Elicker Calls For New Priorities In City Schools

More early childhood education spots. More art classes. More vocational apprenticeships. More professionals on the school board. Less standardized testing. Less top-dollar consulting.

Those goal are the core of an education agenda that mayoral candidate Justin Elicker posted on his campaign website on Monday afternoon in the race against incumbent Mayor Toni Harp.

The release was timed with the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in 1954 that ended segregation in law but never succeeded in undoing segregation in fact.

“While we have come a long way since Brown vs. Board of Education, severe racial and economic inequality remains throughout New Haven. I plan to tackle these systemic inequities head-on,” Elicker, a former teacher, said in a statement. ​“Undoing such inequality starts with improving the quality of the education and opportunities we offer our young people.”

Elicker’s platform touches on a range of issues from providing home-based childcare for toddlers to strengthening partnerships with local teachers colleges. It avoids some of the thorniest issues, like the tradeoffs of the city’s inter-district magnet program, the district’s relationship with charter schools, and the effectiveness of the current superintendent.

Elicker did, however, did take a stand against standardized testing.

The platform is primarily about changing priorities. Elicker called for the school district to double down on initiatives that have been limited by recent budget cuts. That means more arts and music programming, more character education, more faculty diversity and more bilingual education.

For instance, Elicker said that the schools need to recruit a more diverse teacher population that matches the student body’s demographics. That builds on ongoing certification of paraprofessionals, overseas recruiting trips to Puerto Rico and Spain, and partnerships with Teach for America and Relay Graduate School. Elicker said he’d form ​“deeper partnerships between our high schools and regional universities with teacher training programs, like at Southern Connecticut State University and Sacred Heart.”

And he said that the schools need to promote bilingual education, saying it ​“should be a centerpiece of what our school system does.” That builds on an expansion of an expansion of dual-language immersion programs that teach students both English and Spanish in every class, teacher training to make specialized academic vocabulary understandable, and academic certifications for biliterate students. Elicker, who speaks Spanish himself, said he’d ​“redouble our efforts to create an effective ESL system.”

In another shift that’s already happening, Elicker also turned away from school reform’s past goal of sending every student through college. Instead, he argued, the schools need to partner with major employers to prep high-school grads for technical careers in carpentry, electrical work, plumbing and bookkeeping. That builds on a construction apprenticeship program at James Hillhouse High School, a three-semester alternative ed program at Gateway Community College, and an after-school certification program at Hamden’s Eli Whitney Technical High School. Elicker said he’d broaden technical training so that ​“it is not just something some students are tracked into, … offer[ing] every New Haven student the ability to have a skill that can get them a middle-class job” through training and counseling.

Elicker did also propose some new ideas for the school system. He said he’d ​“guarantee universal early childhood education,” especially by offering more home-based childcare services and subsidized daycare and preschool spots. He said he’d seek waivers from the state to end the ​“overemphasis on testing.” And he said he’d create a mentoring program that can be implemented citywide.

Elicker also diverged from Mayor Harp’s current pick of appointees on the Board of Education, by saying, ​“In addition to the parent voice, we need experts in early childhood education, secondary education, vocational education, and in other fields, like finance or accounting, to recommend policy changes to improve our public schools.” He didn’t mention the most significant vote that those appointees took, picking Carol Birks as superintendent over loud protests.

He added that he’d end contracts with ​“overpriced out-of-town consultants,” for whom Superintendent Birks has diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars, and turn to New Haven’s in-house experts. ​“Instead of wasting money on outsiders telling us how to fix our school system, we should look to those who have a personal stake in improving our educational system,” he said.

Ed Joyner, one of the Board of Education’s two elected members who’s become one of Mayor Harp’s loudest critics on the management of the city’s public schools, is backing Elicker. Harp is running on the school district’s higher graduation rates and targeted interventions for troubled students as key successes.

Elicker previously taught high school classes at the Hyde School, a private Connecticut boarding school focused on character development (that’s since consolidated at another campus in Maine), as well as preschool and elementary school classes in Taiwan. He was also an adjunct professor at Southern Connecticut State University’s School of Education.

