAN will cease to make disparaging comments about the public school system. The City is prepared to make a similar pledge. …
“From the organization’s continued reliance on problematic and incomplete data to illustrate and manipulate a conclusion that charters outperform traditional schools to ConnCAN’s actions lobbying the legislature for funding shifts from public schools to privately run charters, it has become clear the organization has never served its stated mission… If you are truly committed to improving the state of public education, why are there no public school superintendents, board presidents or chief elected officials on your 45-member Board?”
ConnCAN’s Side
For his part ConnCAN’s Jonathan Sackler wrote the following to his board about the meeting.
“Dear Friends …
“The mayor presented his views in a very aggressive manner, questioning both ConnCAN’s legitimacy as an organization, the quality of its work, and its motives… They requested that ConnCAN refrain from ‘denigrating’ New Haven public schools, and that we fire or at least muzzle [staffers] Alex Johnston and Marc Magee… They alleged our reports are cooked up, and that public funding for charter schools comes at the expense of the ‘real’ public schools… They went on to complain that the board could not fairly represent the interests of public education since it does not include elected officials or school administrators…
“Many attempts were made to clear the air about our mission, motives, and record, and in every case these attempts were angrily dismissed by the mayor. In fact, the more reasoned the discussion from our side, the angrier and more aggressive he became. It was clear that the mayor is not prepared to be dissuaded from his views for reasons of his own…
“Whatever the source of the mayor’s desire to generate a conflict with ConnCAN, that’s not our mission. Our mission is to make great public schools available to all children in the state of Connecticut…
“With the nation’s largest achievement gap, we will continue to do this in an appropriate and factual manner — straight talk… Although this part of our work may be uncomfortable for some who are accustomed to managing public opinion with ‘happy talk,’ we believe straight talk is essential if the state is going to come to grips with this urgent problem….
“Unfortunately, any constructive partnership with Mayor DeStefano and his colleagues appears infeasible for the time being, but we certainly remain open to this possibility as we move forward and continue to pursue our advocacy efforts statewide.”
Alex Johnston, executive director of ConnCAN, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t comment on the BOE meeting.
He did defend his group’s approach: “In the success stories we tell there are lots of public schools including New Haven schools. Troup Middle, for example, has one of the highest Hispanic achievement rates in the state. Rubbing people the wrong way is not our intention, but unfortunately sometimes that happens. But we continue to be open to partnerships everywhere as we focus on our work statewide.”