Birks Splits High School’s Founders

A plan to break up the two-person team that founded and runs New Haven Academy, one of the city’s leading schools, has caused chaos and sparked outrage days before the opening of the academic year.

Parents learned late Thursday that Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks, citing a department anti-nepotism policy, has decided to remove Meredith Gavrin from the 325-student Orange Street magnet high school. Gavrin and husband Greg Baldwin founded the school 15 years ago on the basis of a Holocaust-themed ​“Facing History and Ourselves” social-justice curriculum. It has grown and earned a national reputation among a ​“small schools” network for its use of ​“Facing History,” developed a community-service curriculum that has involved students in New Haven, and sends almost every graduate of its diverse senior classes to college.

Baldwin and Gavrin began as co-facilitators of the school. Baldwin then became the principal. Gavrin assumed her leadership role under the title ​“magnet resources coordinator.”

To address the nepotism issue, the school system arranged, at the couple’s request, to have a central office administrator, not Baldwin, supervise and evaluate Gavrin. That administrator was the district’s director of instruction.

Birks, who’s about to begin her first full academic year as superintendent, has cut the position of director of instruction as part of a broader plan to eliminate a $19 million budget deficit.

She informed Gavrin this Tuesday that she must now work in a different school building. The school year starts next week.

Gavrin informed parents of the change in an email Thursday afternoon. She said she would like to report to a different central office administrator and remain at New Haven Academy; she fears that anyone else coming in won’t have the same familiarity with NHA’s specialized curriculum. Outraged, parents and teachers immediately began networking to fight the decision.

Gavrin has asked Birks to allow her to report to one of the new assistant superintendents Birks has named as part of a central office reshuffling. Those assistant superintendents have assumed the duties formerly held by the director of instruction. Birks has so far declined the request.

“While I have nothing but respect for my colleagues across the District and recognize that valuable and important work is being done in every school (including the New Haven Public Schools my three children attend), my heart and soul are at New Haven Academy,” Gavrin wrote to parents. ​“I hope that the Superintendent can find a way to enable me to stay in my current position at the school, or else I will be left with no choice but to resign.”

Parents and teachers are in a uproar. Teachers planned to begin circulating a petition Friday seeking to preserve Gavrin’s job in anticipation of a Monday night Board of Education meeting where Gavrin’s fate might be decided.

Birks did not return a call seeking comment for this story. District spokesperson Will Clark released this statement:

“The Board of Education is in the process of updating and reviewing its policies. In our review, we learned that the District has a Nepotism Policy (4210) that has been on record since 1999. Once learned, the employee was advised that it was possible that the Board may want to move to enact this policy.

“No decisions have been made regarding the employee’s assignment for next year. Any decision would require recommendation through the Personnel report and subsequent Board of Education action.

“The BOE Policies are on the District website and there is a Policy Committee working on updates along with a CABE review that has been done to assist in that process. Updates of the Committee work are discussed at BOE meetings and any policy changes are voted/adopted in public session after discussion and review.”

Among the appeals sent to the board was a letter from a teacher named Leszek Ward.

“Losing Meredith,” he wrote, ​“would be an unthinkable and unnecessary obstacle to the continued success of our students. At this point, our principal will have no opportunity to interview, select, or attempt to prepare any potential replacement. Anyone thrust into Meredith’s position would be entirely unfamiliar with our theme, approach, and school community. As a result, our students will lose a dedicated, selfless school leader that has exemplified the kind of stability students spoke about so movingly just a few weeks ago. They will lose grants Meredith works hard to secure. They will lose the community partnerships she has worked so hard to build. …

“More than that, they will lose faith in the leadership of their city.”

Gavrin’s and Ward’s letters follow. Click here, here, here, here, and here to read some past Independent stories about what happens inside New Haven Academy, which moved in 2016 to a renovated $44 million state-of-the-art building at the corner of Orange and Bradley streets. (Click on the podcast above to listen to a previous interview with Baldwin and Gavrin about their school, on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.)

Gavrin Letter To Parents

NHA Families,

I am emailing to share a difficult situation that has developed: the Superintendent is trying to move me from New Haven Academy into another school. (Please make sure you read through the details below; I apologize that this is such a lengthy email.)

On Tuesday, the Director of Human Resources for the New Haven Public Schools informed me that the new Superintendent is not willing to have me continue to work in the same building as Greg — that because the Director of Instruction has always evaluated and supervised me, and because there is no remaining title of ​“Director of Instruction” and it would be the job of the Principal to evaluate me now, Dr. Birks has determined that I can no longer work at New Haven Academy where Greg, as my principal and as my husband, would be in a position to evaluate me. She is giving me no choice but to accept a position in another school. This is not, they acknowledged, about any budgetary issue.

I reminded the Director of Human Resources that:

1. I was hired as a co-facilitator of NHA when it opened in 2003. Later, when the school budget was large enough to give us an official principal position, I took the title of ​“magnet resource teacher” but have always worked as the other member of the administration.

