LGH and Hartford Public Schools Working Together on New School Governance Model

On September 28, 2009, Leadership Greater Hartford (LGH) began training parents, teachers, principals, and others in the art of working together to improve education for Hartford’s students.

Earlier in 2009, the Hartford Board of Education adopted a policy for enabling local governance at its higher-performing schools.  With greater independence, however, comes the expectation of more collaboration among key stakeholders.  School Governance Councils, of which parents comprise half the membership, is where critical budgeting, planning and school improvement decisions are made for 26 of Hartford’s 48 schools.

Superintendent Steven Adamowski recognized Leadership Greater Hartford’s experience in getting diverse groups of people to pool their collective talent and perspective for a common cause.  “No one in our region does it better,” said Dr. Adamowski in recommending that LGH provide the training and support required to make the school governance initiative work.

This effort is being led by LGH Vice President Doe Hentschel, who designed the curriculum, and LGH process consultant Nat Brown, who has enlisted coaches to assist each of the participating schools.

LGH set-up and coordinated four training modules at five different intervals (total of 20 sessions) to prepare members of the School Governance Councils for their new roles.

Any new group will likely encounter various challenges as they conduct their work, so LGH engaged process coaches who participated in the training and were available as process observers, resource people and facilitators to assist the School Governance Council co-chairs.  In addition,

LGH Members who have volunteered to serve as School Governance Council Process Coaches: