Schools

Students Pay Attention In Class

by | Mar 30, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (4)

Maya McFadden photo

Fair Haven School's Lesly Lopez introducing vocab in dual-language lesson.

Hannah Tanguay was on a mission to teach her Fair Haven School first-graders two different definitions of the class’s newest vocabulary word: store.”

She had a trick up her sleeve to keep her students engaged — and the school district administrators at the side of the room took note as they observed a classroom model for how to focus young learners’ attentions and ward off distractions.

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New Reading Program Picked For K-5

by | Mar 29, 2023 3:06 pm | Comments (5)

Maya McFadden photo

Barnard kindergartener Max shows teacher Jocelyn Freeman his completed workbook assignment in a classroom piloting the HMH reading program.

The city’s school district has picked Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s (HMH) Into Reading and ¡Arriba la Lectura! programs to anchor a new approach to teaching literacy for kindergarten through fifth grade.

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Survivor Brings Holocaust History To Class

by | Mar 27, 2023 3:39 pm | Comments (34)

Lisa Reisman file photo

Isidore "Izzy" Juda with 1938 passport issued after escaping to Switzerland.

Midway through a discussion at Congress Avenue’s John C. Daniels School, fifth-grader Lucas Rivera posed a question to Holocaust survivor Isidor Izzy” Juda that caused Rivera’s roughly 50 classmates to inch even further forward in their seats.

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Science Fair Probes Oily Oysters

by | Mar 27, 2023 2:25 pm | Comments (3)

Maya McFadden photos

Clemente sixth-grader Luis with oily oyster science experiment.

With science fair judge Robin Querker.

Will oysters survive if submerged in motor oil?

Roberto Clemente sixth-grader Luis set out to answer that question — as he crafted a locally relevant science fair project focused on environmental harms to New Haven bivalves.

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Schools Coordinator Charts Path Towards Filling Vacancies, Keeping Staff

by | Mar 27, 2023 9:10 am | Comments (3)

Wanted: 193 New NHPS staffers.

NHPS Coordinator of Recruitment & Retention Sarah Diggs.

New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) currently has 193 job postings up on its website for 193 vacancies it’s looking to fill with new teachers, admins, coaches and substitutes.

Sarah Diggs has her eye on reducing that number — and on making the district more efficient in its hiring, and more attractive to potential employees.

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Residency Vote Keeps 3rd-Grader In Class

by | Mar 24, 2023 1:35 pm | Comments (14)

Thomas Breen photo

Conte West Hills Magnet School: Exiled 3rd-grader can return.

A Conte West Hills third-grader can finish out the last few months of the school year at her Wooster Square magnet” school — thanks to a Board of Education vote to reverse the district administration’s decision to bar the young student from her New Haven classroom after finding out that she lives in Hamden. 

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Cinema-To-Childcare Campus Plan Detailed

by | Mar 23, 2023 2:08 pm | Comments (6)

Rendering of proposed new childcare campus at ex-Cine 4 site.

Allan Appel photo

David Symond, Jr., Allyx Schiavone, Margo Early, and Karin Patriquin on Wednesday.

The corn will keeping popping at the central ticketing-and-candy counter of the old Cine 4 movie theater — even as that entryway fixture is converted into a reception desk for a planned new early education campus now in the works on Middletown Avenue. 

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School Board OKs $207M Budget Request

by | Mar 23, 2023 10:16 am | Comments (0)

NHPS slide

The school district's FY24 budget request.

The Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a proposed $207 million schools budget request for next fiscal year, teeing up that financial plan — which is more than $3 million above what the mayor has proposed sending the district’s way — for review by the Board of Alders.

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Opinion: Supe Search Must Be Transparent

by | Mar 22, 2023 9:19 am | Comments (27)

Supt. finalists Viviana Conner, Warren Morgan, Madeline Negrón.

Earlier this week, the New Haven Board of Education announced three finalists in its search for a new Superintendent, one of the most consequential roles in local government.

The Board has a long and unfortunate history of hiring at all levels based on the trading of favors between adults, rather than objective standards of professional experience and performance delivering outcomes for kids. The children and families of our beloved city have paid a steep price for this insider trading.

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Schools Parley Seeks To Equip Parents

by | Mar 21, 2023 3:15 pm | Comments (7)

Maya McFadden Photo

Panelists (clockwise from top left) Darnell Goldson, Dietria Wells, Leroy Williams, Jamilah Prince Stewart, Larry Conaway, and Jose Champagne, at Monday night's forum.

Educators, advocates and parents ditched the blame game” to brainstorm about how to help New Haven students do better in school during a time of various national challenges.

