by | May 26, 2020 3:43 pm | Comments (3)
Youth climate activist Adrian Huq.
Metropolitan Business Academy senior Adrian Huq came up with an alternative idea for marking graduation in lieu of in-person commencement or good-byes: a parting gift in the form of a class tree.
by | May 22, 2020 12:23 pm | Comments (1)
Participants in the Zoom ceremony.
Synesha Dudley virtually accepted her high school diploma on Thursday night, stating to a Zoom audience in the midst of the pandemic: “I know that my life and future are about to change for the better.”
Dudley was one of 33 members of the Class of 2020 granted certification of high school completion from the Hamden Adult Education Program.
by | May 21, 2020 9:36 am | Comments (1)
Jason Calogine was tired and prepared. Rehab Rajou was energized and excited. Isabella Fletcher-Violante was happy to be there. They and several other fellow Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet students were on a Zoom chat with Michael Hinton, a teaching artist at Elm Shakespeare, recording a final few scenes for the school’s production of Cymbeline — which pivoted from theater to Zoom film project to keep the program going during the Covid-19 pandemic.
by | May 19, 2020 4:28 pm | Comments (1)
Interim Superintendent Iline Tracey: Buying laptops would be first priority.
Laptops are a yes, teacher salaries likely a no.
These are some of the early guidelines for which gaps $8.5 million in federal Covid-19 relief dollars can fill, New Haven Public Schools administrators explained to the Board of Education Finance and Operations (F&O) Committee on Monday.
by | May 19, 2020 2:24 pm | Comments (1)
Contributed Photos
HSC seniors Carlomagno Villanueva Torres, Emma Bender and Simone Henderson.
High School in the Community senior Simone Henderson had worried about how as an introvert she would handle her graduation party. “Now there has been some shift in the cosmos.” she wrote, Would she even have a graduation ceremony at all?
by | May 16, 2020 10:05 pm | Comments (7)
Zoom
Saturday’s meeting.
Near the end of a five-hour meeting Saturday, the Hamden Legislative Council voted to flat-fund the town’s board of education in the next fiscal year, forcing it to cut about $2.8 million from its budget.
by | May 15, 2020 8:49 am | Comments (4)
Contributed Photo
A teen in the Manson Youth Institution Zooms with Rep. Toni Walker.
Two New Haven state legislators went online to kick off a new state prison policy aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19.
Continue reading ‘State Reps Visit Incarcerated Youth Online’
by | May 15, 2020 8:45 am | Comments (7)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Bennett: When choice is rent or food, you pay for food.
School bus driver Santia Bennett stopped getting a paycheck from First Student March 13, and her unemployment insurance application is still pending.
After fighting for a contract amendment with Hamden that should allow it to pay its drivers for April, First Student kept Bennett waiting even longer, saying she cannot get back pay until the Department of Labor denies her unemployment claim.
by | May 14, 2020 2:43 pm | Comments (3)
Hundreds of parents, teachers and community members tuned into the town hall via Zoom.
The videoconferencing software Zoom is not a cure-all for pandemic-era school.
Interim Superintendent Iline Tracey made that argument Wednesday evening during a virtual town hall with the parent and teacher group New Haven Public School Advocates.
by | May 14, 2020 10:17 am | Comments (0)
Hamden Hall Country Day School families are tuning in weekly from Covid-19 isolation to view “The Turtle King,” a new in-house video series featuring three hungry turtles and the school’s maintenance team.
Continue reading ‘“Turtle King” Perks Up Quarantined Students’
by | May 13, 2020 5:34 pm | Comments (8)
Parading teachers, students deliver a message.
by | May 13, 2020 9:50 am | Comments (0)
Sam Gurwitt photo
(Opinion) This past week Gov. Lamont announced that schools would remain closed for the rest of 2019 – 2020 school year.
by | May 12, 2020 9:58 am | Comments (37)
Zoom
Monday night’s Zoomed-in NHPS Board of Ed meeting.
• Board of Ed speeds up approval for pandemic marking policy.
