Hartford Courant articles

David Butler II-Hartford Courant / Special to the Courant  Hartford mayoral candidate Aaron Lewis, pictured during a June forum, announced this week he is changing his party affiliation from Democrat to Libertarian. By HARTFORD COURANT PUBLISHED: September 18, 2019 at 12:43 p.m. | UPDATED: September 18, 2019 at 4:43 p.m. Aaron Lewis, a candidate for Hartford mayor, is changing his party affiliation from Democratic to Libertarian, he announced this week. The publisher and ghostwriter said that historically, “the Democratic Party has posed itself as the party for African Americans and minorities throughout the United States.” “After careful consideration, I’ve concluded that is untrue and that the loyalty that people of color [have] had to the party has been counterproductive,” Lewis said Tuesday. Lewis is the founder and director of The Scribe’s Institute, a literacy organization, and president and CEO of The Scribe’s Ink, a ghostwriting service. He said he was primarily driven to leave the Democratic Party by the state of Hartford Public Schools, which lag far behind the state but also trail Connecticut’s other urban districts in terms of quality. Democrats, in leadership in Hartford since 1971, are responsible for the city’s educational failures, Lewis said. “[The party] doesn’t serve black people, it doesn’t serve middle-class or poor white people, it doesn’t serve Hispanics,” Lewis said. “It serves people at the top tier of the party. “No matter how many times people from the party have said education is better than ever, the research doesn’t lie. It’s very clear, especially in the city of Hartford, the system is not doing well.” He also announced that the Libertarian Party has endorsed his bid for mayor. Lewis was unsuccessful in gathering enough signatures to participate in the Democratic primary earlier this month, in which incumbent Mayor Luke Bronin beat back challengers Eddie Perez, a former Hartford mayor, and Brandon McGee, Jr., a state representative. However, Lewis did collect enough signatures to participate in the Nov. 5 general election. Both he and and Giselle “Gigi” Jacobs, who owns a cleaning company called Sister Soldier Environmental Services, will appear on the ballot as petitioning candidates. Rebecca Lurye can be reached at rlurye@courant.com.

Patrick Raycraft/ Hartford Courant  Gislaine Ngounou, chief of staff of Hartford schools, is stepping down after two years on the job. By HARTFORD COURANT PUBLISHED: July 7, 2016 at 7:04 p.m. | UPDATED: December 12, 2018 at 4:14 p.m. HARTFORD — Gislaine Ngounou, a top aide to Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez who became enmeshed in a controversy that continues to swirl around the city schools, is stepping down after two years on the job. In an email to staff and community members Thursday, Ngounou referred to her time as chief of staff as a journey that has been “simultaneously exciting, inspiring, life-affirming, challenging and, at times, absolutely draining.” Without detailing what led to her departure, Ngounou said that leaving is “one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made,” and that she planned to “pursue other opportunities that will allow me to exercise my leadership and seek social justice in a different capacity.” Her last day at work has not yet been decided, a schools spokesman said. Ngounou did not have an immediate comment when reached Thursday. Next Stay 360p SuNgounou issued a public apology this spring after failing to “aggressively” follow up an allegation that a district administrator was behaving inappropriately with a minor. Eduardo “Eddie” Genao, then the school system’s executive director of compliance, was later charged with felony risk of injury or impairing the morals of a child after police say he sent sexual text messages to a 13-year-old girl. About three weeks before Genao’s April 13 arrest, Aaron Lewis, who knows the girl’s mother, sent a text message to Ngounou warning of “an urgent matter concerning one of your directors with regard to inappropriate child contact.” Genao’s name was not included in the message. Ngounou texted Lewis that afternoon: “I have a couple of minutes now. May I call?” Lewis replied that he was in a meeting. That evening, Ngounou texted that the day had been “hectic” and asked “if it’s too late to connect” or if Lewis had “a few minutes now,” according to screen shots of the March 22 messages that Lewis provided to The Courant. By then, Lewis, president of a literacy group in Hartford called The Scribe’s Institute, said he decided to alert school board Chairman Richard Wareing, sending him an email on March 23 with the subject line “IMPORTANT message from