Elicker and his wife decided to enroll their oldest daughter, now 4 years old, at a public school in Fair Haven for kindergarten.

Elicker’s Full Platform on Education

A Diverse, Expert, and Professional School Board

Build a diverse, expert and professional school board. Over the last five years the Board of Education has reflected poorly on New Haven: the adults have been arguing while the children are overlooked. Many have blamed the two elected Board of Education members, but the Mayor is on the Board and appoints the remaining four positions. Responsibility lies squarely in the Mayor’s court to ensure people with expertise, professional conduct, and those that are representative of the diverse nature of the City, are appointed to the Board. In addition to the parent voice, we need experts in early childhood education, secondary education, vocational education, and in other fields, like finance or accounting, to recommend policy changes to improve our public schools. Currently only one member of the Board has any formal training and there are no individuals with a financial background. This will change when I am elected Mayor.

The Buck Stops with the Mayor. As Mayor, I will set an example on the Board of Education by working with the six elected and appointed members to find solutions to meet our children’s needs. I will not let the Board descend into petty squabbling, as it has in recent years.

Guarantee Universal Early Childhood Education

Invest in early childhood education by expanding partnerships and opportunities for more home-based childcare services. Dollar-for-dollar, the best time to invest in a child was yesterday. The second best time is right now. We need to make sure all of our children are able to start at the same level in Kindergarten, so they can all achieve their potential by high school and beyond. Working with the State, we must ensure that all children can get the start that they need.

Expand existing public, non-profit and private programs addressing early childhood education and promote more flexibility in early care options. In New Haven there are an estimated 2,500 infants and toddlers and 500 children (ages 3 – 5) who do not have access to any free or affordable childcare options. This is in part because there are not enough qualified providers, and in part because the hours of subsidized daycare and preschools are not catering to the lives of working families. Early childhood education provides a business opportunity for New Haveners and a low-cost way to get children the early education they need. The gains to our community from a real commitment to early childhood education would be tremendous. For example, the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs has found that high-quality early childhood programs can yield a $4 – $9 dollar return per $1 invested. There are high-quality early care providers in New Haven who are innovating. New Haven needs strong leadership to support and coordinate the expansion of programs like All Our Kin to serve both children and families by providing trainings/toolkits for childcare providers to start their own childcare businesses. Furthermore, we should expand the number of early care options available in our Public Schools by learning from local partners who mix paying families with families who need free and low-cost care. This will promote interaction and integration of students from different economic backgrounds and help pay for the programming. I will support the expansion of, and increased flexibility of, early care options as your next Mayor.

Skills for Students

Partnering with major employers in the region and State to capitalize on mid-level job growth. Carpentry, electrician work, plumbing and bookkeeping clerks are some of the top mid-level job openings in Connecticut. We ought to embrace these trends and get New Haven youth on the right track to accessing these job markets. This will in turn increase the technical and vocational offerings in New Haven.

Improve TVET (technical and vocational education and training) so that it is not just something some students are tracked into. Standards-based vocational training should offer every New Haven student the ability to have a skill that can get them a middle-class job. Right now, most schools are focused on college or vocational paths of education. While college leads to many careers – and every child should know that if they set their mind to it, they can go to college – the reality is not every child will go to college. We must provide options for all our New Haven children by providing training and job counseling support that leads to direct employment or an associates/certification program.

A Comprehensive Education — Teaching the Whole Child

Fund music, arts, and exercise. Children need the ability to explore the arts and play at school – or they cannot learn. If we do not treat this education as essential, then we will be depriving students of broader opportunities. There is ample research that shows just how critical it is to include the arts as core curriculum. Evidence shows arts education can decrease disciplinary action and increase writing skills. Several cities have successful models for public school arts education, particularly Boston, Seattle, and Houston.

Include character education as a part of our teaching in our public schools. Helping children deal with stress and trauma to become more resilient is vital to helping students succeed in communities like New Haven. The Association of American Educators offers public school Character Education Programs, and we can implement these curricula into the New Haven Public Schools.

Stop over-testing students. Measuring progress is important, but a culture of over-testing means we do not help the whole child grow effectively. Some school districts have received exemptions from the overemphasis on testing. New Haven should seek more flexibility from the State in the requirements around testing.