• Also OKs next year’s schedule, with day off for Eid and shorter February break.
by | May 11, 2020 5:24 pm | Comments (3)
Allan Appel Photo
A LEAP youth coder getting help and support during the summer.
Youth programs can begin to host small numbers of children on June 29, as long as they follow public health restrictions set by the state. The fate of summer schools amidst the Covid-19 pandemic is less clear.
Continue reading ‘Summer Camps Allowed To Open; Summer School Uncertain’
by | May 8, 2020 6:11 pm | Comments (1)
Car parade reunites teachers with students, from a distance.
by | May 8, 2020 3:24 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Lesleh Galvin, a mother of two, was met with the pleasant surprise of two free kids’ books while visiting Bishop Woods School to pick up free breakfast and lunch meals-to-go after having a hectic week.
by | May 7, 2020 3:01 pm | Comments (2)
Contributed Photo
Me with my family’s 5 year-old (right) and a friend.
I work as a nanny. I’m the only employee at my workplace, and that workplace is another family’s apartment. My routine up until the second week in March was to show up, take care of the toddler in the morning and early afternoon (including a roughly three-hour nap), and then go pick up the preschooler.
Then in March, everything changed.
by | May 7, 2020 10:26 am | Comments (2)
Zoom
Teacher Kroopneck: Time management throws students off.
Sani Esson lingered after the rest of Marina Kroopneck’s Zoom-held algebra class had disbanded. She admitted she had not looked at the class assignments. She joked that the assignments threw off her sleep schedule — referring to a serious challenge for high schoolers “attending” classes without showing up in person.
by | May 6, 2020 5:39 pm | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen file photo
New Haven Reads site director Audra Clark (right) hands out free books at the 2019 Freddy Fixer Parade.
Public school students hungry for reading will be able to pick up one free book per person from 12 different schools-turned-meal distribution sites starting Friday, thanks to a new partnership among New Haven Reads, Read to Grow, and New Haven Public Schools.
Continue reading ‘Free Book Giveaways Starting Soon At 12 Free-Meal Sites’
by | May 5, 2020 6:52 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
One of the city’s “Spread the Facts” banners, hanging over Whitney Avenue.
A total of 5,282 New Haveners have been tested for Covid-19 since mid-March. Of that number, 33 percent have tested positive — a relatively high “test positivity” ratio that likely reflects the limitations of reserving tests for the sick and symptomatic.
Continue reading ‘33% “Positivity Rate” Points To More Tests Needed’
by | May 5, 2020 9:46 am | Comments (27)
Zoom
Board of Ed governance meeting Monday night.
As the governor announced that all in-school classes will remain closed through the academic year, New Haven’s administrators have drawn up a plan for the pandemic shutdown in which middle and high school students would pass, pass with distinction or receive no grade.
by | May 1, 2020 12:25 pm | Comments (9)
Seniors Daniela Flores (left) and Ciara Ortiz Diaz.
Pandemic-related travel limitations helped two star New Haven high schoolers pick Yale over other Ivy League as the next stop in their academic careers.
by | May 1, 2020 10:26 am | Comments (2)
The Thursday Elicker Zoom presser.
On Thursday, Mayor Justin Elicker’s daily online pandemic press conference came with a twist: all the questions were asked by student reporters.
by | Apr 30, 2020 4:38 pm | Comments (2)
On the beat: Chris Peak (center) covering the Dalio education partnership.
The national Education Writers Association has honored Christopher Peak for his “watchdog reporting” on New Haven’s public schools.
by | Apr 30, 2020 12:10 pm | Comments (2)
Zoom
NHPS CFO Phillip Penn. Below: Next year’s projected deficit.
The public school system plans to cut 30 certified positions through attrition, shift elementary school bell times, move instructional coaches back into the classrooms, and pursue nearly a dozen other budget mitigation strategies in an effort to close next fiscal year’s projected $8.3 million deficit.
As for what in-person classes might look like later this spring or next fall during a sustained Covid-19 crisis? That future — and its potential budget implications — remain uncertain.