by | Dec 22, 2020 9:28 pm | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Michelle Smith is struggling to help her second grader learn from home. She got some help Tuesday from her son’s school, Roberto Clemente Elementary School.
Continue reading ‘Clemente Connects With Families At Drive-Through Giveaway’
by | Dec 22, 2020 5:09 pm | Comments (7)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Miguel Cardona, President Biden’s pick for education secretary, shown at an Oct. 21 Hamden school mock presidential election.
Miguel Cardona — who has helped New Haven schools close the digital divide during the pandemic, while retreating from forcing the schools themselves to reopen — may soon steer education policy nationwide.
by | Dec 22, 2020 2:22 pm | Comments (5)
Contributed Photos
Kindergarten is a key grade for building reading skills and setting good attendance habits. The school system’s Office of Youth, Family and Community Engagement (YFCE) gave that message to families on Monday with 700 brown paper bags of toys and books.
Continue reading ‘Kindergarteners Get Toys, Attendance Message’
by | Dec 22, 2020 2:19 pm | Comments (5)
Zoom
The Board of Alders granted unanimous final approval to a new teachers union contract that trades a pay freeze this year for no layoffs or medical premium increases over the next three.
by | Dec 21, 2020 10:02 pm | Comments (12)
Christopher Peak pre-pandemic photo
Yesenia Rivera.
Yesenia Rivera overwhelmingly won reappointment to serve another four years on the Board of Education, with a diverse array of supporters praising her work ethic and commitment to local public schools — and a handful of critics slamming her summertime vote to resume in-person classes during the pandemic.
by | Dec 21, 2020 1:02 pm | Comments (3)
Courtney Luciana photo
Riverside Academy Principal Derek Stephenson and special education teacher Steve Mikolike (pictured above) have organized the school’s first annual toy drive to collect gifts for 12 teen students’ children.
Continue reading ‘Riverside Rallies To Deliver Xmas To Teen Parents’ Kids’
by | Dec 18, 2020 4:28 pm | Comments (16)
Emily Hays Photo
Nicole Beverley, Natima, Marlou: Disconnected.
Emily Hays Photo
Elsa Holahan and her mother, Erica: Web working just fine.
In a house in Fair Haven, Natima Adote dropped out of her virtual social studies classroom at Edgewood School as her internet failed.
In a house in Westville, Elsa Holahan finished her virtual class at James Hillhouse High School without interruptions.
by | Dec 18, 2020 3:59 pm | Comments (0)
Elm City Montessori School teacher Ramya Subramanian wondered if it was possible to sing with her students over a computer screen.
She had to get creative, though, to meet parent requests to hold the school’s annual winter concert despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
by | Dec 18, 2020 10:55 am | Comments (25)
New Haven Public Schools
Shades of red mark percentage of students at each grade level who count as chronically absent.
One out of three New Haven Public Schools students is missing enough school during the Covid-19 pandemic to count as “chronically absent.”
by | Dec 15, 2020 3:27 pm | Comments (1)
Emily Hays Photo
The Boys & Girls Club of New Haven’s learning hub.
Seats are open for New Haven Public Schools students in seven new learning hubs in Newhallville, Dixwell and Fair Haven.
by | Dec 15, 2020 12:04 pm | Comments (11)
Maya McFadden photo
Hill Central literacy teacher Bee Marshall at a July rally.
A new teachers union contract that would trade a pay freeze this year for no layoffs or medical premium increases over the next three years advanced towards a final full Board of Alders vote later this month.
Continue reading ‘Teachers Contract With Pay Freeze Advances’
by | Dec 14, 2020 4:02 pm | Comments (21)
Christopher Peak Photos
Penn (left). Goldson (right): “Selectively prosecuted.”
Tinley, Renehan & Dost, LLP
Board of Education member Darnell Goldson did not necessarily harass New Haven Public Schools’ Chief Financial Officer Phillip Penn by implying that Penn was racist. He did violate board rules that promote efficient and respectful meetings.
This is the conclusion of a four-month investigation by Amita Patel Rossetti of the Waterbury-based law firm Tinley, Renehan & Dost.
by | Dec 10, 2020 4:31 pm | Comments (4)
New NHPS grant writer Lauren Strillacci.
New Haven Public Schools hired Lauren Strillacci at a $90,000 salary in late August. Three and a half months later, she has helped the district secure over $2 million in new income to upgrade its wireless networks and support pandemic food delivery.
