Melissa Bailey Photo
The Board of Education is expected to vote Monday night to approve a new contract for New Haven’s freshman superintendent to continue leading the school system for another three years.
Harries (pictured above with WFSB’s Robert Goulston Thursday), who’s 41, began his tenure as superintendent last July. Because of a clause in the city charter limiting first-term superintendents’ contracts to one year, Harries quickly came up for a mid-year performance review this winter. After initial reservations from Mayor Toni Harp, the school board voted unanimously in February to reappoint Harries. That decision empowered board President Carlos Torre to hash out with Harries the details of a new contract.
At its regular meeting Monday at Hill Regional Career High School, the school board is set to vote on a contract that would keep Harries on for another three years, from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2017. According to the proposed deal, Harries’ salary would remain at $193,000, with 2‑percent increases on July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016. His earnings represent a drop from that of his predecessor, Reginald Mayo, who ended his 21-year superintendent’s career with a salary of $226,921.
By comparison, Bridgeport’s interim superintendent makes $190,000. Hartford’s outgoing superintendent, Christina Kishimoto, makes $238,000; the school board there is currently offering her successor a salary “in the range of $250,000, excluding benefits.”
Contract Highlights
Pension
In addition to paying his salary, the school board will put an amount of money equal to 12 percent of his salary into a tax-sheltered annuity account of the superintendent’s choice. That basically sets up a 401‑K in addition to the state pension he will be provided through the Teachers’ Retirement Board.
Wheels
Harries’ new car.
The contract gives Harries the right to a school system automobile. As assistant superintendent, Harries was driving his family’s Volkswagen Jetta station wagon, and sometimes riding a bicycle. Upon his promotion, he traded out his Jetta for a late-model hybrid Ford Escape SUV (pictured), the same type of car that Superintendent Mayo used to drive. The school system had already bought the car prior to Harries’ appointment; Harries took over the wheel from Lt. Dwight Ware, director of school security.
Extra Days
The contract allows Harries to accumulate 19 sick days per year, up to a maximum of 215 days. He or his beneficiaries could cash in those sick days if he dies, retires or is fired. He would also get 30 vacation days per year, which can accumulate up to 66 days.
Evaluation
By Oct. 31 of each year, Harries will be required to write a self-evaluation. The board will issue a written evaluation by Nov. 1 of each year.
Early Notification
At Harries’ request, the contract sets a Dec. 31, 2015 deadline by which the school board must vote on whether to extend his contract beyond the next three years.
Busy Start
Harries began his tenure by announcing goals that included making school funding more equitable, replacing top-down decision-making with more collaboration, and reaching “disengaged youth.”
Since taking office, Harries has sought to “empower” parents and students to help set policy. He launched a new initiative to tackle chronic absenteeism among young kids at two schools. Other projects in the works include several school turnaround plans and creating a new transitional high school for kids coming out of lockup.
The schools budget, combined with the fatal and non-fatal shootings of school-aged kids, have presented a major challenges for the new superintendent.
Harries found himself faced with what he termed a surprise $3.5 million structural deficit that had gone unaddressed. He scrambled to make unpopular last-minute cuts, including eliminating the middle-school grades at two schools just before school started. Recently he has faced pushback on a proposal to save money by moving Hyde Leadership Academy to Hillhouse High. In recent weeks, he found himself in the witness stand as a trial-lawyer-turned-city-legislator attacked the assumptions underlying the school budget.
Harries survived a January scare in which Mayor Toni Harp threatened not to rehire him until he got his budget house in order. Harp has since reversed course and supported his reappointment.
“I think he’s doing a good job,” said Harp on Thursday. “He’s very collaborative. The school system is facing some serious problems, and he’s taking them on.”
Harp said she is most impressed by Harries’ plans, still in the works, to turn around Lincoln-Bassett and Wilbur Cross High schools.
The biggest problem Harries faces, Harp said, is the budget. She noted that Harries plans to hire a chief financial officer by July. “His idea of hiring a CFO is a good one — hopefully it will bring some clarity to the budget itself.”
Harries joined New Haven schools in 2009 and became the architect of the city’s school reform effort. Harries began his education career in 2003 as a top adviser to then-New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. He taught for a year at a private school in Colorado earlier in his career.
Prior to voting on his contract, the school board reviewed Harries’ performance so far and gave him high reviews.
Click here to read the board’s evaluation; read Harries’ self-evaluation here.