Notes on Meetings with Latino Community Leaders and Background

    Sheff v. O'Neill 
  

  

1/23/91 

3:30 = 6:50 

I. Meetings with Latino Community Leaders 

1) Ana Maria Garcia, Esq. - Head, Hartford Department of   

Social Services, President of La Casa Board. 

Focus of bilingual education has been teaching English 
without emphasizing maintenance of home native 
language. All of it is ESL. Hartford has 11 different 
language bilingual programs. 

Majority of Hartford population is first generation 
from Puerto Rico who are used to teachers having great 
authority and ongoing contact with family. That 
doesn't exist here, but parents are hesitant to 
challenge teachers' recommendations. This results, for 
example, in over-representation in special education. 
Also a problem with teachers from Puerto Rico who are 
middle-class and can be as bad as white teachers. 

. Education isn't priority within our community, 
survival is; 

. parents need meetings at Board of Education 
translated. All Board of Education information 
needs to be translated. Need to demystify the 
Board of Education; 

. Barnard-Brown has a strong bilingual program; 

. Need more Latino administrators; 

. Betances is a model school. It's adult run and 
child geared. Principal has a good rapport with 
parents; 

. Reading program at Betances is a well-run program; 

. Parents need better information on rights when 
child is placed in special education: 

. Need appropriate cultural assessment of kids 
referred to special education; 

. Education system must prepare students for 
employment; 

. Hartford schools don't have very much afterschool 
programs; 

 



  

2) 

3) 

Security is a problem in the schools; 

Sending kids out sends a message to our kids that 
only through our exposure to whites can we "get 
better". Integration is one approach. But 
housing and employment are the areas that need 
help; 

Work through established Latino organizations to 
inform the community of the lawsuit. 

Richie (Raul) Montafiez - Chair of P.R. PAC Education   

Subcommittee, Principal at Hooker School 

His school population is not very aware or 
concerned with lawsuit because survival is the 
priority for this low income neighborhood. Thinks 
there would be support if they know what the 
issues are. They'll be supportive of what helps 
their kids. They believe in the system; they 
trust it. He doesn't think the system is 
providing an adequate education. 

Latinos believe in schools and teachers. 

Need to look at finance formula from City. 

Thinks most of the people would support 
desegregation. Some people would be opposed to 
busing. Parents wouldn't have easy access to 
their kids. These parents don't have cars. 

Must improve neighborhood schools and parents must 
have option to keep kids in these schools. 

A plus is sensitive, committed teachers. 

Teachers may face obstacles, for example, 
overcrowded schools. Bilingual education programs 
are transitional, not maintenance. 

Mildred Torres - La Casa de Puerto Rico   

Busing is a problem. It's not very safe. 

Many parents don't have access to a car and public 
transportation isn't good. 

Neighborhood schools should be strengthened. 

Need more minority teachers and administrators. 

Parental involvement will be limited if there's 
busing. 

 



  

* % 

4) 

5) 

Segregation isn't a bad thing. 

Mix of income range of students is a positive 
thing and doable. Expectations are shared. 

Cut school boundaries to mix income. 

School administrators should have a certain amount 
of flexibility at school level to make local 
decisions. Decentralization. 

Bilingual education/Bicultural education must be 
supported. For example, implement the consent 
decree. 

Wouldn't change standardized curriculum because of 
high mobility in the district. 

Schools are too geared to training students for 
area corp. jobs, rather than focusing on academic 
skills development. 

There are millions of dollars in local corporation 
support of the schools. 

Eugenio Caro - Hartford City Council Member 
  

Pedro 

Present Latino drop-out rate is 57 - 59%. 

Should challenge segregation. 

Financing is an issue. Need more money in the 
schools. Money distribution is unfair. 

Need money targeted to special programs. 

State should have more control of the finances so 
that there will be more accountability. 

Bermudez and 6) Oscar Meléndez - Plaintiff   

  

parents and bilingual teacher and bilingual substitute 

Leaders are aware of suit and its status, but 
uncertain if community is aware. 

Latino press needs to be brought in. 

Need to simplify discussion to the level of 
putting it in non-legal terms. 

Desegregation is an alternative for some of the 
schools. Some schools are over-populated and 
cannot handle so many kids. 

 



  

Schools don't have adequate facilities. 

An important concern is budget cuts to education 
system. 

Bilingual education program is urgently needed 
because more and more Latinos are entering the 
system. 

Bilingual education program curriculum needs to be 
redone and reflect our culture. Needs to be less 
of a transitional program. Need to maintain the 
Latino identity. 

Parents need to understand how the education 
system works. Principals take advantage of this 
to minimize/eliminate the bilingual program. 

Bilingual program elimination would result in many 
Latino professionals losing their jobs. 

School system is politicized and dominates 
education; rather than the children's needs 
running the systen. 

Bused child needs a support system in place, of 
Latino, sensitive personnel. 

Bilingual education's theme should be integrating 
the child into the systen. 

Child needs to be prepared to enter the economic 
system. 

Latino teachers/educators need to be more involved 
in the community's needs. They have a 
responsibility to identify with the Latino 
community. 

Need more parental and teacher involvement in the 
school system. 

 



  

I 

Sheff v. O'Neill 
  

  

2/27/91 

9:45 -:11:50 am 

Background 

Brief discussion of history & status of the case. Brief 

II 

discussion of lack of involvement and participation of 
Hartford Latino leadership and community. 

José Taluz: problem is lack of consensus on benefits of 
integration from the leadership. We need to provide them w/a 
perspective. They are concerned based on what they have seen 
the impact has been on Latino students in deseg. context. 
This is a deliberate and conscious decision on their part. 

  

Cathy & Diego: Meetings w/Latino leadership have revealed the 
hesitance/concern re: integration and the need to improve the 
Hartford schools. 

  

  

Community involvement: Need to take it to the 
grassroots/parents level. Do not have someone like that in 
Hartford. 

There must be forums for only the Latino/Puerto Rican 
community. 

Sector of Latino community wants Hartford school improved. 
Want school reform. Deseg. can then be included in this. 

Cathy: Bilingual education could be basis for restructuring. 
Bilingual Education in Hartford is transitional. We need to 
build on this. Bilingual education is what brings the most 
tension in a deseg. context. 

  

Recommendation: Do a meeting w/Hartford leadership and NYC 
people to discuss the issues more fully, including the 
strategy. 

Education Concerns 
  

A. School Restructuring 
  

Pedro: Definition of minimum stds is problematic because it's 
defined differently for diff. populations. Also, we should 
want more than minimum stds. 

Economic arguments in case cannot stand alone. For Latino 
community there's also question of language and ethnicity. 

We can revisit the school financing issue by focusing on the 
particular needs of Latinos & whether they are factored in the 

 



  

finance formula and where is the money really being allocated. 

Economic flight vs. White flight. Latinos and African- 
American professionals, including teachers, 1live in the 
suburbs. 

Formula weighing is critical. We can argue Latinos have been 
disadvantaged by the weighing. 

B. Options 

Cathy: Considerations - Do we need to include the suburbs in 
this? Why would it be good to send a Puerto Rican child to 
a suburban school? 

In theory integration would benefit students, but the reality 
of the response by parents, teachers, and administrators to 
Puerto Rican student influx is different. 

Problem with integration definition is that historically it 
has meant small numbers of minorities going to majority 
student setting. 

We need to prepare our population for an integrated society.