Is new magnet school process illegal?

“With the lottery to select students for Windham‘s new Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy Magnet School about to take place, Adamowski and the Windham School System STILL HAVEN’T filed a legally-approved Operations Plan with the State Department of Education and the application form that they have been using inappropriately requests that students provide their social security number. It is a technique that effectively reduces the number of immigrants and poor who might apply for a seat in the new school.” – Jonathan Pelto

By Jonathan Pelto

You can keep Gov. Malloy’s “Special Master” Steven Adamowski, and Windham’s school administrators on the list of entities and individuals who seem unable or unwilling to follow the state’s laws and regulations.

With the lottery to select students for Windham‘s new Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy Magnet School about to take place, Adamowski and the Windham School System STILL HAVEN’T filed a legally-approved Operations Plan with the State Department of Education and the application form that they have been using inappropriately requests that students provide their social security number.

It is a technique that effectively reduces the number of immigrants and poor who might apply for a seat in the new school.

When concerns were raised about the fact that the Operations Plan for Windham’s new Barrows STEM Magnet School prohibited children from transferring into the school if they weren’t reading at grade level, Windham school administrators claimed that the offending language was not part of the approved Operations Plan filed with the state.

Instead they claimed that the copy being read was an older copy of the Operations Plan, even though that “older copy” was the exact document that was given to the members of the Windham Board of Education and marked “approved.”

Further complicating the matter was that, upon investigation, it turned out that the Operations Plan filed with the state was neither approved by the Windham Board of Education, as required, nor did it include a variety of language changes that were approved by Windham’s Board of Education. (As an aside, the changes approved by the Board of Education DID NOT remove the prohibition on transfers, so how that language disappeared from the document is a “mystery.”)

Throughout this debate, neither Windham’s “Special Master” Adamowski nor Windham’s Superintendent have managed to explain how an unapproved Operations Plan was filed with the State or what they are going to do about actually filing the appropriate plan.

To continue reading, please visit Jonathan Pelto’s “Wait, What?” blog at this link http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/03/20/and-in-windhamthe-new-magnet-school-still-hasnt-filed-an-approved-operations-plan-but-is-using-an-inappropriate-application/

Jonathan Pelto has been actively involved in Connecticut public policy, advocacy and electoral politics for 35 years. In 1984 he was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives while he was a senior at the University of Connecticut and, over five terms, rose to the level of Deputy Majority Leader and the Chair of the Screening Committee. Since leaving the Legislature in 1993, he’s worked as a communications strategist developing and implementing sophisticated public relations, media relations and advocacy programs aimed at educating, persuading and mobilizing targeted audiences. His clients have included many of Connecticut’s most significant non-profit organizations, corporations, associations and unions, as well as Native American Tribes.

Posted March 21, 2013

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