Bartlett Ascends

Jason Bartlett’s stock in City Hall is rising, with a $20,000 raise and a new portfolio: Mayor Toni Harp’s top aide in the effort to push the Board of Education to improve the schools, fast.

Bartlett (pictured) served Harp’s as campaign manager two years ago, a position that often leads to a top City Hall job such as chief of staff.

Instead Bartlett settled after the election into what’s normally a low-profile City Hall post: director of youth services. The position doesn’t even report to the mayor. It reports to one of four ​“coordinators.”

From the start, though, Harp has turned to Bartlett to lead emergency projects, pull together government agencies and outside groups, and if necessary step on toes. In the process Bartlett has raised the job’s profile, to the point where he is one of City Hall’s top and most controversial figures, and rising — whatever his title.

Bartlett organized a citywide canvas of at-risk young people and a ​“My Brother’s Keeper” mentoring initiative in the wake of a spate of 2014 murders. He led a successful administration effort to snag a $1 million federal ​“Byrne” grant to combat violence in Newhallville — then clashed with some neighborhood groups over how to spend it. He put together a plan for a 30,000 square-foot teen drop-in and homeless center called ​“The Escape.” Along with the Board of Ed’s Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, he has co-led Harp’s marquee policy initiative, ​“Youth Stat,” bringing together teachers, cops, parole and probation officers, and mental health workers to intervene in the lives of students falling into trouble. Participants say it has saved lives already. He pulled together two summer ​“Hoop It Up” tournaments that brought hundreds of young people to basketball courts placed on Church Street.

Now, in the wake of a fresh round of rock-bottom ​“Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium” (SBAC) standardized-test scores, Harp turned to Bartlett to help light a fire under the Board of Education. The result was Harp’s controversial move to assume the presidency of the Board of Education and then issue a 10-point plan to produce quick improvements. The demands include finding money within a month to start Saturday reading academies for third-to-sixth graders at the four lowest-performing elementary schools.

Harp has designated Bartlett to serve as her liaison in that effort — i.e. the person deputized by the mayor to demand results and break some figurative bones if necessary. Already Bartlett has turned up the heat at 54 Meadow St.

The mayor requested that he receive a raise in his annual salary from $85,000 to $105,000. The personnel department approved the raise on Aug. 18, retroactive to July 1, according to city human resources chief Stephen Librandi. Because the raise falls within approved job categories, it didn’t require outside approval, Librandi said.

Mayor Harp said Thursday that Bartlett’s increased responsibilities, including attending Board of Ed subcommittee meetings to reaching out to ​“disengaged youth,” go far beyond his original job description and require longer work hours. Hence the raise.

Bartlett, 49, brings years of both wonky policy experience and bare-knuckles political experience to the post. As a state representative he co-sponsored school-reform legislation. He has managed the campaigns of a Republican secretary of the state candidate (Andrea Scott), a Democratic primary secretary of state candidate (Gerry Garcia), and three Democratic New Haven mayoral candidates (Harp, Martin Looney, James Newton).

It was widely believed that Bartlett played a key role in an ultimately unsuccessful challenge to Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn this September, after Clyburn publicly clashed with Bartlett over the Byrne grant. Bartlett publicly denied supporting Clyburn’s challenger; Mayor Harp publicly supported Clyburn.

“I felt like I was running against Jason,” not the official candidate, Clyburn said Friday. ​“The way he tried to split this neighborhood — I wouldn’t trust him in his new role.”

Mayor Harp acknowledged the controversy surrounding Bartlett when she spoke at a Sept. 8 announcement of the pending ​“Escape” teen drop-in center.

“Everybody in this room has complained to me about Jason,” she said, eliciting knowing chuckles. Bartlett ​“breaks the rules” to make projects happen that ​“older” people like herself sometimes believe can’t happen, Harp said — like the Escape project, which brought together dozens of agencies around town. She said she’s glad he sometimes breaks rules of convention to get things done, she said.

It was official: Bartlett has Harp’s blessing to play the administration’s role of the ​“bad guy” who’ll push hard to make big, difficult initiatives happen.

“I have my foot on the gas pedal,” Bartlett said, ​“and sometimes it hits people’s necks.”

Bartlett spoke at length about the thinking behind the Harp administration’s new school-improvement drive — and the urgent directives being placed before school officials, up to the superintendent — during an interview on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.

Edited excerpts from the interview follow. An audio file with the full interview appears at the bottom of this article.

