Shhhhh...
It is unbelievable that city officials are hushing up the fact that New Britain High School’s accreditation is in jeopardy – and apparently, the newspapers and other media are letting them.
In case anyone’s unsure, losing accreditation is a huge, huge deal, and a huge, huge black eye to the city. Yet officials are ignoring the fact that New Britain High School may lose its accreditation – which basically means that the education students got there, well, won’t really count.
Apparently, that’s no big deal to officials, who have been able to avoid the issue by keeping it from parents, and now, refusing to respond to repeated calls and questions from this blog about the fact that the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) is meeting Sunday to discuss the school’s probation.
Further, when NEASC first announced the probation several months ago, NEASC offered the city a chance to dispute the facts and try to avoid the probation. New Britain officials declined the offer and said that NEASC was justified in their findings. Go ahead with the probation. All without a word to the public.
Not only are officials ignoring the whole issue, and withholding critical information from the parents and the rest of the public, but it’s still unclear whether Common Council members knew – or even know – about it. Wouldn’t that have been relevant now, at budget time? Shouldn’t taxpayers decide how much money should be spent on a school that are on the brink of not even being legitimate, so to speak?
This is not new. School officials have been aware for months that this was happening. It all stemmed from an inspection done at the school way back in the fall. And still, since way back then, no word to the public.
And still, despite the fact that this blog – and yes, they’re reading it, because the site visits have more than tripled since we posted the news Monday – has reported it, they’ve refused to deal with the issue. Calls to Mayor Timothy Stewart’s office with questions about the probation have been dismissed with a friendly "the mayor is very busy but he hopes to get a chance to call you back." Over at Superintendent Doris Kurtz’s, office, a call back was promised but never delivered.
No word to the public.
Sadly, this system has worked for these officials. Gone are the days of media watchdogs, apparently. Fine, forget the media, because apparently they’ve forgotten. But where is mayoral hopeful James Wyskiewicz and the other New Britain Democrats? Any watchdog groups out there? Parents? A high school PTO? Is anyone listening?
City officials are clearly hoping, perhaps justifiably, then the issue will remain under the carpet. And unless someone makes some noise, it will.
In case anyone’s unsure, losing accreditation is a huge, huge deal, and a huge, huge black eye to the city. Yet officials are ignoring the fact that New Britain High School may lose its accreditation – which basically means that the education students got there, well, won’t really count.
Apparently, that’s no big deal to officials, who have been able to avoid the issue by keeping it from parents, and now, refusing to respond to repeated calls and questions from this blog about the fact that the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) is meeting Sunday to discuss the school’s probation.
Further, when NEASC first announced the probation several months ago, NEASC offered the city a chance to dispute the facts and try to avoid the probation. New Britain officials declined the offer and said that NEASC was justified in their findings. Go ahead with the probation. All without a word to the public.
Not only are officials ignoring the whole issue, and withholding critical information from the parents and the rest of the public, but it’s still unclear whether Common Council members knew – or even know – about it. Wouldn’t that have been relevant now, at budget time? Shouldn’t taxpayers decide how much money should be spent on a school that are on the brink of not even being legitimate, so to speak?
This is not new. School officials have been aware for months that this was happening. It all stemmed from an inspection done at the school way back in the fall. And still, since way back then, no word to the public.
And still, despite the fact that this blog – and yes, they’re reading it, because the site visits have more than tripled since we posted the news Monday – has reported it, they’ve refused to deal with the issue. Calls to Mayor Timothy Stewart’s office with questions about the probation have been dismissed with a friendly "the mayor is very busy but he hopes to get a chance to call you back." Over at Superintendent Doris Kurtz’s, office, a call back was promised but never delivered.
No word to the public.
Sadly, this system has worked for these officials. Gone are the days of media watchdogs, apparently. Fine, forget the media, because apparently they’ve forgotten. But where is mayoral hopeful James Wyskiewicz and the other New Britain Democrats? Any watchdog groups out there? Parents? A high school PTO? Is anyone listening?
City officials are clearly hoping, perhaps justifiably, then the issue will remain under the carpet. And unless someone makes some noise, it will.
posted by Elisa Hutcoe Krochmalnyckyj at
12:57 PM
2 Comments:
Elisa,
Is there anything new to report after Sunday's meeting? I just read this news on your site yesterday and am posting it at Spazeboy.net
The current situation is an outrage, and a true disservice to our students and community. Our elected officials need to stop the name calling and take responsibility for the situation and fix it. The Mayor, Superintendent, Board of Ed and Common Council all need to step-up and lead. Who will develop a plan for correcting the accreditation problem with an eye toward long range school improvement. These issue are significant and deeply embedded in the district culture. Our leaders do not grasp the significance of the problems. Until they do, improvement will not occur.
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