NHPS Budget Battle Demands Closer Look & Long-Term Answers

[N'Zinga Shani]

A current article in the New Haven Independent says: "Budget Battle Sparks Long-Term Ed Questions"

We agree; we also believe that the voters, parents, and community leaders need to take a closer look at the Education Budget in great detail.

It is important to remember that the Alders and the Mayor work for the voters. It is important that the voters are involved and tell those who represent you on the boards  what you would like to see happen in the NHPS. The Education Budget should be looked at in depth. Start with the contracts to Domus and Renaissance School Services.    Exactly what has Renaissance School Services, LLC done for New Haven to account for the approximately $500K in annual payment they are getting just to manage Roberto Clemente School? Karen Gibbs turned-around Brennan-Rogers for much less than that and has solid results to show!  The money being paid to Renaissance does not include teachers’ salaries; New Haven still pays that.  We provide the links below as a reminder of what was supposed to happen. See articles linked below.

City Secretly Plans School’s For-Profit Takeover, March 13, 2011

Officials don’t want to let the public know about it yet, but they alerted staff and some parents at the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy this week that they’re planning to turn over New Haven’s first school to a for-profit company. School officials and representatives from Renaissance School Services, LLC, a Califon, N.J.-based school Management Company, met Thursday with parents in the K-8 school’s new building at 360 Columbus Ave. in the Hill. The meeting followed a similar one Monday, where staff at the school learned of changes afoot. http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/ch_co._...

 In May the headline read: School Board OKs Clemente Takeover

“The district will pay Renaissance $800 per kid, up to $456,000 annually, for the expertise and specialized tools to fix up failing schools. The company will be paid $58,000 for the period from May 17 to June 30 of this year, plus a $65,000 retainer that will be paid back to the district. School officials intend to pay for the contract with a $2.5 million federal School Improvement Grant, which has not yet been awarded.”

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/school_board_oks_clemente_takeover/

When it comes to Domus – here was the headline - "Challenges Await “Turnaround” School"  We are almost 4 years out; have those challenges been met? Is the district getting its money's worth? Are the students being educated well? Has discipline improved?  Has the dropout and getting-into-trouble rates been reduced?

“When a four-foot-tall tough guy turned in his homework, teacher Zanneice Smith called for a round of applause.

The student—let’s call him Mike—is a sixth-grader at Urban Youth Center, a small middle school at 580 Dixwell Ave. for kids who’ve gotten in trouble.” 

We have not heard much about Domus; we don’t know how many children are succeeding with the turn-around effort and at what cost. It would be wise for the Mayor, the BOE and parents to take a close look at the Brennan-Rogers effort and compare that (and the costs) to Domus, Roberto Clemente and of course, all the principals on special assignments throughout the district.  http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/urban_y...

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/domus_k...

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/budget_...

Below is an interesting comment posted to the NHI article.  We ask, what type of monitoring, if any, is the NH BOE carrying out at Domus and Clemente? What is the NHPS District getting for the hundreds of thousands it is paying Renaissance and Domus?

Posted by: Threefifths on May 12, 2014  4:32pm

Close New Horizons school and merge it with Domus.

"There is a problem. How many of you know Domus is failing(?) There bring in there fifth school principal. Do not be fooled. Alder Stratton is a clone of King Bloomberg. And just like King Bloomberg, Alder Stratton is for privatization of publicly owned operations. People wake up."