Officials don’t want to let the public know about it yet, but they alerted staff and some parents at the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy this week that they’re planning to turn over New Haven’s first school to a for-profit company.
School officials and representatives from Renaissance School Services, LLC, a Califon, N.J.-based school management company, met Thursday with parents in the K‑8 school’s new building at 360 Columbus Ave. in the Hill. The meeting followed a similar one Monday, where staff at the school learned of changes afoot.
Clemente, which has been considered a failing school for nearly a decade, has been tapped as a “turnaround” school as part of the city’s new school reform effort. Schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo revealed in March that he was in talks with a company to manage Clemente in the fall.
New Haven school reform czar Garth Harries, who took part in the meetings this week, confirmed Monday that the district is talking to Renaissance about a possible “turnaround” at Clemente, but he said no contract has been signed. If the deal goes through, Clemente would become the first city school to be taken over by a for-profit entity.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Clemente’s new building opened in September.
Renaissance School Services, LLC was founded by Richard O’Neill. The company website bills O’Neill as “one of the most experienced turnaround experts in the U.S., having managed the first state contract directly awarding failing schools to outside management in Baltimore in 2000.” O’Neill and his business partner have “worked in turnaround” in over 25 failing schools, the website says.
The company runs schools in Delaware, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, according to New Haven teachers union President Dave Cicarella.
Kids Stay
Cicarella said he in general has reservations that charter companies would skim the most talented kids from the district, leaving other schools with more on their plates. However, he said he met this week with O’Neill to discuss the possible takeover, and he was encouraged by what he learned about the company.
“The unique thing about them is, they’ve done charter schools, but they’ve also done traditional schools,” Cicarella said.
“The one thing that’s encouraging about them is they will take the whole school” — including all the students — and run it as a public school with an outside management company. “That’s what they’re considering at Clemente.”
“They don’t try to push out the bilingual kids, the discipline kids, the ELLs [English language learners],” he said. “They take everyone, lock, stock and barrel.”
The company “work[s] directly with underperforming district schools and underperforming charter schools,” according to its website. “We have also worked directly with states that have intervened on behalf of failing schools, and with state-appointed panels overseeing failing schools.”
Renaissance uses its own “performance metrics, academic information databases and analytics, teacher rating systems, and teacher recruitment program” in its turnaround schools, the site says. While the site lists no physical address for the company, it is listed in a New Jersey government database with an address in that state.
Schools Superintendent Mayo has said the district tapped Clemente for an overhaul because the school has been on the federal watch list for failing schools for nine years — the longest of any school in the district.
Mayo rolled out the “turnaround” model for the first time last fall, in year one of an ambitious effort to close the city achievement gap and restructure failing schools. As part of the initiative, all city schools are “graded” and placed into three tiers; Clemente landed in the bottom rung and is one of 11 schools slated for “transformations” next fall.
The city currently has two turnaround schools: Brennan/Rogers, which was kept in-house, run by the district with more flexible rules; and Domus Academy, which was taken over by a Stamford-based not-for-profit charter group.
With 538 students at Clemente, the turnaround would be a far bigger undertaking than the one at Domus, which opened with 48 kids.
Teachers Await Word
Because Clemente is a turnaround, all the 45 teachers at the school will have to reapply for their jobs if they want to keep teaching there.
Melissa Bailey File Photo
The first day of school at Clemente’s new building.
Teachers have already been told the work rules at the new school, regardless of whether an outside company takes over.
The student school day will be capped at 6.5 hours, shorter than, say, at Domus Academy, where students log nine hours in school.
Teachers will have to spend an extra two hours at school prepping for classes. They’ll be required to take on student advisory responsibilities. And they have to promise to “check email and phone messages at least 2 times per day,” and “respond to all email or phone messages from parents within twenty four hours.”
If teachers don’t like those terms, or if they are not chosen for the job, they’ll be guaranteed a job at another school within the district. The provisions are all part of a landmark teachers contract approved in 2009.
There’s no hard contractual deadline for when the district has to make a decision on which teachers to hire back at a turnaround school, said Cicarella.
“The goal is — whether you’re returning to your building or not — when teachers leave for summer vacation, every teacher knows what their placement is for next year.”
As part of the change-up, Principal Leroy Williams will step down as principal after 16 years.
Reached this week, Williams said he didn’t have any details on the changes ahead.
“They announced this on Monday to my staff,” he said, but he wasn’t present at the meeting. “I’m not really aware” of the plans in store.
Transparency
School officials are releasing little information about the upcoming arrangement.
Parents were invited to learn about the changes through flyers, sent home in English and Spanish and left in the main office.
The school district barred the media from the meeting. Before the meeting started, Chris Hoffman, the schools’ new $78,793-salary spokesman, alerted a school security guard to keep reporters out. Hoffman himself showed up to the meeting and made sure that a reporter wasn’t let in.
Since they launched in 2009 a citywide school reform campaign to close the achievement gap, the mayor and superintendent have declared the process would be transparent.
Hoffman said Thursday the district cannot disclose any details on the turnaround now because the plans have not been made official. That means no public debate on the plans or the ideas behind them is to take place until an agreement is reached.
“When this process is complete, at that point we will be transparent,” Hoffman said.
Click on the play arrow at the top of this story to watch him explain that vision of transparency as he barred the press Thursday night.