Dr. Lewis.” Wareing said he missed the email. The girl’s mother has said the state’s mandated reporter law should have been followed in the case. Ngounou told colleagues that she assumed she would reconnect with Lewis, “but neither of us followed up on the matter with each other,” she wrote in a districtwide email April 11. “This was an omission of the mind and not an omission of the heart. I take full responsibility for the failure on my part to aggressively pursue more information.” The same day of Ngounou’s apology, Mayor Luke Bronin and Narvaez announced that the school system would review its policies and procedures when school employees hear that a child might be at risk of abuse or neglect, and asked the state Office of the Child Advocate to assist in the investigation. That review is ongoing. Genao, 57, a career educator and former Hartford assistant superintendent, has not yet entered a plea in the criminal case. He resigned on April 5. Last month, Ngounou, Wareing, Narvaez, the city and the board of education were among the defendants named in a civil complaint from the girl’s mother. The lawsuit, alleging negligence, has not yet been filed in court, according to the mother’s attorney, A. Paul Spinella of Hartford. Narvaez implied Thursday that Ngounou had another job lined up. She said she would miss her. “Gislaine receives job offers all the time and I understand that this was an offer she could not refuse,” Narvaez said in a statement. “I am happy that she will be able to share her talents with districts across the country.” Narvaez added that, in light of budget cuts, her chief of staff position would not be filled. Ngounou’s salary this past school year was $176,274. After Narvaez was hired as schools chief in 2014, she personally recruited Ngounou to Hartford after both served in the Montgomery County school system in Maryland. Like Narvaez, Ngounou is an alum of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, receiving her doctorate in education leadership. Before attending Harvard, she was a math teacher and instructional coach in Kansas City, Mo. Ngounou, a native of Cameroon, advocated for “family-friendly” schools in Hartford and was known for encouraging frank conversations about race. She led cultural competency training for school principals and other administrators and was a lead organizer, along with school board member Craig Stallings, of the district’s March 19 symposium on race, racism and equity that brought hundreds to the Bulkeley High School auditorium, where professors gave presentations on the history and effects of institutional racism. It was at that event, Hartford police say, that Genao met the girl, who lives out of state. In Thursday morning’s email, which carried the subject line, “To my Hartford Public Schools’ Community: A Message of Love and Gratitude,” Ngounou said she appreciated others “helping me face the tough conversations and injustices that continue to keep us down,” and lamented “how difficult it is to undo systems of inequities that have existed for far too long in our district and our city.” “Faced with a constant slew of negative attention and poisonous narratives that have done little more than seek to further divide and distract us,” Ngounou wrote, “you continue to do whatever it takes to face the truth, to listen and learn, to focus on the work at hand — even when it becomes personally and professionally painful

Patrick Raycraft / The Hartford Courant  Eduardo Genao walks into Hartford Superior Court onto be arraigned. Genao is a former Hartford school administrator who is charged with risk of Injury of a child. By HARTFORD COURANT PUBLISHED: June 23, 2016 at 5:52 p.m. | UPDATED: December 12, 2018 at 4:19 p.m. HARTFORD — The mother of a 13-year-old girl who police say received sexual text messages from a longtime Hartford school administrator is suing the school system, top school officials and the city of Hartford over alleged negligence in the case. A state marshal was serving the defendants with a civil complaint Thursday, said the woman’s attorney, A. Paul Spinella of Hartford, who expected the lawsuit to be filed in court in the coming days. Eduardo “Eddie” Genao, 57, who is listed as a defendant and accused of inflicting “emotional distress” and trauma on the girl, resigned as the city schools’ executive director of compliance after police confronted him at work over the text messages. He was arrested April 13 on a felony charge of risk of injury or impairing the morals of a child, and has not yet entered a plea in the criminal case. A major allegation in the complaint is that the city and the school system allowed Genao, a career educator who worked for the district since 