by | Dec 1, 2022 5:36 pm | Comments (12)
Maya McFadden photo
Career High's Jonathan Berryman with Board of Ed VP Matt Wilcox Wednesday.
The Board of Education has hired a national search firm to try to find the next city schools superintendent by March — raising public concerns that the process to find Iline Tracey’s replacement needs to be longer and more community-focused.
by | Dec 1, 2022 12:03 pm | Comments (16)
Contributed photo
Mary Healy.
The following letter was written by former Wexler-Grant 1st grade teacher Mary Healy, who resigned from her New Haven Public Schools job earlier this year.
Healy originally wrote this letter on Sept. 14. She then sent it by email to the Board of Education on Wednesday night to explain why she left after working for 10 years in a district she hoped to spend her whole career in.
The Independent is reprinting Healy’s letter/email with the author’s permission. Click here to read another recent Independent article about a teacher who left, and about what NHPS is doing to try to retain local educators.
by | Dec 1, 2022 11:13 am | Comments (30)
Maya McFadden Photo
At NHPS's recent "reading expo" at Betsy Ross Parish Hall.
The city’s public school district is now down to five choices for which state-sanctioned program to adopt as it builds out an enhanced K‑3 literacy plan that is required to follow the “science of reading,” which emphasizes learning how to sound out words instead of looking for other clues.
Continue reading ‘Choices Narrowed For Schools' Reading Pivot’
by | Nov 29, 2022 3:40 pm | Comments (12)
Chris Peak file photo
Paras Union President Hyclis Williams: Looking for "a decent wage for a modest living."
Paraprofessionals who help run the public school district’s before and after school programming will receive an “extra duty” pay hike of more than $10 per hour for their work this school year.
by | Nov 28, 2022 8:56 am | Comments (9)
Allan Appel photo
Aubrey Bido and Aaliyah Jones trying to calm speeders.
“We have to worry so much about the cars going fast, we can’t learn how to spell!”
The remark by Common Ground High School freshman Aubrey Bido and her classmate Aaliyah Jones was jokey about the misspelled word on Bido’s sign,“Yeild” for “Yield,” but the occasion was anything but.
In fact, the message — and the West Rock safe streets sign-making workshop it sprang from — pointed to a matter of life and potential vehicular death.
Continue reading ‘Common Ground Plants Signs For Safer Streets’
by | Nov 23, 2022 12:02 pm | Comments (24)
Melissa Bailey photo
Starting with high hopes: Carina Ruotolo in Clemente art classroom in 2012.
Roberto Clemente art teacher Carina Ruotolo wanted to keep teaching in New Haven’s public schools.
But a lack of support during Covid, rapid turnover at the top ranks of her school, and higher pay elsewhere in the state led her to part ways with the district after a decade on the job — reflecting some of the factors fueling a citywide teacher shortage that has the district scrambling to fill classroom spots and keep kids learning.
Continue reading ‘New Haven Love Couldn't Keep Teacher Here’
by | Nov 21, 2022 6:17 pm | Comments (33)
Thomas Breen file photo
Board of Ed member Darnell Goldson: "First, one of our schools was shut down due to a lack of proper maintenance of the HVAC system, now our seventh and eighth grade classes are being dismantled. What's next?"
A shortage of teachers at Brennan-Rogers School has led the city’s public school district to recommend that families transfer 7th and 8th graders out of the West Rock magnet school and to another New Haven public school that has more educators on staff.
Continue reading ‘Teacher Vacancies Spark Student Transfers’
by | Nov 18, 2022 2:11 pm | Comments (3)
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New Haveners pick up turkeys from John Martinez parking lot.
Hundreds of New Haveners are now a bit more prepared for next week’s holiday meal after picking up a free bird at the city Youth and Recreation Department’s annual turkey drive.
Continue reading ‘Youth & Rec Hands Out 1,250 Turkeys At Pre-Thanksgiving Giveaway’
by | Nov 17, 2022 4:09 pm | Comments (13)
NHPS data
First marking period discipline data over the last three academic years.
Expulsions, suspensions, and in-school fighting are all on the rise as the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district sees a significant increase in discipline so far this school year.
Continue reading ‘School Fighting Leads To Suspension Spike’
by | Nov 17, 2022 12:32 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden photo
Gateway's William Brown talks reading, kindness at Mauro-Sheridan.
With a book in hand, Gateway Community College CEO William T. Brown showed Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School second graders the superpower of kindness — and the benefits of good deeds and college educations.
Continue reading ‘Gateway Chief Uncovers Student Superpowers’
by | Nov 16, 2022 8:51 am | Comments (47)
Thomas Breen photo
Youth engagement chief Gemma Joseph Lumpkin: Looking to "stop the bleed."
NHPS data
First marking period student absenteeism #'s.
More than four out of every 10 New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) students have missed at least 10 percent of school days so far this academic year — raising questions about why so many young learners are “chronically absent,” and putting a spotlight on what exactly the public school district is doing to make sure kids go to class.
by | Nov 15, 2022 10:18 am | Comments (40)
Paul Bass file photo
Educators rally outside City Hall for full school funding in March.
