by | Jan 30, 2023 4:00 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Eugene J. Foreman Jr. looked surprisingly calm with his walkie-talkie out on the Beers Street sidewalk outside Augusta Lewis Troup School as a siren sounded and kids poured out of the building.
by | Jan 27, 2023 5:20 pm | Comments (10)
At Thursday's protest outside of Gateway Community College.
Gateway Community College student and Board of Regents student representative Alina Wheeler lives on the edge — of affording to be able to stay in school, of being “just poor enough” to have her healthcare covered as she works towards graduating.
She and fellow community college students in similarly precarious spots are now worried they might not be able to finish out their educations thanks to a potential increase in tuition that could be coming down the pike now that the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Board of Regents has announced plans to raise tuition at state universities by 3 percent.
Continue reading ‘Gateway Protesters To State: Don't Hike Our Tuition’
by | Jan 27, 2023 11:00 am | Comments (5)
Allan Appel photo
State Treasurer Erick Russell with PROUD Academy board member and former city Corporation Counsel John Rose at SCSU event on Thursday.
The nation’s first Black openly gay state official met the organizers of what hopes to become the first LGBTQ-centered private school in Connecticut — and one of only a handful in the country.
Their message about being “firsts” in an era of anti-gay backlash was identical and impassioned: Don’t just be your authentic self. Celebrate that self, too.
by | Jan 27, 2023 9:07 am | Comments (17)
Maya McFadden photo
Kim Harris (center) & students, speaking up for tutoring plan.
The Elicker Administration’s bid to spend $3 million in federal aid on a new math and literacy tutoring plan moved ahead — against a backdrop of questions and concerns around how exactly the city will find the hundreds of volunteers needed to make this program work.
by | Jan 25, 2023 9:40 am | Comments (4)
CHRISTOPHER PEAK FILE PHOTO
The late Hazel Pappas, at an in-person ed board meeting in 2017.
The late longtime public education advocate Hazel Pappas was present yet again, this time in memory only, at the Board of Education this week — as current New Haven educators invoked the impact she had on countless local students, parents, teachers, and school staff who were able to meet her face to face at in-person meetings.
by | Jan 24, 2023 4:11 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen File Photo
Elm City Montessori’s Blake Street campus.
The Board of Education signed off on extending Elm City Montessori’s charter, bringing the Blake Street local charter school one big step closer to winning another three-to-five-year renewal.
Continue reading ‘Ed Board Greenlights Montessori Charter Renewal’
by | Jan 24, 2023 1:55 pm | Comments (21)
Laura Glesby Photo
Wilcox: "Not all board members would be able to meet in person."
Local legislators endorsed Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox’s bid to serve another term on the city’s school board — after grilling the mayoral appointee on the board’s online-only meetings and fractured parental trust.
by | Jan 24, 2023 11:14 am | Comments (1)
Watch out for those pitfalls ... as presented at a recent Teaching & Learning Committee meeting.
Educators, consultant speak up to back program.
After a too-long stint of feeling way too isolated, Brennan-Rogers second grade teachers Samantha Conway and Tracey Peterson found a way out of their ruts thanks to an investment in their professional wellbeing by the teachers union and the city’s public school district.
Continue reading ‘Wellbeing Course Teaches Teachers To "Thrive"’
by | Jan 23, 2023 4:10 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
Tom Goldenberg.
Democratic mayoral challenger Tom Goldenberg added his voice to those calling for a return to in-person Board of Education meetings, in a press-release preview of comments he plans to make at City Hall Monday night.
by | Jan 20, 2023 5:24 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden Photo
Elm City Montessori's GSA students and staff, with local artist Kwadwo Adae, at a recent Friday meetup.
Contributed photo
Finishing up Elm City Montessori's new GSA-backed school mural.
Gender-neutral bathrooms. Thoughtful and caring educators. A Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) for middle schoolers. And a school mission statement that loudly and proudly supports LGBTQ students.
Those were just a handful of ideas that came to mind for the members of Elm City Montessori’s GSA when asked to dream up their ideal school.
by | Jan 20, 2023 9:15 am | Comments (31)
Paul Bass photo
Liam Brennan at WNHH FM.
New Haven can stop making drug arrests (while still confiscating fentanyl). It can stop making gun arrests (while confiscating more illegal guns). It can build needed new housing in places it never dreamed before, or change or even override zoning barriers. It can even teach kids how to read rather than teach them how not to read.
So says Liam Brennan. He bases those conclusions on his personal and professional life experiences. And he’d like to give New Haveners the chance to elect someone who intends to lead the city into that new era.
Continue reading ‘Mayoral “Explorer” Crafts Activist Platform’
by | Jan 18, 2023 8:48 am | Comments (6)
Emily Hays File Photo
AFSCME Local 1303-467 President Cynthia Harris-Jackson at a vaccine clinic in 2021.
