Melissa Bailey Photo
Teachers will show up an hour early to school, and bring their lunches into the student caf, when New Haven’s environmental-themed magnet school undergoes changes next year as part of the city’s school reform drive.
Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School on Derby Avenue was one of seven city schools to be “graded” and placed into three tiers in March as part of the city’s ambitious plan to boost student achievement.
Barnard Principal Mike Crocco (pictured above with Assistant Principal Yolanda Generette) outlined some changes he’s planning at last week’s school board meeting. Almost all of the teachers will stay on at the school in the fall to see the new plan through, he said.
Barnard is one of three schools placed in Tier III, meaning it ranked low for student performance, engagement and improvement.
The district is trying different approaches for those three. The Urban Youth Center will be taken over by a charter school group and reopened with new leadership and dramatically different rules. Brennan/Rogers will still be run by the district, but will be “reconstituted.” Those two, dubbed “turnaround” schools will have a longer school day for kids. Both will have dramatic teacher turnover: Teachers had to reapply for their jobs, and were guaranteed a placement within the district if they didn’t re-earn their spots.
Barnard is dubbed a “Tier III improvement school,” not a “turnaround.” As such, the changes Crocco laid out are less dramatic.
As in the other Tier III schools, teachers who want to continue working at Barnard will face new rules.
Under the new plan, students won’t have to spend more time in school, but teachers will. They’ll show up an hour early for a mandatory collaboration session with other teachers. They’ll be paid extra for the longer day. At lunchtime, teachers will eat alongside their students in the cafeteria. The point is to maximize the time that students are learning, and building relationships with adults, Crocco said.
“The building needs to take on a family feel,” the principal said. He said he’d like to “transform the cafeteria into an extension of the classroom.”
Crocco, who’s been with the district for 11 years, took over Barnard in the fall of 2008. His plans for next year focus on four areas: reallocating student and staff time, training the teaching force, “creating strong connections among adults and students,” and integrating the school’s environmental magnet theme into the curriculum.
Starting in the fall, all teachers will greet students at the door and say goodbye to them at the end of the day, he said. Like several other schools piloting the reforms, Barnard will bring in a so-called Positive Behavior Support system that rewards kids for being good.
Teachers in the middle grades will set up advisory periods for students in grades six to eight.
Barnard has between 30 and 35 teachers, Crocco said. Unlike at Urban Youth and Brennan/Rogers, they didn’t have to reapply for their jobs. And unlike at the two turnaround schools, Barnard teachers were not guaranteed a spot in the district if they decided to leave the school. They were given the choice to stay at Barnard, or else seek employment elsewhere, Crocco said.
All but one teacher has agreed to stay with the school as it undergoes these changes, according to Crocco.
Next year, he’ll add three to four new teachers to the Barnard ranks. These first-year teachers will each be paired with a veteran teacher for a “co-teaching” program. The veteran teacher will join the rookie in the classroom, leading literacy classes and literacy intervention. When the rookie takes over for a lesson, the veteran teacher leader will be freed for another duty — teaching interventions in a half-dozen other classrooms in the school, Crocco said. The point is to set up a new way where young teachers will have on-the-job training, and veteran teachers will have the time to lead a team of colleagues as well.
The new teachers will also help serve an expanding student body: The school will grow from 500 to 600 students next year, Crocco said.
The principal said he’s spending the summer working on restructuring how the school runs, according to the plan. On Wednesday, a week after school closed for the summer, he answered the school’s main number. He said he was working there alone.
“I’m going to be working very hard all summer,” he said. “I’m very excited about the changes that are happening.”