Birks Moves To Close Riverside

Riverside Education Academy, the city’s last alternative school, could close next school year amid the latest round of budget cuts.

Superintendent Carol Birks made that surprise announcement at the Board of Education’s Finance & Operations Committee meeting Monday afternoon at the district’s Meadow Street headquarters.

As she seeks to close a $30.7 million budget shortfall, Superintendent Birks had previously asked the school board to terminate its lease at 560 Ella T. Grasso Blvd., the site of Riverside, which currently has about 135 students.

Then, on Monday, Birks said she thought the board had also given her the go-ahead to make even more significant changes, after they looked over her budget mitigation plan. She thought that allowed her not just to move Riverside elsewhere, but to close it entirely because the mitigation plan mentioned emptying out rented buildings.

Birks didn’t put an exact figure on the savings, though the main driver will be ending the $332,500 lease, which comes with $70,900 in taxes. Altogether, Birks said she’s aiming to collect $2.5 million next year by reevaluating all program consolidations, district-provided services and lease agreements.

Joseph Rodriguez, the committee’s vice-chair, said after the meeting that Birks needs to check whether the board had actually given her that authority.

“The superintendent is going to go back,” Rodriguez said. ​“Despite the mitigation plan that was passed with the budget, she’s going to make sure that, legally, if there’s subsequent votes that need to occur, then that will be presented at the next meeting or so. We still have additional time to ensure that any appropriate vote will occur.”

Riverside is the destination for students with severe behavioral issues, traumatic memories or overwhelming family circumstances. While a small number of freshmen choose the school for its small class sizes, most students arrive at Riverside after being kicked out of other high schools. In the past week, six new students arrived.

Superintendent Birks said that she’s not sure the model is working, because its students are missing too many days of school.

She said she’s considering plans to send approximately 100 students who won’t be graduating this spring into three other programs.

Some will go back to the comprehensive high schools with additional supports, some will enroll in a vocational-focused program at Gateway Community College, and some will be sent to high-priced outside special-education providers.

“Right now, we’re not sure if the way we’re delivering our programming for our opportunity students is helping. We’re not sure, based on data. The last I checked, the chronic absence rate was still high,” with around three-quarters of the students missing weeks of class, Birks said.

“Who can go back to their mainstream classroom? Who could go to Gateway Community College?” she asked. ​“We don’t have a facility where we can put 135 students, nor do I think that’s the best way to do this, especially in an existing school building. … There might be 40 kids somewhere, but we’re still looking at the programming.”

Birks said that she’s asked her team to meet with every single student at Riverside to ask what they need next year.

The school’s principal and several teachers are already warning that closing the district’s last alternative school will hurt students. They called Riverside a ​“necessity.”

“I certainly respect what Dr. Birks is trying to do with the budget, but I don’t agree with closing the school down,” said Principal Larry Conaway, who’s set to retire at the end of the year. ​“They’ve already closed two alternative schools and cut our staff and cut our budget. I thought that we gave our fair share last year, and now they’re cutting it completely out.

“I don’t think that’s a wise investment on the district’s part. I think they’re going to spend more money with support services and outplacements, and I don’t think students are going to get what they need,” Conaway added. ​“With this last alternative school being proposed for closure, I don’t think it’s the best route to go.”

Nationally, alternative schools often act as a dumping ground for the most difficult students, allowing the rest of the district to boost its stats.

“Alternative schools are often located in crumbling buildings or trailers, with classes taught largely by computers and little in the way of counseling services or extracurricular activities,” ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell wrote in a 2017 investigation.

New Haven’s alternative schools have avoided that reputation, even if its buildings are pretty dingy. Their intimate setting has given kids with profound challenges the help that they need to earn a diploma.

At a recent graduation, students said they had survived unthinkable traumas, including being raped as a grade-schooler, watching a friend commit suicide, and being hospitalized for anxiety. After being told they were troublemakers, they said the alternative schools were often the first place where they heard affirmation, where they weren’t overlooked.

