Emily Hays Photo
Edgewood Park’s Coogan Pavilion, one of three city learning hubs to open on Monday.
(Updated Thursday) Around 1,500 New Haven students still have not signed onto their online classes. The city has a plan to help — by setting up free learning hubs throughout the city with seats prioritized for these students.
New Haven’s Youth and Recreation Department has identified nine sites for the learning hubs and has three ready for a soft opening on Monday. The hubs provide a place for students to study when their classes are remote.
The city held a presser on Thursday afternoon to field additional questions about the learning hubs after the news broke on Wednesday.
Mayor Justin Elicker: We can’t assume all families can access remote learning.
The hubs will still be necessary after New Haven Public Schools transition from remote-only learning to in-person classes on some days of the week, Mayor Justin Elicker said.
“It was clear in the spring that we can’t just assume that all families have the resources that they need to fully access online educational programs,” Elicker said. “Our goal with this is to partner with nonprofits to provide a lot of different options for, in particular, families that are struggling, kids that have not yet logged onto the system and working families that may not have a care provider at home.”
Community organizations have filled the gap so far. Churches, the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) and the Boys & Girls Club of New Haven have all stood up their own learning hubs since New Haven public schools started remotely this fall.
Like the nonprofit hubs, each planned city site is relatively small-scale. The city plans to seat a maximum of 20 students per hub, with the goal of eventually setting up enough hubs to host 300 students, or more.
New Haven Youth and Rec Director Gwendolyn Busch Williams: Seats prioritized for disengaged students.
“We recognize that is still a minute portion of the school population. However, we want to make sure in servicing our youth, that we are doing so safely,” said Gwendolyn Busch Williams, the city’s new Youth and Recreation director.
“We are focusing on young people who have not signed onto regular school. That is our first priority, and we are open to everyone else,” Busch Williams said.
The city’s soft opening of the program will occur at Edgewood Park’s Coogan Pavilion, the Barnard Nature Center and East Rock’s College Woods. The Fair Haven, Mitchell, Wilson and Stetson branches of the New Haven Free Public Library, are planning to open their spaces to students soon. The city is hoping to open hubs at East Shore Park and Edgerton Park but needs to do more work to get the spaces ready.
Socially distant desks and sticker reminders, ready for remote learners.
The hubs would be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to first through ninth grade students, with no fee to register. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Hub staff will pick up the food from New Haven Public Schools Food Service, similar to how city camp meals worked over the summer.
Busch Williams said that the hubs are following all the state guidelines, including the recommended ventilation levels and signs that remind students to keep their distance and wear face masks. The buildings are being inspected by city’s health and building departments. There will be isolation rooms for students who develop Covid-19 symptoms and the hubs will have masks on hand for any students that comes without one.
The city’s community services administrator, Mehul Dalal, said that this team of health, building and fire department inspectors has been working together to inspect whether schools are ready to reopen as well.
City Community Recreation Coordinator Felicia Shashinka explains the hub’s isolation room.
Students will be assigned to one site and will need to stick to that site. They cannot check into one on one day and another the next, for safety reasons. There is no bussing or other transportation yet; the hope is that the sites are close enough for kids to walk to. Busch Williams said that she would like to be ambitious and hope to provide transportation at some point.
The plan is to keep the hubs going for ten weeks, until Dec. 18, and then reopen on Jan. 4. That second session would last 20 weeks, into June. Each hub would have a lead staff member and two support staff members — all temporary hires, similar to the summer sessions.
The cost of operating five hubs for ten weeks is around $130,000, Busch Williams said.
Right now, the program is coming out of the budget for city youth programs that Covid-19 canceled. The team is working on grants to support the program further and is absolutely taking donations, Busch Williams added.
Clifford Beers System of Care Director Seth Poole: We have to live that “kids first” credo.
Clifford Beers is helping the city manage the applications for the hubs (apply here or by calling 844 – 825-5428). The application says that students need to show a birth certificate or a passport to register. However, Busch Williams said that the department will work with undocumented students and will not turn them away.
Clifford Beers System of Care Director Seth Poole said that the push to get families to sign up has just started. This involves outreach from the nonprofits involved, including at area food banks.