2005, to prey on the girl despite years-old claims that he sent inappropriate electronic messages to a female student and an employee when he was principal of Sport and Medical Sciences Academy. – Govt focused on ‘lawful’ protests on Armistice Day “The city knew or should have known that they had a very dangerous person in their mix,” Spinella said Thursday. “They didn’t red flag him, they promoted him.” Along with Genao, the complaint names Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez; her chief of staff, Gislaine Ngounou; Hartford Public Schools’ chief labor and legal officer, Jill Cutler-Hodgman; the board of education; board Chairman Richard Wareing; and the city of Hartford. Wareing, who said he was served Thursday, declined to comment. A city spokesman said the city does not comment on pending litigation, and school officials did not have an immediate response. Genao’s defense attorney, Hugh F. Keefe of New Haven, said Thursday that he had not yet read the civil complaint and could not comment. The civil allegations outline the basics of the criminal case, beginning with how Genao met the 13-year-old at a district-sponsored symposium on race and equity at Hartford’s Bulkeley High School in March. The girl’s mother told police that Genao was sitting next to her daughter as she took cellphone photos of a professor’s slideshow on institutional racism. Genao introduced himself as “Eddie” and asked the ninth-grader to text him the photos. Soon after the March 19 event, Genao initiated a text message conversation with the girl that started out friendly, such as confirming that she lived in New York state, police said. The messages eventually turned “sexually explicit” — Genao requested that the girl send “daring” photos of herself and asked whether she had ever “done it” or been sexually aroused, according to the arrest warrant. Police said Genao also texted a photo that showed a man’s bare upper thigh region. Genao, whose educational career in New York City and Hartford spanned more than three decades, abruptly resigned his $176,274-a-year central office job after internal affairs investigators with the Hartford police department seized his personal cellphone on April 5. He has been out on bail since his arrest and is expected to appear in court July 13. Spinella sent letters to city and school officials last month requesting Genao’s personnel file, any complaints against Genao, and all records connected to internal investigations of Genao. He also asked that they not destroy any evidence. One of the records in Genao’s personnel file is a January 2008 written reprimand from while he was Sport and Medical Sciences’ principal for behavior that district officials at the time had deemed “inappropriate and unacceptable.” The district found after an investigation that Genao used “exceedingly poor judgment in engaging in social interactions with a student electronically,” the reprimand states, and that he “engaged in the same conduct with a former student who became an employee; again, you exhibited poor decision-making.” Citing concerns for student privacy, the city’s corporation counsel initially rejected The Courant’s request for records from that investigation and has since been slow to the release them. Among the heavily redacted documents that the city has released are two statements that Genao gave in the presence of a union representative and a worker with the state Department of Children and Families in late 2007. Genao, a church-going, married father of four, said in the interviews that his online chats were “innocent,” that he “never meant anything of a sexual nature” and that his “career and family are on the line.” His online screen name was “Nolocreo5a,” according to the records. In Spanish, “no lo creo” translates to “I don’t believe it.” “I do not have any idea of what I meant when I asked during the chat session if she was talking to Mr. G. or Eddie,” Genao said during one of the interviews. “[Redacted] has never given me any cause to feel I was making her uncomfortable. I did tell her to erase the conversation. It is always a good thing to erase all conversations. I may have asked if she could be online later that night. To my knowledge no student has complained to me about being kissed on the cheek, hugged or intertwining my fingers with theirs.” Genao also said that he had learned his lesson and “prayed for guidance and forgiveness for any mistakes I have made.” Hartford school officials have said that DCF did not substantiate the 2007 claim and that is why Genao’s punishment was limited to a reprimand. A DCF spokesman said last month that the agency could not comment on that case. The same day he accepted the reprimand, Genao requested a job transfer within the school

