To the Editor:
With Stamford’s new superintendent selection process under way with —
- Stakeholder input in January
- Position posting in February
- Application review & semifinal interviews in March
- Final interviews & appointment in April
— the majority party on the Board of Education now wants to ‘look good’ for the incoming superintendent. So, despite the turmoil they have created the last six years—prioritizing politics over kids and ignoring any student, parent or educator input—this group wants to continue implementing ineffective initiatives for yet another year, from 2026 until 2027.
Certainly, they must realize that the new superintendent will inherit their failed policies, failing schools and reactive follow through.
Evidently, this group of bureaucrats needs another strong reminder.
Only 23.2% (Mathematics) and 50.6% (English Language Arts/ELA) of the Class of 2025 met or exceeded benchmark levels on the Scholastic Assessment Test, compared to 37.7% and 55.3%, respectively, for the Class of 2019.
Stamford has a huge achievement gap, and COVID and teachers are not to blame. Top-down decisions from the central office created this problem—lowering standards, eliminating mid-terms and finals, changing the high school schedule several times, etc.
This Board of Education can make changes immediately because it has ultimate control over decision-making. State education law emphasizes local Boards have the sole and unquestionable right, responsibility and prerogative to direct the operation of the public schools in all its aspects (Chapter 170). Although the outgoing superintendent may run daily operations and provide oversight, the current board has the power to fix governance issues and override sloppy management decisions now. Let’s see if all nine Board of Education members really understand the damage that has been done…
Unaccountable Administrators
The district currently employs 84+ administrators at a total cost of $21-22M—approximately 68 administrators in the schools and 17 at the central office level. All SAU (Stamford Administrator Union) administrators received raises at the recent December board meeting in an 8-1 vote, but accountability is still very lax or non-existent, especially for those operating out of the Government Center ($6-7M).
Only 5 out of 23 School Improvement Plans were completed by July 2025; this isn’t the first time over six years… why? Some administrators at the central office were given title changes or lateral moves, yet test scores remain stagnant, curriculums are still not provided for all departments/subgroups, and thousands of dollars of curriculum were destroyed without alerting the entire Board of Education… why? The Connecticut Code of Professional Responsibility for Administrators has also been overlooked due to inconsistent policy implementation and supervision. The board allowed all this under their watch… who is supervising who?
Ineffective Secondary Schedules
The new high school Flexible Schedule was instituted to help 14% of Stamford Public Schools failing freshmen. What evolved for all students, either using a 4×4 or 4×4/AB schedule, is a cram-it-jam-it experience for the majority of students with little or no time to process content, lack of continuity in subject matter, and no equity. In fact, this created so much tension, four school administrators were put on ‘temporary detention’, unbeknownst to the entire Board of Education… why?
Even more appalling, Coalition of Essential School research suggests large high schools — Stamford High School and Westhill High School, with 2,000+ students — implement learning academies for groups that need extra structure and support—e.g., freshmen. This strategy was shared with central office but ignored. In addition, AITE, the smallest of three Stamford high schools (700 students) was forced to drop its top ten standing with Niche and give up its A/B schedule. The board allowed all this under its watch… who is supervising who?
The new middle school schedule only expects students to have three of four quarters in core classes—math, science, social studies and ELA. Test results for 2024-2025 matter and 4 out of 5 stand-alone, grade 6-8 programs (Cloonan, Dolan, Rippowam, Turn of River) are performing at the lowest quartile out of 252 Connecticut middle schools—6 years ago, all four were in the third quartile (Stamford Public Schools are declining). This decision to cut out core subject learning is devastating. The Board of Education allowed this under its watch… who is supervising who?
The teacher contract has been reviewed and the board can go back to the high school 8-period/AB Block & middle school 6 period/4-Core schedules. Both are permissible without renegotiation. There are no legal ramifications. Financially, the decision to go with the flexible high school schedule last year (strong-armed via votes), was to pay for 11-12 Special Education Administrators ($2M). Read on, there seems to be a disconnect—this decision has had serious ramifications, too.
Failing Special Education Department
Although new Special Education administrators were hired, it seems there are huge implementation inconsistencies across schools. District leaders, principals and building Special Education administrators are still making mistakes (supposedly an internal audit was conducted to eliminate this last year). Most concerning, children with IEPs/Individual Education Plans, are not receiving consistent services. Knowing there is a shortage of special education teachers and service providers, compensatory time will be added this summer. Are families with IEP kids aware of details? Why is this new system not working?
Who Is Supervising Who?
Board of Education members need to stand against this mediocrity—these issues should not be happening. Watch how the board votes on Wednesday, January 7—hopefully to set a new tone of success rather than failure. Although a new superintendent starts July 1, 2026 and inherits the 2026-2027 budget, this board can stand on integrity and principle, showing the incoming leader it really cares about the Stamford Public Schools students, curriculum, instruction and assessment, not politics. Experienced superintendents are not fooled and know how to build healthy systems. Fingers crossed—families and taxpayers are not fooled either.
Dr. Rebecca Hamman currently serves as a member of the Stamford 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.