2. We have always been aware of and proactive about making sure direct supervision and evaluation were provided by someone in Central Office; at our direct request, starting years ago, the Director of Instruction has evaluated and supervised me;

3. Whoever is assigned to replace me in this position will lack the training in our magnet theme, system of instruction and grading, and this specific school culture that I have led and developed over 15 years.

I was then told that the new Superintendent is unwilling to make any exception by asking an Assistant Superintendent to evaluate and supervise me as the Director of Instruction did previously.

Over the course of 15 years, we have:

- Grown the school from 60 students to 325;
 — Graduated 12 senior classes at college acceptance rates of 98 – 100%;
 — Hosted visitors from schools across the country, from foundations, and from schools in other countries who want to learn from our model;
 — Become one of the first 10 schools to form the Partner Schools Network of Facing History and Ourselves, now a network of over 80 schools;
 — Watched our alumni achieve college acceptance, persistence, and success rates on par not only with students within their demographics but also across demographics according to National Clearinghouse data; and
 — Been honored by the district and, this October, by the Black and Hispanic Caucus of the Aldermen for the city.

While I have nothing but respect for my colleagues across the District and recognize that valuable and important work is being done in every school (including the New Haven Public Schools my three children attend), my heart and soul are at New Haven Academy. I hope that the Superintendent can find a way to enable me to stay in my current position at the school, or else I will be left with no choice but to resign.

I am awaiting further information from Human Resources before the Board of Education meeting that is due to be held on Monday. In the interim, many supporters and allies in the community have reached out to the Superintendent, the Mayor’s office, and the Board of Education to speak on New Haven Academy’s behalf.

I had hoped to have better information in hand and be able to avoid sharing this information with all of you, but I did not want to wait until any closer to the start of the school year. We will keep you up to date with any new developments.

In the interim, please rest assured that the incredible faculty and staff at NHA are doing everything they need to do to deliver you (or your children) the high quality education you richly deserve, just as we always have.

Best,
Meredith

Teacher Letter To Board Of Ed

My name is Leszek Ward. I’ve been an English teacher at New Haven Academy for the last 10 years. In that time I’ve been fortunate enough to work with the same principle and program director for the entirely of my career.

At a Board of Education meeting a few weeks ago, I heard many students speak from personal experience about the importance of relationships and stability in schools. I heard one of our own students speak movingly about how important Samm Leska was to our school community. I was encouraged by the board’s decision to table the layoffs and transfers in order to examine them more carefully.

Last Monday, I was deeply disappointed to see that Ms. Leska was still listed as a transfer out of new Haven Academy. I know that from the outside, this might seem like a victory. She was originally slated to be laid off, but now she has a job in the district. But I also know that Samm had no desire to leave New Haven Academy. She was transferred from a high school she loves into a K‑8 school she does not know, and the teacher replacing her her left a K‑8 school for a high school he does not know. The solution seemed obvious: keep Samm at the school she loves and transfer the displaced K‑8 teacher to the open position at the K‑8 school. The fact that the superintendent was unwilling or unable to recognize this seemingly obvious solution indicates she did not truly hear the students who spoke so movingly of the need for caring relationships and stability in their schools. I was disappointed that the Board of Education missed the opportunity to keep Ms Leska at NHA.

I have recently learned that we are also about to lose Meredith Gavrin, one of the cofounders of our school. Meredith was recently told that due to the reassignment of central office staff, the only person who could evaluate her was the principal of New Haven Academy, Greg Baldwin. Because Meredith and Greg are married, she was told that this situation presents a conflict of interest that can only be avoided by assigning Meredith to another school in the district. This is far from the only possible solution. Once again, the superintendent is considering an incredibly damaging decision that can easily be avoided.

To point out that Meredith is an irreplaceable member of the school community is to understate the obvious. Losing Meredith would be an unthinkable and unnecessary obstacle to the continued success of our students. At this point, our principal will have no opportunity to interview, select, or attempt to prepare any potential replacement. Anyone thrust into Meredith’s position would be entirely unfamiliar with our theme, approach, and school community. As a result, our students will lose a dedicated, selfless school leader that has exemplified the kind of stability students spoke about so movingly just a few weeks ago. They will lose grants Meredith works hard to secure. They will lose the community partnerships she has worked so hard to build. They will lose schoolwide project, a yearly day of interdisciplinary learning recently covered by the New Haven Independent. More than that, they will lose faith in the leadership of their city.

Meredith has voluntarily worked as an administrator while being been paid as a magnet resource teacher since founding the school 15 years ago. Moving her to another school saves the district no money, but does incredible harm to our students and our school community. I understand the desire to drive out nepotism in the district, but this situation is unique. The damage can easily be avoided by simply allowing Meredith continue her work in the school she helped build and assigning someone else in the district to evaluate her. I have little confidence in the decisions of a superintendent who is unable or unwilling to avoid such irreparable harm at such a small cost. I hope that the board can restore my confidence and protect my students by keeping Meredith Gavrin at New Haven Academy.

Respectfully,

Leszek Ward