Getting the job done for students

In his five years as superintendent of Hartford’s schools, all Steven Adamowski did was close bad schools, open small, specialized academies, institute longer school days, slash an expensive, unproductive bureaucracy, improve test scores, raise the high school graduation rate from an embarrassing 29 percent to 52 percent, put students in uniforms and fight with the teachers union. So when the Hartford Courant asked six citizens to evaluate the retiring capital city superintendent’s tenure in a series of op-ed essays, most of the comments from a parent, the head of the area chamber of commerce, an education reformer and fellow superintendent were glowing. The exceptions were from a teacher who’s also a school board and city council member and another who heads the city’s teachers union. The positive assessments lauded the retiring superintendent’s focus on “early literacy, accountability and high expectations,” and for “implementing school governance councils to include parents in decision making.” They liked his steadfastness “in the face of inertia and opposition” and his willingness to take risks and face “controversy to create better schools for all students and parents.”The kind words ended there. Teacher/councilman Robert Cotto credited Adamowski with mixed results that left the city with challenges but mostly, Cotto was offended by the superintendent’s “combative dealings with Hartford’s teachers,” which, he claimed, “weakened our ability to retain the quality educators we need.” This was another way of saying Adamowski was guilty of opposing tenure, supporting merit pay and believing competence should trump seniority when school systems are faced with laying off teachers. These reforms are being advocated across the country by superintendents like Adamowski but also by President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and business leaders who have watched as generations of uneducated kids have been produced by the public schools. They are, of course, opposed by teachers unions and politicians like Cotto. Just last week, the Washington, D.C., public schools fired 206 teachers judged ineffective for a second year, a legacy of former Superintendent Michelle Rhee, who also resigned after long battles with the union. Ineffective teachers don’t get fired in Connecticut. The unions deny they exist.So it is no surprise that Andrea Martin, president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers, found nothing good to say about her boss, other than to note, “Adamowski has presented changes and challenges to the city during his tenure.” Those changes and challenges were not expanded upon and were overshadowed by “an unscrupulous and unprofessional side as to how he viewed and worked with the Hartford teachers union.” She seemed especially annoyed that the superintendent ended a tradition of having the school system continue the pay of teachers who were detached from classroom assignments to work for the union.It all added up, wrote Johnson, to a superintendent “who has little to no regard nor respect for the union and therefore teachers.” All about the teachers and not a word on what the outgoing superintendent did for the school system — and the students. Adamowski came to Hartford from Cincinnati, where he achieved similar reforms while engaging in similar battles with the teachers union, including an epic confrontation over merit pay. He is not known for his bedside manner with the unionized teachers and he could have possibly benefited from a kinder, gentler approach toward the unions, but I doubt it.Hartford in recent years has had more school superintendents than the late George Steinbrenner had Yankee managers, but Steinbrenner achieved better results. Past superintendents had better relations with the union but poorer test scores and abysmal graduation rates. Only Adamowski appears to have made progress. His successor, Christina Kishimoto, is already involved in controversy for negotiating a contract that pays $215,000 in the first year and provides her with 24 vacation days, 24 sick days — you wouldn’t want a sick superintendent sneezing on the children — 10 personal days, regular holidays and $400 a month for the business use of her car.She should get along fine with the Hartford Federation of Teachers as she already speaks their language. Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.