New London — Representatives of Dalio Philanthropies visited The Day on Wednesday morning to provide updates on the request for information process and CEO search for the Partnership for Connecticut, and to explain their controversial exemption from state Freedom of Information law.

Dalio Philanthropies, founded in 2003 by billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio and his wife, Barbara, is donating $100 million to support public education and new businesses in some of the state's most disadvantaged communities. The state plans to leverage the donation into a $300 million investment over five years, with the state matching Dalio's $100 million and another $100 million to be raised by Partnership for Connecticut.

The mission is to help "disengaged and disconnected" Connecticut youth access educational and career opportunities. But it has raised concerns over transparency after state lawmakers agreed the spending and policy-making of the new partnership will be overseen by a nonprofit entity, and not a government agency, making it exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act and ethics rules.

Andrew Ferguson, chief education officer for Dalio Philanthropies, said the foundation has contributed $60 million to public schools in Connecticut from 2015 through 2018.

Joining Ferguson and Barbara Dalio at the editorial board meeting Wednesday was Roy Occhiogrosso of the public relations firm Global Strategy Group. Dalio shared her vision and what she's learned from listening to educators, while Ferguson did most of the talking and explained reasons for wanting the "flexibility" of closed-door meetings.

Dalio said "disengaged" youth are those who have a school attendance rate below 85%, have been suspended, incarcerated or expelled, and have failed at least two courses.

Partnership for Connecticut says 39,000 public high school students are disengaged or disconnected from school, a number Ferguson said comes from the 2016 Untapped Potential report, which Dalio Philanthropies commissioned.

To get input as it determines strategies to achieve its mission, Partnership for Connecticut issued a request for information and got 357 responses from teachers, companies, youth programs and workforce development boards, Dalio and Ferguson said.

Dalio said the top recurring topic is mental health, about which respondents say many more social workers and psychologists are needed in schools. Other takeaways from the responses, she said, are desires for more hands-on learning, more summer internships and more arts access.

She said a community forum was held in Norwalk, but another one was canceled because of the coronavirus. The hope is to eventually have public forums in New London and Norwich.

Ferguson said that at the next board meeting for the Partnership for Connecticut, on March 23, the requests for information will be made public and there will be a discussion about hiring a CEO. The board created a search committee in October.

"Up until now there was no structure, no anything, so it's very difficult to accomplish anything if there's no staff," Dalio said.

Partnership for Connecticut Board Chairman Erik Clemons said Occhiogrosso could continue coordinating media access for the Partnership for Connecticut until the CEO is hired, The Connecticut Mirror reported last week.

Ferguson on Wednesday said Dalio Philanthropies, not the Partnership for Connecticut, contracted with Global Strategy Group a month ago. Since Dalio Philanthropies is private, he said the contract amount is private.

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, expressed concern last week that "there is too much commingling of the Dalio Foundation and the Dalio family and this partnership," the Mirror reported. Ferguson declined to respond to this concern Wednesday.

The meeting at The Day came five days after the state legislature's Government Administration and Elections Committee heard testimony on a bill that would eliminate the Partnership for Connecticut's exemption from Freedom of Information law.

Dalio said the board thought it would be "easier for them and more productive" to have certain discussions in private, "because otherwise it would be difficult for them to disagree among each other or feel open."

She also said abiding by FOI laws would make it difficult to talk about why some youth programs are not working without insulting them or making them "feel lesser."

"We all have to act differently in this state to truly realize the potential of every single kid, we all need to compromise, and to compromise, it's really hard to do that in a fishbowl," Ferguson added.

He spoke of wanting to hear the experiences and hardships of young people who don't normally show up at public meetings and wouldn't want to be on the front page of the newspaper.

Ferguson also noted that it would be "nearly impossible" to raise $100 million from mostly private donors if all email correspondence to prospective donors could be public.

He looks at how the legislative caucus operates as a model and an analogy, saying "blunt conversations" can happen in private but the eventual compromise and all the money spent will then be made public.

"Every single dollar spent, we agree with you, should be public," Ferguson said. He also noted that all meeting minutes and votes taken are public.

e.moser@theday.com