Memo from Stone to File Re: Interview with Dino Galiano; Interview with Antres Buford

    PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL 

April 2, 1991 

TO +: Sheff Files 

FROM: Martha Stone 

RE +: Interview with Dino Galiano - April 1, 1991 

Dino Galiano was Assistant Superintendent until he was 
suspended on the afternoon we met with him! He is the husband of 
Angie Galiano, who 1s the head of the State Department of 
Education’s Bilingual Program. 

l. The interdistrict program recently set up at the Y has 
not been that successful. It contains students who are 
mostly white, and has not resulted in the integration 
they had hoped. 

He indicated that because of the handicaps relating to 
poverty and low birth weight, etc. that children in 
their system start with, one can analogize to a student 
who has an eyesight problem but who starts school 
without glasses. He stated in response to the issue 
relating to the same rate of growth on the mastery tests 
between suburban and urban that the NCE (normal curve 
equivalent) would need to be 1.1 to be equivalent to .3 
-.6 in West Hartford. Bob Nearine is the person with 
the most expertise in this area. 

They had a textbook plan which would have phased in 
textbooks in over several years. Because of budget 
problems, they have had to pull back $250,000 from this 
plan and delay implementation of new textbooks. 

There are an additional fifty special education students 
this year into the system which they hadn’t anticipated 
and can't really ‘program for. Special education 
students count for 18% of the students in the Hartford 
system.  



  

10. 

1X1. 

12. 

13, 

Bob Nearine could do a study with matched scores from 
the mastery test data and a study with unmatched scores 
to attempt to show length of time in poverty status. 

CCEG has a report to cut administration in support 
services. 

The Aetna Foundation had funded a program called HESSY 
(Hartford Effective Strategies...) which was very 
successful but the funding dried up. The Hartford 
Foundation funded the Abracadabra program which was also 
very successful which had small class sizes, an extra 
teacher, and paraprofessional in the class. Another 
program called High Horizons which targeted the floaters 
in the system was also successful, but crumbled because 
of clack: of funding. There used to be a community 
scholarship program for students to go to college which 
has been phased out because of lack of funding. 

The defecit in special ed prevents the HBOE from funding 
some of these successful programs. 

See Mary Wilson, 722-8669 for more information about 
these programs 

They had a plan to convert the IRIT into the Abracadabra 
program. They asked the state to relax the rules, but 
the state said no. 

The state has given HBOE only a 5% increase in funding 
for bilingual programs but the numbers are so great, 
they have had to cut back on their programs. See 
Ednelly Maraschal for more information. 

K-2 art is not taught by an art teacher. Alan Jones is 
head of art and music curriculum and Lou Bazano is head 
of phys ed. As for computers, there are 363 for the 
high school, 92 for the middle schools, and 360 in the 
elementary schools. 

TAG program has been cut in half. 

There is a report by Abramson re space utilization. 

They have written a proposal for a vocational training 
center to mainstream special ed program back into 
Hartford. 

 



  

14. 

15, 

16. 

17. 

Rich Pearson has been working on a program for summer 
training and employment which would be funded by HBOE 
and State Department of Education. 

There is a task Force to develop a Remediation Plan. 
The EERA money from the state to fund remediation is 
decreasing. 

The state Board of Education has brought in two 
researchers, Kenji Hakuta and David Ramirez , two 
bilingual experts. (See “Board Report”- highlights) 
Also Krasin and Jim Cummings 22? 

He believes as part of any remedial plan there should 
be: 

- more mental health professionals 
- combination of Comer, Abracadabra program (Madeline 
Hunter model), HESSY and High Horizons 

 



  

PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL 

April 2, 1991 

TO +: Sheff Files 

FROM: Martha Stone 

RE +: Interview with Antres Buford, Assistant Coordiantor, Drop- 
out Prevention - April 1, 1991 

1. Project Bridge is a drop-out prevention program which 
operates with one teacher to twelve to fifteen students. 
Because of the small teacher/student ratio, there are 
high expectations of the students. Special counselors 
are also assigned to the program. It operates at the 
high schools and middle schools, but unfortunately, not 
at the elementary schools. There is a grant proposal in 
to expand this at the elementary school level. (See 
federal grant proposal in the Drop-out prevention file) 
Presently, the Chamber of Commerce, Ch. I and the 
general budget pay for the program. Two drop-out 
counselors are paid by the state by the Priority 
District State Grant. 

2. The Hartford Courant’s statistics on the drop-out rate 
are incorrect. Over the past four years it has been 
around 39.3%, not over 50%, which the paper has 
reported. 

There is a State Department of Education document called 
Drop-out Prevention Program Data for twenty-five 
Districts 1987-88 and 1989-90. 

Ck. comparisons because Hartford counts no-shows as part 
of their drop-out rates. 

3. Joe Constantine would have the drop-out rate for 
colleges; Bob Nearine would have the mobility rate. 

Ms. Burford gave us a number of documents relating to drop- 
out prevention which were put in the HBOE file.