Michelle Liu Photo
Ortiz: If school doesn’t exist yet, why is it recruiting students?
Official NHPS listing for Kimber’s non-approved school.
Amid accusations of de facto segregation and un-transparent recruiting practices, Board of Education members said they’re not sure they’re ready to approve a controversial plan for an all-male charter school.
Rev. Boise Kimber first presented a proposal to create the all-boys’ local charter school in January, prompting heated discussion on the board’s priorities between building a new school and focusing on the district’s existing schools. Kimber later defended himself against critics in an interview with the Independent, claiming that his proposed C.M. Cofield Academy would close an achievement gap for young men in the city and target “boys of color.” His group is seeking a city, not a state, charter to operate it.
While the proposal has been backed by Mayor Harp’s administration, it’s just that — a proposal. It hasn’t been approved yet. Yet Kimber has begun recruiting students, including at a recent official New Haven Public Schools magnet fair.
Kimber had requested the board pass a resolution toward his school. Board member Carlos Torre pointed out at a Board of Education meeting Wednesday night that the board can’t vote on resolutions from members of the public. At least one or more members must present such a resolution as their own.
Student school board member Coral Ortiz brought up a question: “What’s the policy behind a school advertising at a magnet resource [fair]?”
Ortiz observed that at a magnet school expo earlier in the month, she’d seen Cofield Academy set up a booth, advertising itself as an option to prospective students and parents.
Torre and board member Ed Joyner denounced the situation. Torre said that the district has had issues like this one before. “No advertising [or] recruiting should be taking place,” he added.
“No one should have the right to advertise something that doesn’t exist,” Joyner said. “It won’t happen again.”
Kimber: Eager to start.
Still, it remained unclear as to how the proposed school had managed to set up shop at the expo in the first place. The not-yet-existent Cofield Academy also already has its own page on the city’s magnet schools website as an official New Haven public school. The listed phone number is for First Calvary Baptist Church in Newhallville, where Kimber serves as spiritual leader.
Kimber, a politically active figure in town since the 1980s who recently as been attending and speaking up at Board of Ed meetings, did not show up to Wednesday night’s board meeting. Reached by phone after the meeting, Kimber acknowledged Cofield Academy’s presence at the expo, but said he was not handling recruitment and did not have an estimated number of interested students. Kimber hung up before a reporter could ask further questions.
Ortiz said after the meeting that she worries students and parents could be blindsided by signing up for a school that doesn’t even exist.
Gibson: “We feel that a segregated school, a separate school is not to the benefit of youth in New Haven.”
Former Hillhouse High teacher and librarian Robert Gibson took to the podium to remind the board of African-American History Month — and to talk about how Cofield Academy would be, essentially, a segregated school.
Gibson pointed out that while the black community petitioned the city’s Board of Ed to end segregation in New Haven public schools during the Civil War, the board incorporated black and white schools only in 1869. That integration, Gibson argued, allowed students to learn from those of other religions, cultures and backgrounds — something the proposed all-boys’ school would do away with.
“I would not want this board to approve anything that would deny even a small group of children the lessons they could learn by being exposed to the melting pot that America really is,” Gibson said.
Joyner praised Gibson (once a student of his), saying that New Haven has “to continue to wave the banner of inclusion and social justice.” But he added that the board needs to evaluate the effectiveness of its current schools as it moves forward.
Board member Darnell Goldson (pictured), who vigorously defended Kimber’s proposal after its debut, said he was happy to see the proposal prompt a discussion about at-risk young men “at the bottom of the academic ladder.”
After the meeting, Goldson suggested that whatever Cofield Academy becomes, it probably won’t be another brick-and-mortar school. He pointed to a lack of facilities, interest or finances for that to be feasible. Instead, he said the idea may evolve into an “Eagle Academy-type program” perhaps within another school.
Goldson said Kimber had already forwarded a request for proposal (RFP) draft to the board. (Last month, mayoral aide Jason Bartlett said the RFP would allow the project and the Board of Ed to formalize a relationship with Eagle Academy.)
And, Goldson said, Kimber had already called him earlier in the day to talk about it.
Click on or download the above audio file to hear a full interview with Rev. Kimber on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” about his school proposal and his reasons for seeking to make it a local charter.