Continue reading ‘School Grant Writer Brings In 20+ Times Salary’
by | Dec 10, 2020 11:04 am | Comments (1)
Connecticut State Department of Education
New Haven Public Schools is looking for college students and other community members to become substitute teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
by | Dec 9, 2020 12:26 pm | Comments (8)
Zoom / Sam Gurwitt images
Clockwise from top left: Local pastors Steven Cousin, Boise Kimber, Hector Otero, and John Cotten.
Google Maps image
Fair Haven’s Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal, future learning hub site.
Four churches in Fair Haven, Dixwell, and Newhallville won permission to run daycare centers-turned-learning hubs — to offer relief to working parents who can’t leave their kids home alone during the day, and reliable internet and in-person educational support to students.
by | Dec 8, 2020 3:52 pm | Comments (10)
Christopher Peak File Photo
Metro students call for more counselors at pre-pandemic hearing.
If New Haven principals had their way, they would hire around 100 new school counselors, librarians and other specialty staff.
The reality is likely to be far fewer new positions, if any.
Continue reading ‘Principals Seek More Counselors, Librarians’
by | Nov 30, 2020 12:32 pm | Comments (8)
Christopher Peak File Photo
Asst. Supt. Redd-Hannans: Extended days on horizon.
A longer, in-person school day could help students who have fallen behind during the Covid-19 pandemic, the city’s assistant schools superintendent said. New Haven needs some help from the state this spring to make that catch-up successful.
by | Nov 27, 2020 4:00 pm | Comments (5)
Emily Hays Photo
Sixth-grade teacher Rashana Graham (left): What otherwise takes two days now takes a week.
What Rashana Graham and her colleagues are learning about how best to teach in a pandemic.
by | Nov 25, 2020 1:40 pm | Comments (2)
Zoom
Common Ground senior Dayanara Chacon shows off a new mask.
Common Ground High School seniors unveiled a fashionable fix designed to slow the spread of Covid-19: a social media mask-wearing campaign in which young people show off their favorite face coverings, and encourage their peers to do the same.
by | Nov 25, 2020 11:11 am | Comments (14)
Ko Lyn Cheang Photo
Mellody Massaquoi at summer demo: SROs make school feel like jail.
New Haven student Jhoaell Ruiz wants police officers out of school buildings. Ruiz’s mother, Sonya-Marie Atkinson, wants them in there.
Both student and parent argued their perspectives not just at home, but at a Tuesday evening forum on the subject held by the New Haven Board of Education’s School Security Taskforce.
by | Nov 24, 2020 10:51 am | Comments (2)
Christopher Peak photo
Yesenia Rivera at January ed board meeting.
School board President Yesenia Rivera won a confirmation vote to serve another four years, after alders grilled her about children left behind by online learning, and about lengthy, contentious, and chaotic meetings held under her leadership.
Continue reading ‘Ed Board Prez Grilled, Wins Reappoint Vote’
by | Nov 20, 2020 11:56 am | Comments (10)
Christopher Peak Photos
Complainant Philip Penn and subject of the complaint, Darnell Goldson.
New Haven Board of Education member Darnell Goldson will finally formally find out what he supposedly did to spark a “hostile work environment” complaint, who complained, and whether he in fact was found to have legally done anything wrong.
This was the outcome of a special Board of Education meeting called on Thursday evening. After an hour of discussion, the board voted to release confidentially to members a report it commissioned on a hostile work investigation. The public still does not have access to the report.
Continue reading ‘Board Will Allow Board Member To See Report About Him’
by | Nov 19, 2020 12:49 pm | Comments (14)
Emily Hays Photo
Co-Op senior Miller: Students are drowning.
When 12th-grader Krista Miller heard a stressed friend joke about dropping out of remote school and not being able to go to college, she knew something had to change.
by | Nov 17, 2020 5:25 pm | Comments (3)
Emily Hays Photo
A Special Education class in session at Bishop Woods School in October.
After Friday, Nov. 20, no students will be in any New Haven Public Schools buildings.
Superintendent Iline Tracey sent out this update by email on Tuesday afternoon. She announced that the district had decided to move its small, in-person Special Education program online-only after Friday.
Continue reading ‘Small, In-Person Special Education Classes To Close’
by | Nov 16, 2020 4:16 pm | Comments (27)
Christopher Peak Photos
Complainant Penn; target Goldson
It was the third hour of another endless virtual Board of Education meeting. Board member Darnell Goldson asked a school system administrator why a contract was going to a white out-of-town law firm instead of a local African-American firm.
Little did anyone know that this public-meeting exchange would turn into an eight-months long (and counting) tempest that could cost the school system up to $14,000 — or, as Goldson would eventually charge, a “witch hunt.”