By HARTFORD COURANT PUBLISHED: April 14, 2016 at 11:27 a.m. | UPDATED: December 12, 2018 at 4:51 p.m. HARTFORD — Former city school official Eduardo “Eddie” Genao, who abruptly resigned last week after being accused of sending inappropriate text messages to a 13-year-old girl, was charged with a felony Wednesday, city police said. Genao, 57, faces a count of risk of injury to a minor, Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said. He said police officers arrested Genao at his home in Hamden. “We served the warrant on him,” Foley said Wednesday night. “He’s in custody.” Genao, a longtime school administrator who recently worked as Hartford schools’ executive director of compliance, declined to respond to the criminal allegations when The Courant approached him outside his house last week. “You know I can’t comment,” he said. 225p 360p Subtitles Off Subtitles EN Up Next – Top Videos – Govt focused on ‘lawful’ protests on Armistice Day Govt focused on ‘lawful’ protests on Armistice Day A copy of the arrest warrant was not available, and a lawyer for Genao could not be reached. Police records show Genao was released about 11:15 p.m. after posting $50,000 bond. Genao is set to appear in court April 20. “This investigation is ongoing,” Foley said in a statement Thursday. He said city police, working with school security, seized Genao’s cellphone at Hartford schools’ central office April 5. Police then served a second search warrant and collected “electronic evidence” from Genao’s home that same day, Foley said. That evidence is still being examined; police are working with the state’s attorney’s office and federal investigators. Genao’s arrest caps a troubling week for the city school system, which has been trying to fend off a potential scandal over its initial handling of the case — in particular, why high-ranking Hartford school officials did not spring into action when informed that a district administrator might be harming a child. Mayor Luke Bronin and Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez said Monday that the city was summoning the state Office of the Child Advocate to help the school system review its policies and procedures when school employees hear that a child might be at risk of abuse or neglect. Narvaez’s chief of staff, Gislaine Ngounou, apologized in a districtwide email Monday for failing to “aggressively pursue more information” after a city resident warned her on March 22 of an “urgent matter concerning one of your directors with regard to inappropriate child contact.” The text message did not name Genao, and after a few back-and-forth texts, Ngounou said in her apology that she ultimately did not reconnect with the tipster, Aaron Lewis, president of a literacy and advocacy group called The Scribe’s Institute. A subsequent email that Lewis sent to school board Chairman Richard Wareing on March 23 did not get a response. Wareing said he missed the email in his inbox. Genao, a former assistant superintendent who had worked for city schools since 2005, resigned his $176,274-a-year compliance job on April 5 after Hartford police informed the district of its criminal probe. Police launched its investigation a day before, on April 4, after a “concerned citizen” told police of “potential inappropriate conduct” between Genao and the girl, who lives out of state, Foley said. Investigators drove to the girl’s home and interviewed her that afternoon. Bronin’s office has said that Hartford police were investigating allegations that Genao “sent inappropriate text messages to a minor” who was not a Hartford student. Genao’s career in education spans more than three decades, beginning in New York City, where he was a founding president of the Association of Dominican-American Supervisors and Administrators, according to his resume and the group’s website. Records show he worked as an instructional superintendent for the New York City Department of Education until he joined Hartford schools as principal for Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in early 2005. Among the records in his personnel file is a written reprimand from January 2008, during his tenure as principal of the magnet school, in which the school system rebuked Genao for using “exceedingly poor judgment in engaging in social interactions with a student electronically.” After the school year ended, Genao became executive director of Hartford’s adult education center in summer 2008, and advanced to several other central office roles over the years. Before his demotion to the compliance job in late 2014, Genao served as assistant superintendent of early literacy and parent engagement.