Time To Take A Risk

Bartlett: Look. This is an opportunity for her to lead in an area that she cares deeply about. When she was a legislator, she and I both worked on education reform issues. We shared that passion. She knows that that’s been a passion of mine, making sure that our public schools are actually educating our kids and closing the achievement gap. I think there’s been a lot of discussion throughout New Haven in terms of education.

The mayor’s been on the Board of Education for a year. She’s had time to digest the various issues from that perspective. …. She just saw this as a transition period where she could really infuse her ideas in terms of leading the Board of Education and the city around education policy.

There’s a lot of folks, including some at City Hall, who see this is as a huge political risk for her. I see it as a way to close the achievement gap, to make the reforms that we’ve been talking about real. The Board of Education, not just in New Haven but any Board of Education, tends to be insular and tends to move very slowly. One of the successes that we’ve had is that the Board of Education has been in partnership with the city of New Haven on so many issues. This is just a continuation of some of the work we have started. Her leadership infuses and really puts momentum behind a lot of reform efforts.

Jason, the way you just cast it is something nobody could ever criticize you for. ​“It’s a political risk” — as though that’s something bad. Obviously most human beings who don’t work inside government and watch poll numbers say we want our public officials to take a risk and try to do something meaningful.

If you took a poll right now she’d be at 70 percent popularity. So most people would say, ​“Why take the risk?”

No, most people would say, ​“You have political capital, and you don’t have a serious opponent this year. So why not use that time to do something bold to get something done?”

Well, I like that too.

Let me give you the honest argument against it. The honest argument against it is, ​“She already appoints the members of the school board …”

She didn’t though. [Former Mayor John] DeStefano made most of the appointments. She made one appointment. Now she’ll have two elected board members in January. She hasn’t appointed this particular board. Nor did she select the superintendent of schools.

Heat’s On Harries

How’s the superintendent doing?

Well, I think the superintendent overall is doing a good job. I think he has his detractors. I think his detractors have been fairly loud at times without a vision.

Are they right he hasn’t produced the results?

No I don’t think that’s true. I think he’s accomplished a significant amount over the past year and a half. But what we looked at SBAC [new state standardized reading and math rest scores, which most New Haven kids failed] …

The superintendent would say, ​“Graduation rates are up. College persistence is up. Reading scores are up.” We agree with that. We agree with a lot of his ideas. The mayor has supported his leadership.

But when we look at that SBAC scores, it tells us what we knew: Our kids aren’t reading at grade level. We’re not going to take a chance and just sit by as policymakers. The mayor’s the leader of the city. She’s not going to say, ​“OK I’m going to leave it to others. She’s going to jump in there.” She knows some of the things that have to happen. She wants to make sure it happens. The best way to get people’s attention is to put herself in that position.

So if it succeeds she gets the credit and if it fails she gets the blame?

She’s going to get the blame anyway. Because she’s the mayor. So why not put yourself in a position to ensure you get the results you’re looking for?

Before the year is out the board is expected to vote on whether to extend Superintendent Harries’ contract. How do you expect the vote is going to go?

I really don’t know.

You just said he’s doing a great job.

I said he’s doing a good job. And I’m hopeful that he’s excited as I am about the mayor’s initiatives. And that he’s going to push her initiatives. And that between the things that he wants to see happen and the things the mayor wants to see happen, that the board will take a look at that and say he needs another year to ensure that all these things happen.

You know how in the old Soviet Union people used to interpret Pravda to try to see what the government meant when an official said something? You just said you’re hoping he will agree with the mayor. That doesn’t sound like, ​“Superintendent Harries just did this 10-point plan with us, and we’re rolling it out together, and we’re going to renew his contract!” That’s not what it sounds like to me.

Because that’s not what I said.

It sounds like you’re saying, ​“Watch out.”

It’s a new environment. It’s a new dynamic The superintendent has said he supports the mayor. Implementation is key. These things have to happen. Money has to be found. We’re going to do Saturday academies. That’s $600,000. OK? We have carry-over money. The superintendent needs to direct his staff and make sure there’s $600,000 in place.

There’s extended day learning that the mayor wants. The superintendent and his staff have to make sure that we have extended day learning in the city.

So are you saying he has two and a half months to carry this out or his contract won’t be extended?

First of all, it’s not up to me.

You’re the mayor’s liaison to the board. You’re the chief architect of all this.

The mayor has not asked my opinion on the superintendent. Right now I’m a facilitator of policy.

6 Weeks & Ticking

OK, let’s talk about some of those ideas. You put together a 10-point plan of what the mayor wants to see happen right away with the schools. One of the ideas was a Saturday reading academy. What is a Saturday reading academy?

