A few months ago the Connecticut Board of Education authorized state Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker broad authority to direct Bridgeport’s troubled school district on a new course, navigating the selection process for a new superintendent, after years of local board infighting.
Apparently, that did not happen, according to state lawyers who’ve slammed the brakes on the search and want Russell-Tucker plugged in on the process from start to finish, including the “criteria for assessing the qualifications of applications.”
More to come on this. Meanwhile…
From Richard Chumney, CT Post:
Lawyers for Connecticut’s top education official have ordered the city school board to halt its search for a new superintendent, claiming the panel failed to properly notify state officials about the effort.
The State Board of Education voted earlier this year to give Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker sweeping powers to intervene in the struggling school system, including the authority to oversee the appointment of the district’s next top administrator.
But Michael McKeon, the director of legal and government affairs for the state Department of Education, accused the city board in a letter on Monday of ignoring a directive to include the commissioner in the search from the outset.
“The CSDE believes that initiating the hiring process for a permanent Superintendent of Schools is both premature and directly contrary to the commissioner’s clearly articulated expectation that she would ‘be engaged in the recruitment process’ for the Superintendent position,” McKeon wrote.
McKeon ordered the board to take no further steps in the superintendent search until it provides the state with “positive proof that it is making progress toward strengthening its role as stewards of the Bridgeport Public Schools.”
Full story here
“positive proof that it is making progress toward strengthening its role as stewards of the Bridgeport Public Schools.”
Stewards? The Bridgeport Board of Education is a duly elected body. I don’t recall ever seeing Charlene Russell-Tucker’s name on the primary or election ballot.
BREAKING NEWS:
https://metrozone.newsroomlabs.com/article-summary/23666207
President Trump’s administration would have been better off using OIB to conduct their not so clandestine operation and planning.