Patrick Raycraft/Hartford Courant  Gislaine Ngounou, chief of staff of Hartford schools, apologized Monday for not chasing down allegations against Eduardo “Eddie” Genao. By HARTFORD COURANT PUBLISHED: April 11, 2016 at 7:27 p.m. | UPDATED: December 6, 2018 at 1:16 a.m. HARTFORD — A high-ranking Hartford school official has publicly apologized for failing to chase down a recent allegation that a district administrator, now under criminal investigation, was engaging in “potential inappropriate contact” with a minor. “This was an omission of the mind and not an omission of the heart,” Gislaine Ngounou, the superintendent’s chief of staff, wrote in a letter that was emailed to staff districtwide Monday. “I take full responsibility for the failure on my part to aggressively pursue more information.” Ngounou’s apology comes less than a week after Eduardo “Eddie” Genao, a longtime Hartford school administrator, resigned his $176,274-a-year job as the schools’ executive director of compliance after city police notified the district that he was the target of a criminal probe. And it came the same afternoon that Mayor Luke Bronin and Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez announced that the school system would review its policies and procedures when school employees hear that a child might be at risk of abuse or neglect. 225p The state Office of the Child Advocate is being asked to assist in the review so it is “as thorough, as impartial, and as effective as possible,” Bronin said in a statement Monday. He said the state would look specifically into the school system’s handling of the Genao case. The city’s announcement of the review disclosed that Hartford police are investigating allegations that Genao, 57, “sent inappropriate text messages to a minor” who was not a Hartford student. The investigation is ongoing, Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said Monday. Genao, a former school principal and Hartford assistant superintendent of early literacy and parent engagement, has declined to comment on the allegations. He resigned on April 5, shortly after police informed school leaders that Genao was under investigation. That same day, Foley has said, police served search warrants and seized evidence in the case. Genao has not been charged with a crime. “Both as a father and as mayor, I feel a profound responsibility to do everything possible to ensure that kids are protected from harm,” Bronin said Monday. “There needs to be a thorough review of what happened in the reporting of this situation, as well as a broader review of the policies and procedures to ensure that officials respond quickly and forcefully whenever there are any warning signs.” At issue is whether top school officials could have intervened a full two weeks before Genao’s resignation. In her email to staff Monday, which did not name Genao, Ngounou said she regretted “the way I handled an allegation brought to my attention of a potential improper contact between a [Hartford Public Schools] employee and a minor.” She received a text message from Aaron Lewis, president of a literacy and advocacy group called The Scribe’s Institute, on March 22 “concerning an allegation of potential inappropriate contact between an unnamed HPS director and an unnamed minor.” Lewis is friends with the mother of the alleged victim in the criminal investigation. Lewis has provided The Courant with screen shots showing his communication with Ngounou, his neighbor, including an initial text message to Ngounou that warned, “I needed to bring a situation to your attention … It’s an urgent matter concerning one of your directors with regard to inappropriate child contact.” Genao’s name was not included in the text message. Ngounou, a top aide to the superintendent since Narvaez began her tenure in mid-2014, sent a follow-up text message that afternoon saying, “I have a couple of minutes now. May I call?” Lewis replied that he was in a meeting and asked to speak in a half-hour. A few hours later, Ngounou texted that the day had been “hectic” and asked “if it’s too late to connect” or if Lewis had “a few minutes now.” By then, Lewis said he decided to bring the issue to school board Chairman Richard Wareing, sending him an email on March 23 with the subject line “IMPORTANT message from Dr. Lewis,” informing him of his earlier attempt at notifying Ngounou. Lewis said he never got a response from Wareing. Ngounou said in her email Monday that she assumed she would reconnect with Lewis, “but neither of us followed up on the matter with each other. … This was a lapse that does not reflect my own professional standards, my commitment to children, or the importance HPS places on the safety of children attending our schools.” She could not be reached for further comment. In a scathing blog post on The Scribe’s Institute’s website, Lewis called for Narvaez, Ngounou and Wareing to resign or be fired. Asked why he didn’t call Ngounou or Wareing when he considered the matter urgent, Lewis said Monday that “they could never try to flip this on me, because I did due diligence.” The mother of the alleged victim told The Courant on April 6 that she was “disgusted” with what she considered to be an initial wall of indifference. “If this gentleman is working at the board of education and you alert the chief of staff that there’s inappropriate contact between a staff member and a student, and they don’t respond? Then they’re in the wrong position,” the mother said. On Monday, Wareing reiterated that he missed the March 23 email from Lewis and didn’t read it until after Hartford police launched their investigation early last week. “I understand why he is upset,” Wareing said. “He sent me an email; I didn’t see it. Does it bother me that I didn’t see it? Yeah, of course it bothers me, because something came right at me and it got by me without me knowing it was there. A kid could have been hurt, and I don’t think I could have lived with myself if that had happened. … I am torn up by this.”