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School Board Eyes $207M Budget

by | Mar 21, 2023 11:02 am | Comments (4)

NHPS

NHPS proposed 2023-24 general funds budget.

NHPS slide

The city’s public school district tentatively plans to ask City Hall for $207 million next fiscal year — marking a 6 percent increase above the current year’s schools budget, and coming in at more than $3 million above what the mayor has proposed sending the Board of Education’s way.

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City Plans Busy Summer For Kids

by | Mar 20, 2023 3:03 pm | Comments (2)

Nora Grace-Flood Photo

Haender Ventura with his new track spikes, which he'll try out at practice after completing his in-school job running the printing press.

The news about this summer’s city offerings for kids was hot off the presses Monday at the Wilbur Cross High School print shop.

Joining public officials at a press conference held there, Cross Senior Haender Ventura spoke of how he was able to buy a new pair of $200 Nike spikes since finding employment through the city’s Youth@Work” program. 

This summer he plans to double his hours on the job so he can pay college tuition and put his shoes to work themselves, by joining the University of New Haven’s track team while he pursues a career in sports therapy.

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Hillhouse Drama Opens Little Shop Of Horrors

by | Mar 16, 2023 8:45 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery photo

Warren Leftridge, Finn Crumlish, Amelia Tamborra-Walton.

Seymour, who works in a flower shop, has found an unusual plant. He stumbled across it during a total eclipse and has brought it to the store, where it’s attracting customers. His boss, Mr. Mushnik is pleased. But Seymour has discovered a terrible secret: the plant only grows by being fed human blood, and is ever hungry for more. Plus, it seems to be able to talk. What is Seymour going to do? And how will all of this affect the relationship he hopes to have with his co-worker, Audrey?

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In-Person Teachers Watch Online School Board

by | Mar 14, 2023 5:01 pm | Comments (14)

Maya McFadden photo

Monday's in-person watch party for online school board meeting.

Several dozen city teachers, parents, and public-school advocates were able to hear each other clap and cheer — live, in person, in the same room, together — during an in-person watch party for a Board of Education that has been meeting online only for the past three years.

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LGBTQ Sound Students Find A Safe Space

by | Mar 9, 2023 11:35 am | Comments (1)

Maya McFadden photo

SAGA's Shane Emery, Drake Ortiz, Colton, Jacob Smith, and Pete Solomon.

Amid the sometimes rocky waves” of work and class and a tough time at home, Drake Ortiz has found a refuge in Sound School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) — where they and their high-school peers can be themselves and talk about everything from their favorite movies to queer-friendly field trips to how best to prevent bullying of younger students.

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Career High School Lifts Every Voice & Sings

by | Mar 9, 2023 9:04 am | Comments (2)

Maya McFadden Photos

Career office clerk Shirley Love joins school choir in "Lift Every Voice and Sing," performed at Black History assembly and celebration.

Hill Regional Career High School’s auditorium rang like a rolling sea as students lifted their voices to sing the Black National Anthem alongside school staffer Shirley Love, whose voice left the school full of the hope. 

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Hundreds Rally At "Morning Without Childcare"

by | Mar 8, 2023 5:00 pm | Comments (6)

Laura Glesby photos

Marilyn DeJesus and John Antoni protest for higher pay, lower childcare costs.

Marilyn DeJesus was making $12 an hour as an early childhood educator — and paying $1,700 a month for childcare as a single parent.

Having since left that job to teach toddlers at a center with better compensation, DeJesus joined hundreds of other early educators on the Green to call for higher wages and lower childcare costs.

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Student Inventors Keep Classmates Upright

by | Mar 8, 2023 10:48 am | Comments (1)

Laura Glesby Photo

Kayliani, 10, and Mila, 11, with the Fall Preventer.

We had a problem with kids falling off chairs,” explained Davis Academy fifth grader Mila. School chairs easily tip over when kids rock or lean over too much, which not only disrupts class, but can cause injuries.

So Mila and her co-inventor Kayliani came up with a solution: the Fall Preventer, a suction-powered, stick-on mat to keep chairs from toppling.

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School Visits Reveal Multilingual Learners In Action

by | Mar 8, 2023 9:56 am | Comments (3)

Contributed photo

Fair Haven/East Rock Alder Claudia Herrera (center) with NHPS Asst. Supt. Keisha Redd-Hannans (right) on multilingual classroom visit.

Three alders got a firsthand look at the classroom needs and experiences of students who enter school speaking a language other than English, as they joined district leaders on a three-stop tour to talk with multilingual learners and their teachers.

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