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By Dr. Rebecca Hamman

Stamford Public Schools ("SPS") has had its share of poor Board of Education governance (17 years and counting). Knowing this, four brave BOE members tried to bring awareness to the power abusers at the May 27th meeting. With over 200 witnesses present, suspension of Roberts Rules was necessary to shock the Board into reality.

Unfortunately, when autocratic leadership has been allowed to prevail for six years and students are not at the center, chaos can erupt and will continue to erupt. So, what was the chaos about May 27th? Scoring points with a subset of the public was not the intent. Instead, chaos was used to bring about common sense and projecting what excellence should look like for all students in the SPS.

Because there was no collaboration with the budget and secondary schedules; student discipline consistently mishandled (Turn of River MS last year and Westhill HS this year); and departments not audited, stakeholders become upset—real upset. Knowing this Board of Education refuses to take authority—state law gives them the power—they are proving, once again, how ineffective they are. By ignoring their role in supervising their only employee, they have created ongoing upheaval and allowed achievement & morale to plummet. They are their own worst enemy because they lack introspection and assertiveness to own their power.

A complacent Board of Education needs to be awakened by the facts. Let’s review their votes and concerning patterns:

• $350.5M Budget for 2025-2026 (passed on party line)… 3 votes against and 6 in-favor. Three common sense BOE members knew exactly what would happen when top-down decisions were made. Many teachers would be involuntarily transferred (over 60 positions) and job openings would need to be posted (50+ positions), yet 27 administrators will still be working at central office ($6-7M in salaries). This budget can still be revised with a BOE majority vote—it is not too late. The new budget year does not begin until July 1st.

• Flexible High School Schedule (May 27th suspension of rules for re-vote)… 4 votes against, 4 in-favor, 1 abstained. The high school schedule build had to happen, regardless of the type of schedule chosen (Flexible or A/B, 7-block). Since school administrators and guidance work on scheduling throughout the summer, the Flexible Schedule can be replaced with the A/B, 7 period block. Just a simple BOE majority vote is needed to make this happen. The misinformation about delays in meeting graduation requirements or lost access to core academic courses can easily be fixed.

• Middle School Schedule (2025-2026 budget)… 3 votes against and 6 in-favor. Grades 6-8 learning growth has been severely hurt because students are losing 36.2 days per quarter in math, science, social studies or ELA (pending course rotation). These students are losing almost a full marking period (45-days) in each core class. Now Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and writing are used as supplements.

• 10 New Special Education Administrative Positions (2025-2026 budget)… 3 votes against and 6 in-favor. Why has the Special Education Department not been audited with over 130 students outplaced? Unlike other districts who use a phase-in system, central office decided to add 10 new administrators totaling almost $2M. Rather than supporting all 5,000 high school students (using the A/B, 7-block schedule) and 2,800 special education students, central office decided to pit these two groups against each other. In conjunction, IEP (Individualized Education Plan) instruction will now be done in larger groups. The bigger question is, will all students still receive contracted, quality services?

• Human Resources (consistent pattern)… With constant turnover of staff, the Human Resource Department also needs to be audited. Rather than being objective, hiring managers (and central office leaders) seems to influence the process and don’t value committee feedback. Knowing Stamford usually hires from within, this also has created issues.

Political strong-arming needs to stop—our students and achievement have been directly affected by poor bureaucratic decision-making. Many SPS families are re-evaluating whether they want to stay in the district. Educators, too, who live in Stamford are seriously considering moving their families to other towns. Many untenured teachers are also leaving. To put it bluntly, SPS is no longer providing the level of excellence it once had—achievement scores continue to be stagnant or decline.

Excellence means taking risks and listening to the silent majority—our students, professional educators and parents. Although it can be chaotic, all these subgroups are needed to help our students be successful. Complacent Board of Education members (and central office leaders) are not listening to these voices, and this complicity is not healthy. Board members are elected to not only use clarity, integrity and shared commitment, but also their authority. This type of governance keeps students at the center, not on the fringe. Sadly, SPS leaders are pushing more and more students to the fringe and students, staff and families are now irate. Several Stamford BOE members seem to ignore this pattern and refuse to own their power. We shall find out when they evaluate the superintendent mid-June.

It’s time to wake up Stamford—your BOE should be about improving teaching and learning for all students. Are they up for this task? You decide.

Dr. Rebecca Hamman currently serves as a member of the Stamford, CT, Board of Education.  She is a career educator (teacher & administrator) and has worked 11 years elementary and 15 years secondary. Her comments are her own, and do not represent the official views of the Board of Education or its committees.

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