“It’s not personal; it’s just business.”
The approach that some Stamford Board of Education (BOE) members have taken with the 2025-2026 budget, secondary schedules, special education reorganization and contract completion of a ‘lame duck’ superintendent continues the pattern of poor governance and risks chaos with programming. Since dealing with families and learning is highly personal, the BOE can never take the students out of the business equation. Unfortunately, they have. Although teaching and learning priorities and finances may look neat and tidy now, there is grave danger ahead.
Saving money so more programs can be instituted should never take priority when collaboration has purposely been ignored. Quantity over quality will not work in the business of learning. Approximately 16,200 stakeholders (8,000 students, 7,000 parents and 1,200 teachers) will start the year with less trust in their children’s central office leaders than ever before. Force without collaboration is causing families to flee the district this summer and moving forward. Even more devastating, overall achievement looks dismal for Stamford Public Schools (SPS). Why has there not been more caution taken or collaboration allowed all along?
Fall-Out Issues
The 2025-2026 implementation fall-out is obvious for those who have sounded concerns from December 2024 to May 2025 (and even three years prior). There is a lack of robust research behind the 2025-2026 initiatives, lack of core subject continuity for grade 6-12 block schedules, lack of classroom substitutes needed to support new schedules, and lack of tutors for grade 9-12 students if they are absent this coming year. Why have these details been overlooked when making major implementation and financial decisions?
Ethical & Policy Concerns
The BOE president has not been fully transparent with the public. Employed by a non-profit agency that SPS uses (is that even ethical?), he did not recuse himself from three budget votes (2023, 2024, 2025). Although he recused himself one time dealing with his agency’s small financial request, he has had direct as well as indirect input with all budget decision making—even when his agency was facing cuts and then were re-budgeted. In fact, any discussions this year dealing with the finance director had to be supervised by the BOE President or the BOE Finance Chair—both majority members who voted for the current budget. Any other budget options were quickly downplayed.
The BOE President has also not consistently kept the full Board aware of personnel issues (Policy 4117 Dismissal/Suspension/Disciplinary Action), nor held executive meetings to discuss decisions that needed to be made by all nine members (e.g., allowing the superintendent to fulfill her 3-year contract). All Board officials are duly elected and should be active participants in the decision-making process.
Call To Action
Stamford Public Schools is in dire need of an objective, interim superintendent to oversee the entire transition. A new superintendent should be allowed to make decisions about any new initiatives being implemented, not the outgoing superintendent. To legally protect ourselves as well as the current superintendent in place, we need to part ways.
Since new initiatives have not been implemented, we need to end the high school flexible schedule now…in fact, it is a crisis in-the-making. Central office is much too inexperienced to understand what will happen. The budget needs serious revision, too. It is not too late to change course.
Sadly, will it take a crisis to bring back logic and common sense to our BOE? When we lead, or are being led; when we collaborate, or we communicate, the BOE should be doing this with the entire community, not as partisan leaders. The community and future of our schools are personal. The BOE can never take the children, policies and stakeholders out of Stamford’s growing and thriving equation.
The Stamford BOE needs a reset. Parents, please be ready to speak out on Tuesday, June 24th, 7PM (5th Floor, Government Center)… your child’s learning depends on it.
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Dr. Rebecca Hamman currently serves as a member of the Stamford Board of Education. She is a career educator and has worked for 11 years in elementary education and 15 years in secondary. Her comments are her own, and do not represent the official views of the Board of Education or its committees.