***Note: This story contains corrected text, amended since the original broadcast and web publishing date***
The Hartford Public School District has entered into a 10-year agreement with Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network, the parent of WNPR, to build a "Learning Lab" for high school seniors.
Under the deal, 100 students from the city's Journalism and Media Academy would complete a senior "capstone" year at the new facility, spanning two currently vacant floors of CPBN's headquarters in Hartford's Asylum Hill neighborhood, which also houses WNPR and CPTV. The Learning Lab opens in 2013.
Jerry Franklin, the President and CEO of the company called the project "unique" for a broadcast company.
"We could stand on the sidelines and say, 'Well gee, we are educational broadcasters, we don't have to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. But we decided to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. We think we have some expertise, we think the excitement of the media can be a motivating force, and that's one of the reasons we're getting involved," Franklin said in an interview.
Franklin says he hopes the project can help improve test scores and the dropout rate in Hartford, and spark "intellectual curiosity" among city students.
But it's a big commitment - a total of $10 million from various stakeholders over the first five years. The first piece of funding is coming from private donors - $3.5 million to retrofit the facility and bring in new technology. Franklin says about half that money has been raised, and he's put board member Peter Kelly, a prominent national Democratic fundraiser, in charge of raising the remainding funds.
Last year, CPBN hired Matt Hennessy, the one-time Chief of Staff for former mayor Eddie Perez, to help raise money for the project. According to Franklin, Hennessy was to help "shape and page our message to our constituents about the Learning Lab," with the company's end goal to secure $1 million in federal money to help with building costs.
Hennessy's contract with the company ended early, under mutual agreement, shortly after the new Republican House took control in January of 2011 - when Franklin says it became unlikely that the federal fundraising strategy would work. Hennessy was paid $29,400 for his efforts over six months.
Franklin said the company is still pursuing federal funding, using "framework language" that Hennessy helped to develop.
For its part, the Hartford Public Schools will pay CPBN about $700,000 a year to host the Learning Lab. District teachers will work alongside company employees.
At the press conference announcing the signing, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto pointed to one sign of the cultural differences between a media company that's taken big chances on programs like Barney and women's basketball, and a school system that's methodically planned an overhaul from being one of the worst in the country.
Kishimoto drew laughter after Franklin called the new project an "experiment" one too many times.
"So, we like to call it a 'wonderful design' instead of a 'wonderful experiment,'" she said.