NEWS Rick Hartford | The Hartford Courant  Eduardo Genao, then Hartford schools’ assistant superintendent for early literacy and parent engagement, led the pledge of allegiance at a 2013 ceremony at Hartford Public Library. By HARTFORD COURANT PUBLISHED: April 6, 2016 at 6:48 p.m. | UPDATED: December 12, 2018 at 4:55 p.m. HARTFORD — A longtime school official has abruptly resigned amid a police investigation, a city schools spokesman said Wednesday. Police informed school officials this week that Eduardo “Eddie” Genao was under criminal investigation, said Pedro Zayas, the district’s director of communications. Genao, the schools’ executive director of compliance, resigned Tuesday. “The alleged victim of this investigation is not a staff member or student of Hartford Public Schools,” Zayas said. The school system is cooperating with the probe, he said. Genao, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, has worked for the school system since 2005, when he became principal of Sport and Medical Sciences Academy, a magnet school. He has held a variety of central office roles, including executive director of the district’s adult education center and assistant superintendent of early literacy and parent engagement. -Presse/Getty Images Genao’s salary this year was $176,274, district records show. His latest job included handling compliance issues with expulsions and adult education. Deputy police Chief Brian Foley said Hartford police and other agencies are involved in the fast-moving investigation. Genao has not been charged with a crime. “Right now, they’re just allegations,” Foley said at a press conference Wednesday morning. He said police served search warrants Tuesday and that evidence was seized, but he declined to discuss the nature of the allegations. The search warrants are sealed, he said. A couple of days ago, a member of the community approached the police “regarding criminal allegations” involving a Hartford schools employee, Foley said. Police then notified the school system. “It’s important to know that, one, no one’s in danger, currently … and we have no indication that any students or staff in the Hartford school system were ever in danger, at this point,” Foley said. Dr. Aaron Lewis, president of a literacy and advocacy group called The Scribe’s Institute, said he sent a text message about two weeks ago to the Hartford superintendent’s chief of staff, Gislaine Ngounou, warning, “I need to bring a situation to your attention” and that it was “urgent.” Genao’s name was not included in the text message. Lewis provided The Courant with screen shots showing his March 22 communication with Ngounou, who sent a follow-up text message that afternoon saying, “I have a couple of minutes now. May I call?” Lewis replied that he was in a meeting and asked to speak in a half-hour. A few hours later, in the evening, Ngounou texted that the day had been “hectic” and asked “if it’s too late to connect.” Because hours had passed since his initial message, Lewis said he decided to bring the matter to school board Chairman Richard Wareing. Lewis emailed Wareing on March 23 with the subject line “IMPORTANT message from Dr. Lewis,” informing him of his earlier attempt at notifying Ngounou regarding an “urgent matter concerning one of your directors.” Lewis forwarded a copy of the email to The Courant. He never got a response from Wareing, Lewis said. “I was extremely disappointed.” “I just found that email,” Wareing said Wednesday. “I didn’t see it when it came in. I missed it. I try to respond to things as quickly as I can, and I missed that one. … Obviously, I get a lot of emails. It’s my work email address. I overlooked it. “If I’d seen it, I would’ve referred it to the superintendent and asked her to deal with it,” Wareing added. “But I didn’t see it.” In response to Lewis’ remarks, Zayas said the “first official notification that the district received was on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 5th, from the Hartford Police Department and the district took immediate action.” Zayas acknowledged in a statement that “Lewis reached out on March 22nd to one of our senior staff members with some information about the alleged incident. The staff member replied attempting to speak with Dr. Lewis, but they were unable to speak directly.” Before he joined Hartford schools, Genao worked as an administrator for the New York City Department of Education until January 2005, according to his resume.