Education Justice Vision Takes Shape

Higher quality school lunches. More reliable school bus transportation. Enough hand soap and paper towels in all school bathrooms. And better work opportunities for public-school students under the age of 16.

New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) students put forward those goals among many others as they joined parents, teachers, and education allies in defining what a fully funded city school district could look like.

Students, parents, and teachers came together to imagine those possibilities for the public school district as the New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) hosted its latest education justice town hall on Wednesday. This latest such teachers-union-hosted meeting was held at Fair Haven’s Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration (FAME) at 255 Blatchley Ave.

Nearly 70 public-school stakeholders joined the meeting in FAME’s cafeteria to learn about what they can do on a local and state level to advocate for more public school funding and discuss their vision for the district’s future. 

NHFT has been building a coalition of NHPS students, teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, school staff, and retired educators all year to push for increased public school funding for New Haven and beyond. 

“How can we make sure that our schools, that our neighborhood community schools like FAME, the one we’re in right now, have the funding that we know they need to continue to meet the needs of the growing population here in Fair Haven and throughout our city?” city teachers union President Leslie Blatteau asked at the event.

Not Enough Soap, Water, Afterschool Jobs

A group of current NHPS students took the lead in trying to answer Blatteau’s question, and in filling out what a fully funded school district might look like.

Nyleve said increased funding should be put towards better school transportation. ​“My bus has been consistently late or hasn’t even shown up at all,” she said. 

She said she’s been told excuses by the bus company that they are training people. 

Lianni said school lunches need improving and specifically requested that milk not be served with every meal and instead options like water be offered.

“As a teenager I don’t want to drink milk with every meal,” she said. 

Despite her school having water fountains she said the fountains often don’t work.

“I also feel like they should create more programs for after school like they have at LEAP, for more opportunities for teenagers to start jobs at a younger age,” she said. ​“It also works out for parents because they work a lot and they don’t really have people to take care of their children, but at least their children are still getting educated and doing things related to school.” 

“Lianni raises a good point,” Blatteau replied. ​“If we were able to invest in afterschool programs more we could hire teenagers to help with young children so parents wouldn’t have to cut back on their working hours to come pick up their children. This is a win-win, we’re putting teenagers to work with more funding and ultimately helping working families.”

Metropolitan Business Academy student Kris said they would want more funding to be used to buy more school supplies. They said their peers often complain about school bathrooms lacking in supplies like hand soap and paper towels. 

“Some people can’t really wash their hands after using the bathroom,” they said. 

Kris added that water fountains can often be found with spit on them. They also called for more access to water, pencils, and sanitary supplies. 

Kris agreed that more work opportunities for students under 16 should be offered. 

During the meeting students, parents, and educators signed up to stay involved in the fight for funding while also picking up free kids books focused on math and science. 

Pamphlets were also shared with tips for parents to create strong readers at home like reading to students daily, pointing to words as they read, discussing new vocabulary words, and reading a variety of books to discover children’s reading interests. 

For parents who could not get child care for Wednesday’s event, support was also provided at the meeting with several tables designated for youth to work with Yale student volunteers on puzzles, coloring, and reading. 

The meeting also provided headsets for participants to get live Spanish translation of the meeting’s speeches. 

"Sending Our Children To Places That We Feel Are Safe"

Current Conte West School paraprofessional Claudine Wilkins-Chambers said with more dollars for public schools, she would demand funding be put towards emotional and mental health support services for students ​“that are going around with trauma, stress, and confusion.”

Wilkins-Chambers, who has been a para in New Haven for 50 years, said New Haven students and other inner city youth must receive trauma supports from the schools to succeed academically. 

“It’s not fair in my opinion, my definition is that’s it’s a criminal act,” she said. 

Parent liaison worker at the Adult Education Center Katrina Jones shared on behalf of her table with two high school students who said they would ask for more school-based guidance around college and financial aid. 

“So imagine if we had that money, we could hire someone to do that to make sure our students get the best education and answers to get the education that they need to move on to be productive citizens in this great city of New Haven,” Jones said. 

Elm City Montessori School Magnet Resource Teacher Dave Weinreb reported that his table discussed funding ideas like investing in improved custodial service and maintenance workers in school buildings and school security so ​“that we as families are sending our children to places that we feel are safe.” 

Paraprofessional union president Hyclis Williams said if her school were to get equitable funding, she would demand that paras be paid livable wages. 

Wednesday’s meeting also had a presentation from Recovery for All CT Director Puya Gerami. Gerami discussed what he described as decades of billionaire-funded efforts to destroy and underfund public schools and the inequitable raising of public funds through an ​“upside down” tax system. Click here to read a previous Independent story about a recent NHFT tax day rally. 

Gerami shared that the per-pupil funding in New Haven is $16,728 while in Greenwich it is $22,370.

The state’s Rainy Day Fund is overflowing, Gerami said, rather than being used for the state’s 1,322 unfilled paraprofessional positions throughout the state and 1,221 unfilled teacher positions. 

Click here to view the full presentation. 

Blatteau presented on 180 community responses to a NHFT survey gathering information on what school communities want investments in. 

So far areas needing investments according to the community are more librarians, teachers and staff, improved curriculum, and 75 percent of people reported that their school building needs urgent repairs. 

Click here to view the full survey results and here to fill out the still open survey. 

"Mental Health Is On The Rise"

NHPS parent Nakeshia Alford has four children ranging from grades kindergarten to 12th grade, with a fifth on the way.

When asked what improvements she wants to see in the schools, Alford said better communication with parents and more opportunities for parents to interact with staff in-person. 

“We want to get to know each other so we can have support when we need it,” she said. 

She added that schools should offer more guidance of applying for or offer student scholarships for secondary education. ​“If our kids want to be the next doctors or engineers they should be able to afford school,” she said. ​“We don’t need to be picking between paying a bill and getting them to college.” 

After the Wednesday meeting Alford said she plans to attend the Hartford rally for education in mid-May.

Barack Obama School parent Kyra Evans said that more mental health resources for students are needed and after school programing. 

“Mental health is on the rise and our kids are being neglected, it’s overwhelming,” she said. ​“And it can’t just be on teachers because they’re not babysitters. They’re role models and we need actual mental health professionals in schools so they aren’t doing everyone’s job.” 

Alford and Evans, who are friends, both recalled growing up with community centers like the Barbell Club in the Hill and having ample afterschool opportunities. 

“It’s like we aren’t focused on the kids anymore,” Evans said. 

Blatteau agreed at the end of Wednesday’s meeting and said ​“it’s no longer a viable narrative that teachers are over here and parents are over there.” 

She said it will take a coalition of community supporters, parents, educators, administrators, and staff to push for equitable public school funding.