Local legislators unanimously approved a new long-awaited contract for school nurses, issuing future and retroactive raises for public health workers who have worked to keep schools and students safe throughout the pandemic.
by | Jan 17, 2023 4:39 pm | Comments (19)
Paul Bass Photo
Shafiq Abdussabur at WNHH FM: Community grows face-to-face.
The city’s Board of Education should ditch the remote and resume meeting in person to tackle the school system’s challenges, in the view of Democratic mayoral candidate Shafiq Abdussabur.
by | Jan 16, 2023 5:27 pm | Comments (10)
Markeshia Ricks file photo
Wilcox testifies at 2019 confirmation hearing at City Hall.
The mayor has tapped Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox to serve another term on the city’s school board.
by | Jan 16, 2023 10:37 am | Comments (2)
Maya McFadden Photo
Student council prez Julieta Diaz leads Martinez school meeting.
John S. Martinez School eighth grader Julieta Diaz and her fellow student council classmates had a decision to make: Should they donate the proceeds of a middle school recycling drive to a local homeless shelter, or should they throw their financial support to the city’s animal shelter instead?
by | Jan 13, 2023 9:20 am | Comments (13)
Paul Bass file photo
Educators rally outside City Hall for full school funding in March.
Anna Marvin wants to continue her teaching career in New Haven after getting her elementary education degree from Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU).
But before she graduates, she’d like to see the city’s school district up its game when it comes to teacher retention and recruitment.
by | Jan 12, 2023 10:14 am | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden photo
NHPS Supervisor of Literacy Lynn Brantley.
The city school district’s top literacy official plans to retire after 37 years of public education service inside and outside of New Haven classrooms.
Her planned retirement at the end of this school year comes amid the ongoing citywide debate around low reading levels and pandemic-era learning loss, as well as amidst a broader state-mandated shift in how schools teach young students how to read.
Continue reading ‘Literacy Director To Retire After 37 Years At NHPS’
by | Jan 11, 2023 2:04 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Samuel Rosenberg (right) in HSC's "Leadership 101."
Find ways to collaborate with others. Delegate work when you’re overwhelmed. Be open to criticism. And don’t panic when the best laid plans go a bit awry.
Those are a few of the lessons that High School in the Community (HSC) junior and literary magazine editor Samuel Rosenberg has learned in a new class focused on training current student leaders how to excel as the heads of their respective clubs and groups.
by | Jan 10, 2023 1:24 pm | Comments (8)
Teachers and building leaders who help out with before- and after-school programs will get a $13-plus hourly pay bump, thanks to a new agreement approved by the Board of Education.
by | Jan 9, 2023 6:53 pm | Comments (5)
File Photos
Board of Ed Prez Yesenia Rivera, Vice Prez Matt Wilcox, and Secretary Ed Joyner: All reelected.
Yesenia Rivera, Matt Wilcox, and Ed Joyner will all remain the leaders of the city’s Board of Education for at least another year after unanimously winning reelection by fellow board members.
by | Jan 6, 2023 3:32 pm | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden Photo
HSC grad Houston (right) offers current students college advice.
High School in the Community senior Amara Frazier-Conner sat across the table from her future self — in the form of recent grad Tyron Houston — to hear about how best to prepare over the next few months before beginning her own first semester in college.
Houston’s advice: Learn self-control, create study habits, don’t fall victim to peer pressure, and “get harder on yourself” now so you’re ready for the challenges of higher ed come September.
Continue reading ‘High-Schoolers Get Tips From Future Selves’
by | Jan 5, 2023 1:22 pm | Comments (5)
Thirty-eight families so far have chosen to move their students out of a West Rock magnet school and to another city public school that has more teachers on staff.
Continue reading ‘38 Students Transfer Due To Teacher Vacancies’
by | Jan 5, 2023 10:27 am | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden file photo
SCSU students moving onto campus in August.
The city’s school district is teaming up with Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) to train a group of paraprofessionals to help fill New Haven’s special education teacher gap.
Continue reading ‘NHPS-SCSU Special Ed Training Partnership Advances’
by | Jan 2, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden photo
NHPS Supervisor Of Literacy Lynn Brantley and Assistant Superintendent Keisha Redd-Hannans at recent reading expo.
City public school district leaders have selected two new K‑3 literacy programs to use as part of a 12-school pilot process that is set to begin later this month — all as New Haven embarks on a state-mandated shift in teaching young students how to read by focusing on sounding out words instead of looking for other clues.
Continue reading ‘Reading Programs Picked For Phonics Pilot’
by | Dec 22, 2022 4:00 pm | Comments (3)
Maya McFadden photo
At the newly opened Possible Futures bookstore in September ...
Brian Slattery Photo
... at a BAMN books event at Bloom in February.
Words flew off the pages of landmark new New Haven books, brought readers together in bustling new Dixwell and Edgewood community spaces, and sparked City Hall protests and public-education debates around how to create a better city — making 2022 a year even more than most in which books made a difference.
Continue reading ‘From Cover To Cover, 2022 Was A Page-Turner’