Maya McFadden File Photo
Davis seventh-grader Dulce creates a 3D guitar figure last spring.
Davis Academy for Arts & Design Innovation has put a pause on its before- and after-school programming — leading two parents to take to the Board of Education to plead for some way to bring back initiatives that helped their students with reading, socialization, and building connections with school staff and fellow classmates.
Davis school parents Jessica Utrup and Rachel Glover raised those concerns during the public comment section of last Monday’s latest biweekly full Board of Education meeting, which took place in-person at Barack Obama School on Farnham Avenue and online via Zoom and YouTube.
The two Davis parents testified separately to share about the life-changing benefits that have come from the programs for their children and them as working parents — and about how they want and need the paused programs to return.
In an email response to the Independent Wednesday about the pausing of the Davis school before- and after-school programs, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spokesperson Justin Harmon explained, “There was an issue with the funding proposal put forward for the program. The program was put on hold at the start of the school year. We are looking to set a start date soon.”
Fourth grader Davis parent Jessica Utrup (bottom left) testifies Monday at Board meeting.
Jessica Utrup shared her public testimony at the start of Monday’s meeting.
“We have recently been informed that our after school and before school is on hold, not gonna happen, we don’t know. It’s a 9 – 3:30 school day so it’s really hard for working parents,” she said to the Board.
Utrup shared thoughts from her nine-year-old daughter, who is a fourth grader at Davis, during her testimony to the board. She said that every day her daughter tells her: “I need after school to start again so we can finish reading our book with Ms. Coleman.”
Utrup said that her daughter started reading a book last year in her after-school program and the class didn’t finish before the school year was up, so “she really wants to know what happens and she does not want to read it on her own.”
“This has become a community thing in her class, she wants to read it with them,” Utrup added.
Utrup also shared her own perspective of the paused programming’s impacts on her daughter.
“My daughter has been at Davis since she was three years old but she still get anxious around new teachers and when moving into new classrooms,” Utrup said.
“One of my favorite things about the after school program is her interaction with teachers and staff outside of those she sees daily. During after school she works on her homework with other teachers who not only help her with the academics but also make her feel comfortable. When she was a second grader she had after school twice a week with the fifth grade teacher. He helped her with math but he also made the second floor of the school where third through fifth grades are feel like a more familiar and safe territory for her. Continuing to help with her social emotional learning before and after school gives her a chance to actually just chat and play with her friends.”
The Davis parent continued: “There isn’t much time for socialization during the day and many of her friends come from towns outside of New Haven. Having time both before and after school to forge connections with her peers helps her become the best she can be. For a district that claims to encourage a holistic approach to children through social emotional learning, you certainly seem to be depriving them of the opportunities they need to grow socially as young people.”
Davis parent of three Rachel Glover (bottom left) testifies Monday.
Rachel Glover, who is the parent of three Davis students, raised similar concerns at Monday’s meeting.
“I also have children who have a hard time sometimes connecting with others. After school and before school is their chance to socialize and to have the SEL [social emotional learning] that they need.”
She shared that her daughter had a hard time learning to read and “a lot of her learning happened beyond the school day” which these programs helped with.
“All of the things that I’ve heard are a priority as far as New Haven Public Schools are concerned are supported during after-school. It completely aligns with what we want because that is the time that we had the SEL,” Glover said.
She added that the before and after school programs lower transportation costs because parents must pick their students up from after-school and allows students to engage with both their peers and school staff.
“As well as that, truancy which is huge issue, it’s not an issue when parents drop their kids off, we know where our kids are in the morning. So many problems are solved just by a little bit of after-school and before-school,” she added.
Glover said she she “can’t imagine how I would get to work as a working parent without before- and after-school.”
In the past when Davis lacked grant funding for before- and after-school programming, Glover said, parents were willing to pay to keep the programming going.
“I do not know many people who can work a five-and-a-half-hour day,” she said.
Glover concluded that as a teacher for Bridgeport Public Schools for the past 17 years she’s learned that “as a specialist teacher I can say kids do not come for what happens during the day most of the time. They come for their specials. They come for art. They come for music. They come for dance. They come for gym and afterwards they come to socialize and talk about who shoots the best hoops. That’s why they come to the school day.”
At the end of the meeting’s public comment section, Board of Education president Yesenia Rivera requested that Superintendent Madline Negrón assign a central office staffer to follow up with the parents that testified Monday about Davis’s paused programming.
Watch the full meeting above.