Waterbury Board terminates Christina Moore’s teaching contract after impartial hearing recommendation

The Waterbury Board of Education voted Feb. 20 to adopt the findings and recommendation of impartial hearing officer Michael Ritchie and terminate the teaching contract of Christina Moore, effective Feb. 20, 2025.

Board President Hernandez presided as Commissioner Arling moved to receive the impartial hearing officer's report and adopt his findings of fact dated Jan. 28, 2025, a motion the board approved by voice vote.

The decision follows presentations by the district’s attorneys and public remarks by Christina Moore, who spoke to the board after the regular agenda was suspended to allow her to address commissioners. Connor McNamara, an attorney at Secor Cassidy & McPartland who said he represented the Waterbury Board in the impartial hearing, described the board’s role in considering the impartial hearing officer’s recommendation and referenced Connecticut General Statute 10-151 in the motion paperwork.

Moore identified herself as the interim principal assigned to the district’s alternative program, Enlightenment, and told the board she had submitted nearly 100 pages of documentation she said showed staffing, safety and equity concerns at the school. Moore said she had raised issues including “a malfunctioning” metal detector that had not been serviced for 10 years, staffing shortages, and what she described as district failures to address safety after she reported a student homicide.

Moore also told the board that the U.S. Department of Justice visited Enlightenment on Jan. 2, 2024, and she said additional security and programmatic supports later put in place followed staff resignations and arrests after her departure. Moore called on the board to consider the documentation she had submitted and asserted that the hearing officer’s written award summarized her record in only one generalized fact.

Beatrice Somerville, who identified herself as Moore’s mother, spoke during public comment and urged the board to consider Moore’s record and the documentation Moore presented during the hearing process.

Attorney Eric Brown identified himself as representing the School Administrators of Waterbury and noted that Christina Moore’s association would like to address the board; the board temporarily suspended the regular order of business to allow Moore to speak.

The board approved two separate but related motions: to receive and place on file the impartial hearing officer’s report and findings of fact, and to adopt the hearing officer’s recommendation terminating Moore’s contract under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-151. Both motions passed on voice votes after brief procedural discussion; no roll-call tallies were announced in the public record.

The impartial hearing officer’s report is dated Jan. 28, 2025, and the termination is effective Feb. 20, 2025. The board did not provide additional administrative or employment details at the meeting.

The termination concluded the item listed on the board agenda as a matter arising from an impartial hearing; commissioners did not announce further follow-up actions at the meeting.