“That smaller environment was what allowed them to be successful. It gave them the programs that they needed and more attention from the teachers. It gave them an environment where they felt safe, respected and appreciated,” said Michael Pavano, an art instructor at Riverside who was named the district’s Teacher of the Year in 2017. ​“They knew that staff saw them in a different light: as an individual, not just as a kid that’s in the hall causing problems. That one-on-one relationship, that’s what makes a difference in their life.”

With a low disciplinary rates among the high schools, with only 6.7 percent who were suspended or expelled last year, Riverside is seen as a model of restorative practices. And through its partnerships with Youth Stat, which was formed after a Riverside student was murdered in 2014, it’s also seen as a model of integrating wraparound services in a school.

Last year, as the school district faced a $19.3 million budget deficit, Birks recommended consolidating three alternative schools — Riverside, New Light and New Horizons — at one location.

At the time, board members wondered why they’d locate the school in a rented building on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard with a $590,000 annual lease (that the landlord later significantly discounted to $332,500) when two district-owned buildings would be vacated. ​“Closing other facilities and leasing that facility, for me, is problematic,” said Darnell Goldson, the Board of Ed’s president.

Birks said that merger at the Boulevard location would give the district a chance to reimagine the alternative school model, with more links to Adult Education. She called it an ​“opportunity school.”

“If they’re not coming to school, if we’re not graduating them at a high rate, is this the best way to run a school?” Birks said at the time. ​“We need to look at that, and it’s going to take more than a day or week.”

But in actuality, with a smaller staff and a limited budget, Riverside didn’t have much of a chance to reinvent itself.

Just before the academic year started, Birks sent Assistant Principal Paul Camarco, who’d spent all summer working on plans, to another school. And the limited budget forced Conaway to let five part-timers go, including a teaching aide, a music instructor, and a woodworking instructor whose Pallet Project had given teens a chance to work hands-on at real construction projects.

Within Riverside, some teachers feel like the decisions to consolidate and close the alternative-education programs are being driven by dollars.

“What we’re caught up in is money, but what are we all doing this for? The intent was always to look out for our students. In the case of Riverside, it’s the most needy population of students that need the most support. They’re the ones we’re ready to disperse?” asked Steve Mikolike, a special education teacher who’s worked in the alternative schools for 18 years. ​“From a kid’s perspective, why is this the right choice?”

Birks pointed to high chronic absenteeism rates as one reason why she felt the alternative school model isn’t working. According to state records, 59 percent of Riverside Education Academy students missed more than a tenth of last school year.

But the alternative school’s rate isn’t that far off from most of the high schools’ spotty attendance among high-needs students. Among kids from the poorest families, 38.7 percent at James Hillhouse High School and 45.3 percent at Wilbur Cross High School missed more than a tenth of last school year too.

“We’re a landing ground,” Conaway said. ​“We have teenage parents; we have individuals coming in from incarceration. The challenges are real, the complexities are real, and what we do matters. It’s not a traditional education, but it’s a real education.”

Pavano said that one metric of chronic absenteeism doesn’t give the full picture. For starters, he pointed out, it doesn’t compare whether those students are showing up more often at Riverside than their previous high schools. And, he added, it doesn’t tell anything about why students are missing class.

For instance, Pavano said, a student recently returned to class after almost four months of absences. He said she’d been working full-time at McDonalds, but only after months away did she realize she wanted to earn her diploma at Riverside.

“How do you show that in data? All they see is that she lost 20 weeks of school; all we see is that a kid finally figured it out and is ready to get to work,” Pavano said. ​“We can’t quantify any data without talking about the data as an individual, but that doesn’t show well on paper.”

Several board members on Monday night said they want more information before they’ll sign off on closing Riverside.

“The programming there is so unique and caters to a special population of young adults. If you take that program away, what are you replacing it with?” said Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, the Board of Ed’s secretary. ​“I think that program is vital. If it’s going to change, I want to know exactly how it’s going to change before I can give any kind of okay.”

Matt Wilcox, the father of an alternative-school grad and the mayor’s latest nominee for a school board slot, watched Monday’s meeting from the audience. He too said he wants to know more than just how much money could be saved.

“I’m interested to see the plan that takes into account the needs of the students, rather than the financial needs,” he said. ​“I want more details about the district’s plan for this population.”