Melissa Bailey Photo
One school is getting a new home and a nearly 10-hour school day. At the other, teachers will send home five-minute DVDs introducing themselves to parents, while the principal aims to share her turnaround story with Oprah.
Those details emerged at the Board of Education’s meeting Monday, as staff from the Brennan/Rogers School and the new Domus Academy shared their plans for the fall.
When the city “graded” seven schools in March as part of an ambitious system-wide school reform effort, both schools were marked as failing. Now they’re undertaking dramatic, and different, improvement plans. Brennan/Rogers, a K‑8 school in West Rock, is staying within the district as a “turnaround” school. The city hired Domus, a social services agency that runs two charter schools in Stamford, to take over the Urban Youth Center.
Principal Karen Lott (pictured above), who took over Brennan/Rogers in August 2009, is shaking up her K‑8 school, which is made up of Katherine Brennan (3 – 8) and Clarence Rogers (K‑2). The new year will bring a slew of new teachers an expanded rewards system for good behavior: Click here to read a story about some of the changes afoot.
Lott announced Monday that she is closing in on her goal of filling out her 45-person teaching staff. Only 18 of the 34 teachers reapplied for their jobs; 13 were hired back. Amid a teaching shortage, over 200 people applied for the remaining spots.
Two new hires at Brennan/Rogers appeared on a personnel list approved by the board Monday. A Dartmouth College grad with eight years’ teaching experience will teach the fifth grade. Singer/songwriter Jennifer Dauphinais will join the ranks as a co-teacher for one of the younger grades.
Lott said she has four more spots to fill. Meanwhile, teachers will get a head start on the school year: They’ll be called in to work on Aug. 9 for an eight-day training session. Once school starts, they’ll face a longer-than-usual day.
The Brennan/Rogers school day used to go from 8:20 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. Next year, it will stretch to 4:15 p.m., five days per week. On Wednesdays, students will get out two hours early, so that teachers can squeeze in two hours of professional development, Lott said.
Lott said next year, teachers will go an extra step to reach out to parents. Teachers will record five-minute videos introducing themselves to parents and to their classrooms. Students will take the DVDs home to their parents, so they can pop them into the TV.
The announcement prompted a few surprised giggles from the teachers in the audience.
Lott announced a more ambitious TV aspiration, too — she aims to land a spot on Oprah in two years, recounting how students at a low-performing school, beset by poverty, rose to be a top-performing school.
“We are going on Oprah to be hailed as an exemplary model of an urban school success story!” Lott wrote in a playful parenthetical on her Power Point.
Board members overlooked the slight obstacle that Oprah’s packing up her show in September 2011. They commended her for her enthusiasm, and her commitment to more serious goals: Boosting scores on Connecticut Mastery Tests and getting kids’ literacy levels up to grade level.
Decreasing the school’s attrition rate is also high on her list. Many students leave Brennan/Rogers after second grade, she said. Lott said she’d like to retain more students, and get them more engaged in school.
Domus staff are preparing for even more sweeping changes for the former Urban Youth Center. The small middle school serves kids in grades 6 to 8 who struggled in traditional schools because of emotional, social or behavioral problems. Click here for a peek at some of the challenges students and staff face.
Urban Youth did not have a good reputation, acknowledged Craig Baker, Domus’s chief educational officer, as he spoke before the board.
The school will get a fresh start in many ways. It will move from its bleak quarters at 580 Dixwell Ave. to a swing space in Hamden, sharing space with East Rock Global Magnet School on Leeder Hill Road, Baker announced.
The school will also get a new name: Domus Academy.
The fall will bring a new school culture of uniforms, character-building, and a nearly 10-hour school day, Baker said.
The new school day will stretch from 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., he said. The last 90 minutes will be spent on a mix of homework help, sports and other extra-curriculars.
“Is that too exhausting for kids who are not used to being in that kind of academic environment?” asked board member Selase Williams.
Baker said his staff will teach the kids “stamina.” The goal is to get them to sit through a 90-minute lesson without losing concentration, he said.
Domus Executive Director Mike Duggan (left) and CEO Craig Baker
Domus Academy will be based on a model developed over the last 11 years at Trailblazer Academy, a middle school Domus runs in Stamford serving a similar population to Urban Youth. Key to the model are family advocates — problem-solvers who help deal with every-day problems in kids’ lives that get in the way of learning. Click here for a story following one of Domus’ family advocates on the job.
All students will be invited back to the school, and more will be added, boosting the student body from about 36 to 48. Students who return will face a whole new slate of teachers: None of the nine teachers will remain. Domus hired eight classroom teachers, one literacy specialist, and three family advocates to staff the school. The team includes a range of experience. One new hire approved Monday is a first-year science teacher from Teach for America.
Some Urban Youth teachers reapplied for their jobs, but none were chosen, Baker said. He said that was because of a “lack of mission fit.” Domus will be asking a lot of its teachers, including teaching social skills and going on an overnight camping trip before school starts, he noted.
“We are youth workers as well as teachers,” he said.
Teachers start work on Aug. 16 with a week-long training in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention.
Teachers Union Vice President David Low asked if Domus would act as other charter schools have, and “cream” — meaning take the best kids away from other public schools, thereby making it easy to succeed.
Baker said no — Domus’s mission has always been to serve the most struggling kids. Students are referred by other schools in the district. Their parents do have to have an interview with Domus before the student is accepted. Baker said he expects to accept “99.9 percent” of the students who are referred there.
Students enter Trailblazers Academy lagging 3 to 7 grades behind their statewide peers, Baker said.
“Growth is going to have to be phenomenal” to get them ready to succeed in high school, noted board member Alex Johnston (pictured).
“What kinds of goals are you setting?” he asked.
Baker said he doesn’t yet know what level the students will be starting at, but he expects them to grow 1.5 grade levels per year.
The changes will cost the district an extra $300,000 per year, mostly due to the family advocates and after-school activities, said school reform czar Garth Harries.
Schools Superintendent Reginald Mayo acknowledged the need for change.
“We have not done a very good job with our at-risk kids,” he said.
He welcomed Domus, which will be the first charter group to take over a public school within the city school district. (Other charter schools operate outside of the school district.)
“Hopefully they will live up to the billing that they’ve delivered here tonight,” Mayo said. “I’m going to hold them up to it.”