Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Malloy celebrates Pryor, but makes gesture to union critics

  • Education
  • by Mark Pazniokas
  • August 21, 2014
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.

CT MIRROR

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.

New Britain – By turns wistful and upbeat, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor put a positive spin Thursday on Pryor’s announcement he will leave the Malloy administration, a departure sought by unions important to the governor’s re-election.

But as the governor was denying placing pressure on Pryor to leave, his administration was preparing another announcement guaranteed to further please the state’s two major teachers’ unions, the Connecticut Education Association and AFT-Connecticut. He was naming an AFT officer to the State Board of Education.

That appointment was not revealed at his press conference at a middle school in New Britain to celebrate a commitment of $132.9 million to struggling schools. There, Malloy and Pryor shared a stage for the first time since Pryor’s announcement he was seeking a new job and would not seek reappointment to a second term should Malloy be re-elected.

In the audience was at least one union leader who pushed Malloy to make the change.

Pryor, a lawyer who is a co-founder of the Amistad Academy, the flagship of the Achievement First network of charter schools, was praised by Malloy and even embraced by Melodie Peters, the president of AFT-Connecticut, who acknowledged she had first suggested a year ago to the governor that Pryor’s presence as the face of education reform was a political detriment.

By late afternoon, Malloy had made another gesture of conciliation to teachers by naming Erin B. Benham of Wallingford to the school board. She is a middle-school teacher, an AFT-Connecticut officer and the president of an AFT affiliate, the Meriden Federation of Teachers. She replaces Andrea Comer, who had been an executive at a charter school, a sore point to the teachers’ unions.

Malloy also named Maria Isabel Mojica of Hamden to the board. Now a consultant to non-profits, she is a former executive at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund.

Benham’s appointment was quickly praised by Peters and Sheila Cohen, the president of the CEA.

“Teachers need to be at the center, not the periphery, of setting policy and planning implementation,” Cohen said.

“We expect Erin to ensure that the voices of educators are heard and respected, and to play a role in helping to shape policy in all our state’s schools,” Peters said.

In New Britian, Malloy, who has been endorsed for re-election by AFT, told reporters he did not seek Pryor’s departure.

“I appear alongside my friend today. Let there be no doubt about that,” Malloy said.

Malloy feigned surprise when a reporter asked if Pryor had become a lightning rod for those who objected to his administration’s implementation of the Common Core curriculum standards or reforms in teacher evaluations.

“Lightning rod?” Malloy said, turning to Pryor. “You a lightning rod? No, no.”

The press conference seemed intended as a counter to Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley’s criticism that the Malloy administration has imposed new mandates on all schools districts, rather than concentrate on low-performing schools.

Malloy and Pryor announced the third year of funding under a Malloy administration reform that provides additional resources to “Alliance Districts,” 30 chronically struggling systems.

With $132.9 million in the 2014-15 fiscal year, the three-year funding total is $259.8 million. New Britain is set to receive $11 million, up from $7 million last year and $2.6 million the previous year.

Melodie Peters and Stefan Pryor embrace. Peters advocated his removal.

CT MIRROR

Melodie Peters and Stefan Pryor embrace. Peters had advocated his removal.

In return for the extra money, the Alliance District program requires annual updates of its “turnaround plan.”

“We’ve seen unprecedented resources flowing to lower performing districts and schools. We’ve also developed strategies together to help turn around our historically struggling schools,” Pryor said.

Malloy suggested that Pryor, as a reformer, inevitably would be a target.

“Stefan’s done great work,” said Malloy, who cast the length of Pryor’s tenure as commissioner as above the norm. “The average tenure of an non-elected superintendent or commissioner of education is less than 2½ years in this country.”

Pryor struck a valedictory note in his remarks.

“I am very proud of the body of work that we’ve done,” Pryor said. “And sometimes when you look at a transition point — and a change in term is such a point — it makes sense to pursue other opportunities, to know that the contribution you’ve made is the right one and that you wish to go on and make other contributions in your professional life. I maintain a superb relationship with this governor.”

Peters shared a few words with Pryor after the press conference concluded, then hugged him.

Malloy posed with New Britain administrators, teachers and a school board member. Peters joined them for a group picture.

Pryor watched from the side.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Pazniokas is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Ned Lamont’s year in the shadow of COVID
by Mark Pazniokas

Ned Lamont has been the face, voice, and interpreter of the COVID crisis, mourning deaths, explaining setbacks and cautiously celebrating.

1,500 Hartford school staff to be vaccinated this week at pop-up clinic
by Adria Watson

Vaccinations are taking place Thursday and Friday. A second round will be scheduled in coming days.

With billions in federal relief on the way to CT, legislators assert their role in deciding how to spend it
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

With an unusual bill, state legislators are reminding Gov. Ned Lamont they have significant role in disbursing federal coronavirus relief.

As the push to reopen schools intensifies, Miguel Cardona and first lady Jill Biden travel to Meriden to show how this town did it
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Adria Watson

Cardona said getting the nation's schools reopened is priority No. 1.

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller wins vacant Senate seat
by Mark Pazniokas

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, won a special election to the state Senate.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The public health bill no one is talking about, but should be
by Brian Festa

On February 16,  the legislature's Public Health Committee conducted a public hearing on two bills, S.B. 568 and H.B. 6423, both of which would eliminate the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for Connecticut schoolchildren.  The hearing was capped at 24 hours, depriving nearly 1,500 members of the public who had registered for the hearing their opportunity to be heard.  The vast majority of those who did testify, and who submitted written testimony, opposed the bill.  The committee is expected to vote on the bill as early as  today. 

Opinion Students need more resources, fewer officers
by Tenille Bonilla

"School resource officer" is just a nice way to say cop. But what students really need is more resource and less officer.

Opinion The Board of Regents’ changes must not shortchange its students or faculty
by Carrie Andreoletti, PhD

As a university professor and a lifespan developmental psychologist, I tend to approach my work from a developmental perspective. This means I aim to foster a lifelong love of learning and to help others find a sense of meaning and purpose, as well as confidence in their ability to reach their goals. My approach to higher education is shaped by my desire to provide the best possible education for my students. This is why the recent Board of Regents’ proposed changes at the four state universities have me worried.

Opinion How to close schooling opportunity gaps created by the pandemic
by Carol Gale

We ask school district leaders to trust your public servants whose daily work life involves assessing student needs and planning or modifying instruction to meet those needs. Listen to their voices, as we have, and allocate precious resources on interventions that will offer increased opportunities for Hartford students to succeed.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO