Windham’s Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy: The problem is even greater than it first appeared
As noted in previous Wait, What? posts, Windham, Connecticut’s Board of Education is building the Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy. Seventy percent of the students at the new K-8 STEM magnet school are scheduled to come from Windham and thirty percent from adjoining towns.
Over the past few days we’ve been on a mission to track down the source and meaning of a clause in the Magnet School’s Operating Agreement that says, “New students entering beyond grade 3 must be reading at grade level.”
The staff at the State Department of Education refused repeated requests to explain the source and meaning of that language. Then, the staff at the Windham Schools refused to explain the source and meaning of that language.
Finally, in response to a letter I sent yesterday to a wide variety of Windham education officials, the Chairman of the Windham Board of Education took the time to provide an
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch shows what he’s made of
Last night, addressing the Bridgeport Board of Education’s evaluation of Paul Vallas, the City’s $234,000, part-time, superintendent of schools and the decision of whether they should extend Vallas’ contract for another year, Mayor Bill Finch explained…
“He’s a lot smarter than they are and they ought to let him do his job.” (CT Post 2-6-13)
Always classy, the Mayor was talking about a board made up of candidates he helped choose and who went on to be elected to the Bridgeport Board of Education by the people of his City.
This latest development took place on the first day of Finch’s “education listening tour.”
Still reeling from the November defeat of his effort to change the Bridgeport City Charter to do away with the City’s democratically elected board of education and replace it with one
