by | Aug 12, 2024 2:39 pm | Comments (28)
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Brennan Rogers playground repair price tag: $170K.
The Board of Education has signed off on spending $342,677 on new playgrounds at Wexler Grant and Brennan Rogers Schools — two schools with such low enrollments and rundown buildings that they may close in the near future.
Continue reading ‘Shrinking, Decaying Schools Getting New Playgrounds’
by | Aug 8, 2024 10:43 am | Comments (9)
Lupe Fiasco explains how AI & hip hop can be friends.
At a conference on culturally relevant pedagogy, New Haven educators learned that with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), students don’t have to just settle for the word “hamburger” in their essays.
Instead, they can write that “cheeseburgers are like a symphony of flavors with each ingredient representing a note in a complex harmony that dances across the tongue.”
They can lean in to such elaborate wordplay with the help of a wordsmithing AI-powered tool called TextFX.
by | Aug 1, 2024 8:31 am | Comments (3)
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Newly minted Wilbur Cross grad Isaila Mendez, with supportive family.
At Wednesday's summer school commencement.
After completing a month’s worth of summer high school credit recovery courses, 34 more New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) students — including Wilbur Cross’s Isaila Mendez — officially joined the graduating Class of 2024.
“I’m glad I didn’t give up,” she said with pride, diploma in hand and surrounded by family. “And I’m glad my mom didn’t let me give up, because I wanted to.”
by | Jul 31, 2024 1:00 pm | Comments (2)
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Kency’s first attempt at bird watching ...
... "I wanna play tag in the pool!" ...
... face painting, and so much more, at Camp Farnam on Tuesday.
Five-year-old Kency used binoculars for the first time and spotted an (inflatable) bald eagle, while fourth graders Nathan and Gabriel played one-on-one basketball — all at a 72-acre outdoor camp site a half hour away from their daily summer camp’s New Haven home.
by | Jul 30, 2024 9:12 am | Comments (2)
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Josue Algea Castro with his mother Nellie and his baby brother: “I like gym too, but art is so cool. You get to paint.”
Homework assignments and paper crafts lined the hallways of Fair Haven School as part of the summer school’s “Celebration of Learning” — an event that brought teachers, parents, and children together to recognize the students’ accomplishments over the course of the past month.
by | Jul 25, 2024 4:54 pm | Comments (6)
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State Sen. Gary Winfield talks conflict resolution, representation, and dreaming big with Troup summer campers.
When Gary Winfield asked a room full of sixth graders who’s interested in being a state senator one day, Jakhai Penn immediately shook his head no.
“Who’s going to do it, then, if not you?” Winfield asked. “You can probably do a heck of a lot more than you think you can do.”
by | Jul 25, 2024 10:11 am | Comments (23)
Maya McFadden file photo
Negrón: Still working to “balance out” school district positions.
In the ongoing effort to tackle a $2 million budget deficit, New Haven schools Supt. Madeline Negrón has shuffled nine assistant principals around to new schools for the upcoming academic year and eliminated two central office positions.
by | Jul 24, 2024 5:25 pm | Comments (5)
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Nappésoul's Gregory Smith, José Gragirene, Laquaya Smith, and Madison Foster tend to a baby chicken.
It's pond time, on Butler Street.
Last week, the pond in Nappésoul’s Newhallville backyard was just a hole in the ground.
By Wednesday morning, with the help of a federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant, the hole had turned into a filtered, aquaponic pond system, with koi fish and minnows on the way.
by | Jul 24, 2024 2:06 pm | Comments (15)
Jordan Ashby file photo
Back to Georgia goes former Chief of Staff Michael Finley.
New Haven Public Schools is down a chief of staff as of last week. Now, the district is hoping to fill the critical cabinet position as the 2024 – 25 school year draws near.
by | Jul 19, 2024 1:51 pm | Comments (9)
Contributed Photo
Naomi Jones.
Naomi Jones is a 6th grade math, science, and health teacher in New Haven Public Schools.
A persistent teacher shortage has left many schools in Connecticut and across the nation in a state of crisis, struggling to find students the quality educators they desperately need. Unfortunately, Connecticut’s outdated teacher certification process has far too many unnecessary barriers to educator certification, stalling any progress that could otherwise be made in getting quality certified teachers in the front of classrooms.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Make Teacher Certification More Accessible’
by | Jul 16, 2024 11:38 am | Comments (8)
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Friends Center's Executive Director Allyx Schiavone (center) with teachers Eric Gill and Justin Cross.
For financial reasons, Justin Cross lives with his mom and Ubers, an expense he can ill afford, all the way across town from the Hill to his early childhood education job in Fair Haven Heights.
Eric Gill commutes from Waterbury, where he shares a single room with a brother and a cousin in an uncle’s house, traveling 50 stressed round-trip miles, often arriving very late or very early, depending on traffic.
Both idealistic young men are about to receive a huge financial relief package: They will be moving into a pioneering “teachers village,” free rental housing in a verdant compound a five-minute walk from the Friends Center for Children’s school (no more commute!) on East Grand Avenue.
by | Jul 15, 2024 10:40 am | Comments (4)
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Incoming HSC freshman Kayden Gill: Meeting new friends, learning school layout.
