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Schools Line Up For State Intervention

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

January 11, 2013

Seven school district leaders have informed the Connecticut Department of Education that they are interested in having the state intervene in one of their low performing schools next school year.

The state intervened this school year in a school in Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Norwich. However, the $7.5 million appropriated to pay for reforms such as longer school days and improved technology was partially raided midyear by state lawmakers to help close the state's budget deficit.

This year's applicants for the state's help include Bridgeport's Paul Laurence Dunbar School, New Britain's DiLoreto Magnet School, Norwalk's Richard Briggs Alternate High School, Waterbury's Crosby High School and Walsh Elementary School, Windham's middle school and several schools in New Haven.

Read the letters of interest here.

There is no money for additional schools to receive state intervention. Connecticut faces a deficit of as high as $1.2 billion for the coming fiscal year.

Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor has the authority to intervene in up to 25 schools over the next two years, and he has said he intends to seek additional funds from the state legislature to cover the cost of intervening in the additional schools.

Getting more state oversight and involvement in the worst-off schools were two of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's major education initiatives during the last legislative session.