Politics & Government

What Education Reform Means for Manchester

The recently approved legislation could add an additional $1.34 million in funding to the town's public schools.

Although there is still many questions pertaining to the recently passed by the Connecticut General Assembly, locally under the bill

But only if the Board of Education adheres to certain reform guidelines laid out in the plan. 

Although Interim Superintendent Richard Kisiel said Wednesday he was still unsure about the exact nature of the reforms the state was seeking and what steps Manchester would need to qualify for the additional funding. 

Find out what's happening in Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's still very fuzzy. I know what they're trying to do, but there's no clear guidance or direction we should follow," Kisiel said Wednesday. "We need to get specific direction from the Department of Ed on what this district improvement plan needs to look like."

Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone every day with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

Find out what's happening in Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The education reform bill, approved Tuesday by the Connecticut General Assembly and expected to be signed into law soon by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, adds an additional $50 million in Education Cost Sharing grants to Connecticut's public schools, with about $40 million of that money earmarked for the 30 lowest performing districts in the state, of which Manchester is one. 

Some of the reforms that will take place under the bill include changes to the current teacher tenure and evaluation programs that ties tenure to "effectiveness" and makes it easier to remove teachers deemed ineffective, adds an additional 1,000 pre-school seats earmarked for the most disadvantaged children, expands funding and access to charter schools in the lowest performing districts and additional funding for magnet schools, technical high schools and agricultural science schools. 

Kisiel said that, for example, a Manchester school could opt to become one of the 25 schools throughout the state that elects to participate in a "turnaround program," which would result in intensive support programs and interventions being implemented in the chosen school on a test basis, in order to qualify for the money. 

"That money will be available to us," Kisiel said. "It's just a matter of us developing a plan that they will approve." 

Board of Education Chairman Chris Pattacini said the school board would likely devise a plan soon with Kisiel to qualify for the additional funding, which could be used for the 2012-13 school year budget. 

"We need to look at what the opportunities are and we are going to go after any funds we can get for the town," Pattcini said. 

Although he said he would be grateful if Manchester received the money, General Manager Scott Shanley said he found it "frustrating" that ECS funding has been essentially stagnant for the past five years while Manchester was implementing many of the programs Malloy advocated with no recognition or increased financial support from the state. 

"I understand what they're trying to do, but we've been being innovative in doing new and different things when the state has not increased funding at all," Shanley said. "I'm glad for it. I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but I find it a little insulting that we have to jump through some hoops considering all that we've done in the past five years without any state aid."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here