The Board of Education unanimously approved a new teachers union contract that local educators described as “life-changing” — thanks in large part to a nearly 15 percent pay hike over the next three years.
by | Nov 14, 2022 11:46 am | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden file photo
Shelley Smith tutors second grader Maite at Bishop Woods Thursday.
Bishop Woods second grader Maite paused and took a deep breath as she looked at the word: “Dent.”
She knew what it meant. The spelling was the hard part. So she decided to sound it out — at the suggestion of a tutor from a successful New Haven nonprofit that has been called in to help the city’s public schools up their reading game.
by | Nov 11, 2022 11:10 am | Comments (2)
Isaac Kleppner photo
Playing, learning on Wilbur Cross's soccer field.
Liliya Garipova
Coach Miller.
As a lifelong student of o jogo bonito and a decades-long fixture of New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) athletics, Wilbur Cross High School head soccer coach Edgar Miller has a lot to say.
About perseverance. About natural talent and hard work. And about how soccer can teach one to overcome adversity — whether that be the ruts of Rice Field or the challenges of being a teenager.
Continue reading ‘Coach Uncovers "Beautiful Game's" Lessons’
by | Nov 10, 2022 11:35 am | Comments (5)
Laura Glesby Photo
The house at 1377 Ella T. Grasso Blvd.
A three-story Edgewood mansion is on its way to becoming an expanded Montessori preschool classroom and housing complex for early childhood educators.
by | Nov 10, 2022 8:52 am | Comments (32)
Inside a Hebrew Public school.
Shalom, charter school?
A nonprofit that launches modern-Hebrew-language public schools is hoping New Haven gets a chance to offer that greeting.
by | Nov 9, 2022 3:07 pm | Comments (18)
Laura Glesby photos
A contingent of Wilbur Cross community members, including Board of Ed Student Representative Dave John Cruz-Bustamante, art teacher Melody Gallagher, and soccer captain Matteo Festa.
Laura Glesby photo
A lightly muddy Blake Field on Friday afternoon.
Broken ankles. Used syringes. Mud-induced match cancellations. Low morale.
Those were just a few of the high school sports-related obstacles that Wilbur Cross coaches and students spoke out about having to surmount time and again, as they successfully urged alders to move forward with long-awaited upgrades to the East Rock Athletic Complex.
Continue reading ‘Student-Athlete Pleas Power Field Repairs’
by | Nov 8, 2022 4:39 pm | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby photo
Enthusiastic kids, more enthusiastic politicians shouting "VOTE" Tuesday.
A new political polling group arrived at Lincoln Bassett School and discovered two preliminary findings: Newhallville is an overwhelmingly Democratic neighborhood — and “the floor is lava!”
by | Nov 4, 2022 12:02 pm | Comments (24)
Maya McFadden file photo
Robinson leads a junior class book talk Tuesday ...
... about Stamped, a "present book" about race and America.
Should former presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson have their faces on America’s paper currency?
Sayvion Saley asked himself that question for the first time in English class as he and his Career High School classmates grappled with this country’s long, painful, sordid and complicated history of racism — with the help of a “present” book that seeks to set the record straight.
by | Nov 2, 2022 4:12 pm | Comments (8)
At Wednesday's protest.
Teachers, parents, and other staffers at the LULAC Head Start daycare center on James Street rallied outside of the school building Wednesday in protest of the recent firing of one of their colleagues.
by | Nov 2, 2022 10:40 am | Comments (2)
There’s one thing the state could do that would trump any other support they might give to improve public school education across Connecticut.
And that is: increase funding.
Continue reading ‘Ed Board Advocate To State: Local Schools Need More $’
by | Nov 1, 2022 4:02 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Martinez School students Jeremiah and Eddie float test class-built boat.
Third graders Jeremiah and Eddie each held one side of a handmade aluminum foil boat and prepared to fill it with pirate gold, as part of a hands-on science challenge.
Continue reading ‘"Little Engineers" Build Boats For Pirate Pete’
by | Oct 28, 2022 3:33 pm | Comments (21)
Maya McFadden photo
Chemistry teacher/professional arm wrestler Mike Selearis gives Principal Carolina some tips as he faces off against student champ Jordin during Wilbur Cross's weekly "Wellness Wednesday" programming.
Wilbur Cross High School Interim Principal Kermit Carolina announced over the PA that students had “30 more seconds to get to class.” Less than a minute later, he had his arm draped around a student’s shoulders.
“Mr. Carolina, this is the first time I got caught in the sweep today,” the student said. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
Continue reading ‘Seeking Stability, Cross Principal Hits The Halls’
by | Oct 28, 2022 9:29 am | Comments (9)
Maya McFadden file photo
John Geanakoplos on Wilbur Cross' existing running track.
New fencing for Rice Field. New soccer equipment for Blake Field. A “multi-sport field and track” at Wilbur Cross.
Those upgrades and others might soon come to three East Rock sports fields if the Board of Alders approves accepting state and possible federal funding.
Continue reading ‘East Rock Athletic Fields Upgrades Advance’
by | Oct 26, 2022 10:34 am | Comments (7)
Maya McFadden Photo
Supt. Tracey: 181 school days required by the state.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) students may have to attend an extra day of classes this academic year to make up for a calendar mishap by district staff that saw one-too-few school days last year.
Continue reading ‘State Requires Extra Day For NHPS School Year’