Before 14-year-old Ansonia resident Kayden Gill starts his freshman year at High School in the Community, he wants to first learn more about New Haven, get to know some of his new classmates, and hear from current high schoolers.
All of those boxes were checked off for Gill thanks to the school district’s summer bridge programming for incoming ninth graders at all nine high schools this year.
by | Jul 10, 2024 4:30 pm | Comments (16)
Madeline Negrón at WNHH FM.
Madeline Negrón knew she had challenges to tackle when she took over as New Haven’s schools superintendent. She didn’t know about all the sinks with no levers to turn water on and off or the broken HVAC systems leaving people shivering in the winter and sweating in the summer.
Continue reading ‘Settled In Job, Negrón Eyes Decaying School Buildings’
by | Jul 10, 2024 2:00 pm | Comments (24)
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Ed board member Andrea Downer: Schools still "filthy" with current contractor.
The Board of Education signed off on a $500,000 overtime bump for a Massachusetts-based custodial contractor — wiping out savings promised when the school system ditched a local firm two years ago in hopes of cutting costs.
by | Jul 9, 2024 4:21 pm | Comments (14)
Elchanan Poupko
Still of Charlie Rich from Westville altercation video.
(Updated) A group of Hopkins alums are calling on the Forest Road private school to reinstate an employee who was put on paid leave five months ago following a verbal altercation between his wife and a neighbor over the war in Gaza.
Continue reading ‘Hopkins Alums Petition For Palestine Protester's Spouse’
by | Jul 9, 2024 3:17 pm | Comments (17)
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Michael Carter with Supt. Negrón at Monday's school board meeting.
Former city Chief Administrative Officer Michael Carter is back in town to do the work of the Board of Education’s suspended chief of operations (COO), at least for the next three months.
by | Jul 8, 2024 3:17 pm | Comments (33)
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Blanchat: “I did not invite you to do anything but teach and keep my child safe under your care."
When Beecher School parent Kelly Blanchat logged onto Instagram earlier this year, she found that the school had posted photos featuring her child — even though she had told the district not to share images of her kid on social media.
The public elementary school wound up taking those photos down.
It also temporarily blocked Blanchat from viewing Beecher’s Instagram account altogether — raising questions about how the district enforces its media-release policies, and whether or not a parent has a right to see what their child’s school is posting on the Internet.
by | Jul 3, 2024 6:00 pm | Comments (4)
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Youth@Work participant David Uzuka: "It's a great opportunity."
The city’s youth employment program welcomed 748 students aged 14 to 21 into the workforce this summer, across more than 100 worksites.
A press conference celebrating the Youth@Work program — which kickstarted July 1 — was held Wednesday afternoon at Hill Regional Career High School, right outside a gymnasium filled with kids playing basketball.
by | Jul 2, 2024 12:30 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Broken windows, for now, at 188 Bassett.
New Haven Adult Education’s planned move from the Hill to Newhallville took a key step forward, as the zoning board cleared the way for the city to build a new 4,500 square-foot addition to the back of a derelict building on Bassett Street.
by | Jul 2, 2024 9:18 am | Comments (6)
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Family gathered to celebrate library dedication honoring Hazel Pappas (pictured below).
Maya McFadden Photo
A mother, grandmother, sister, and advocate for thousands of young New Haveners — and for the broader public school community — will live on, through the newly dedicated Hazel B. Pappas Media Center at Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy.
by | Jul 1, 2024 9:22 am | Comments (1)
Contributed photos
This Citizen Contribution was submitted by Dawn M. Slade of DMS Communications.
It may not win an Oscar. Yet it may be the most important film they ever make.
by | Jun 28, 2024 9:15 am | Comments (18)
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Student rep John Carlos Serana Musser: District's lack of working infrastructure "brews chaos in a school."
A Metropolitan Business Academy elevator that was vandalized by students and accidentally damaged by a substitute janitor has cost the district an extra $29,000 in repairs — and has resulted in another sizable contractual change order.
by | Jun 28, 2024 9:14 am | Comments (3)
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LEAP Aquatics Director Oscar Rodriguez at the soon-to-be-filled-with-water Jefferson Street pool.
A privately owned pool will be open for free public access on Friday evenings — and for low-cost swim lessons throughout the summer — thanks to a youth athletics and tutoring nonprofit’s commitment to keeping the community in the water.
by | Jun 26, 2024 9:02 am | Comments (48)
THOMAS BREEN FILE PHOTO
Madeline Negrón: Trying to avoid staff layoffs. Still searching for $2M in savings.
Schools plan to mitigate expected $12M definict.
The Board of Education approved an updated budget for next school year — that is still out of balance by $2.3 million.
by | Jun 21, 2024 11:56 am | Comments (33)
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Williams and Blatteau: Human-centered schools a priority.
The New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district began the school year scrambling to hire educators to address a teacher shortage.
It’s ending the school year with the announcement of staff cuts to come.
To the leaders of the city’s two classroom-facing unions, that mixed messaging is a problem — and reflects the broader challenges of understaffing, budget crunches, and inconsistent communication across the district. It also underscores the imperative of putting students’ needs first.