[Teachers will] use iReady. It’s a gaming software. It will do an assessment for every single child to find out that child’s weaknesses and what the deficiency is. And they will use online software to drill.

Is it fun software?

It’s fun. And it’s culturally competent. We’re going to identify four of the schools that have the lowest-performing results [and open the academies there]. For 800 to 1000 kids.

When’s that going to start?

We’re hoping mid-November.

So you’re saying the Board of Ed has a month to find the money and get it started. … 

They have to find the money. And they have to make it happen.

You’re not giving them much time on that.

No.

There can’t be a lot of committee meetings and studies …

That’s why I’m saying the mayor had to be the chair. Ordinarily an idea like that would take an entire year. We’re going to do it in six weeks.

Another part of the plan calls for extending the school day in at least two schools. We have an experimental school this year. Lincoln Bassett School starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 6 at night. You can go there and get breakfast. After school you can hang out and play and get homework help. It goes more with parents’ schedules. When Mayor Harp ran for office, this was one of her big ideas to conform with how families now work. It is going well?

Excellent.

They don’t let us in to see. They’re paranoid about reporters. How do you know the results are there?

I’ve seen different data that unfolds. Even the climate surveys, everything.

I know you need benchmarks. But data can be b.s. and manipulated … Just the fact that kids have a place to go that’s safe with responsible adults … That can be an outcome in itself. I understand in government you have a genuine need to show results …

The citywide mission is for kids to be active after school, whether it’s open schools or an after-school program at LEAP, to actually have a building that’s open.

We had that for a few years under the ​“Open Schools” [after-school-hours program]. I’m told they didn’t really operate as open schools.

Open Schools need some work. There’s different models that are out there. This would be a different model.

How’s this different from Open Schools?

It will be a lot more structured. It will have a lot more of an academic component. It will have some play time, some social emotional, but also more academics.

How soon?

That I don’t know.

How soon will we have extended day in two schools?

I think we’ll have a path forward in a few months.

”Path forward” means you’ll have a plan?

We’ll have a plan.

[You also call for a] reading commission. Is that just talking rather than doing?

I think the reading commission is for the mayor to have outside experts to have curriculum, to talk about best practices. We have Haskins [Lab] here in the city. Are they infusing their ideas into New Haven’s education policy? Probably not. Would we like them to? Yes.

Politicians sometimes use commissions to talk about a problem rather than dealing with it.

I’ve worked with a lot of politicans. Mayor Harp is unique in one way. She really is a collaborator. She likes to hear lots of people’s opinions. She’s not afraid to implement that. When she puts together a commission or a task force, she will use the ideas that are put forward.

It looks to me like you’re bucking for a raise. Oh, wait — you just got one!

A little bit.

Score Mania

The tenth proposal I’m going to give you a hard time about, not based on motive or dishonesty [but on policy]. Some people claim SBAC is designed to have most students [fail]. There’s a concern about over-relying on test scores to analyze what’s happening in schools. A lot of people believe test scores don’t show how smart kids are, or what they’re learning, or how teachers are doing; they measure how poor students are. Others say that’s an excuse, that we need measurements for standards. Commandment number 10 [in the mayor’s plan] is to ask the state for SBAC results before the end of the school year rather than late summer. That gives you planning time before students get back to school. …

Let’s take the reading academies. From now until March, do they have an effect on the schools that are our pilot? If we see measurable improvements on reading scores for those 800 to 1,000 kids, why wouldn’t we want to take that district wide next year? If we don’t get them until September [it’s too late …

Others would say that gets us so tied to numbers that some people think are meaningless.

It’s [the SBAC’s] here. We’re not teaching to the test. It’s part of life. We want to do better than every urban city in Connecticut. Mayor Harp wants our kids to be successful and achieve.

We knew before SBAC that a lot of our kids can’t read. That’s why a year ago the mayor said, ​“We have a problem with reading,” and started pushing hard to get initiatives and get everybody talking about reading in the city.

Now we have more evidence that we need to do better in this particular area. It’s a benchmark. I get the whole testing argument. We don’t need to litigate that here. But we do need to know what’s happening with our kids, and how they are doing compared with the rest of the state, and we need to hold some people accountable.

I think teachers who probably have the most problems with SBAC would also want those results at the end of the year …

The teachers I hear form think it’s crazy we care so much about test scores. They don’t want to be tied to numbers. I know the schools are trying to develop a ​“portfolio approach” [with a variety of measurements and evidence of learning]. 

In New Haven we’re doing social emotional. That’s a huge component of School Change 2.0. So we get it.

Click on the above file to hear the full radio interview, which also touched on Youth Stat and plans for new youth centers, among other topics.