A Successful Diverse System

Recruit a diverse teacher population. Evidence shows that the success of students of color is enhanced greatly when teachers of color are present in their educational path. Currently, NHPS Student Data reports the student body is 42% African-American, 41% Hispanic, 14% White, 2% Asian-American, and 1% Other: totaling 87% of student body as non-white. At NHPS 73.6% of teachers are white, yet only 14% of students are white.

Create a pathway for our students and other talented individuals within our school system, such as paraprofessionals, to become full-time teachers. By forming deeper partnerships between our high schools and regional universities with teacher training programs, like at Southern Connecticut State University and Sacred Heart, we can ensure New Haven students and residents have a pathway to become teachers. When I taught at the Education School at Southern Connecticut State University (teaching students who were interested in becoming teachers) only one or two students each semester were actually from New Haven.

Promote Bilingual Education. When 46% of the student body is Latinx and 16.4% of NHPS school kids are not native English speakers, bilingual education should be a centerpiece of what our school system does. As the only candidate who speaks Spanish, I have observed first-hand just how much it means to residents, who do not speak English, to be able to speak directly with someone who can answer their questions. I am also enrolling my daughter in kindergarten in the fall at a New Haven public school with dual language instruction. Yet in our public schools, bilingual staff are threatened with continual budget cuts and a loss of positions. As your next Mayor we will redouble our efforts to create an effective ESL system. 

Implement Cultural Competency Training for Educators. We will do this by creating a school system that values and supports diversity and inclusion, while ensuring all educators are trained in anti-racism and subliminal bias training. We must take it further and include meaningful training and support to understand and dismantle gender stereotypes, and work to redress racism and injustice in all its forms.

Embrace Partnerships to Enhance Services for Students

Build, develop and embrace existing and upcoming partnerships for tutoring and mentorship programs into a citywide network of mentors and supporters who help children achieve their potential. We have many great programs already in place that are free to students like LEAP, Music Haven, the Boys & Girls Club, Schooner, the Yale-New Haven Teacher Institute and Yale Public School Partnerships, to name a few. But all too often the relationship between nonprofits offering important services and public schools is strained and not collaborative. We need to welcome our partners and rely on them more as resources to extend the school day and school year so students have opportunities year-round to learn and grow.

Work to foster a universal tutoring/mentoring curriculum through an ​“Each Child-One Mentor” program which will address the specific needs of each student, and lead by a citywide partnership of teachers, parents, mentors and supporters. We can then identify the existing programs’ strengths, weaknesses, and overall challenges to promote a mentoring curriculum – created with input from our mentoring network, parents, teachers, retired teachers, and the Board of Education – that can be implemented across the City.

Budget within our Means and Listen to our Educators

End contracts with overpriced out-of-town consultants through a ​“Buy New Haven” initiative, focusing on using our local expertise to solve answers in-house. New Haveners understand New Haven and our educators are best equipped to work to improve our school system. Instead of wasting money on outsiders telling us how to fix our school system, we should look to those who have a personal stake in improving our educational system.

Budget within our means. We are currently in a school budget crisis, but we are not prioritizing education jobs (librarians, guidance counselors, social workers) when making cuts. We waste a lot of money on testing (literacy and math assessments) and outside consultants, when we have expertise in the community. We are even paying thousands of dollars for travel and hotel, when we have expertise right in our own school system. Money is being given by the new superintendent to consultants, who are her friends. Tax dollars should be used wisely, efficiently and with integrity.

NHPS that is Responsive to Parents

Embrace a parent-friendly system: a ​“No Wrong Door” policy. We will make it easier for parents to access information about the school system, the school enrollment lottery, and other questions they have in-person at every school in the district through a ​“No Wrong Door” policy.

Promote transparency by making the registration process easier to understand and the system more accessible. The ​“School Choice Process” is confusing and over complex. Transparency also includes making it accessible to non-English speaking households.

Include public input. With a population the size of New Haven’s, 130,000 ideas are better than one. I see our City’s policies always as a work in progress: where residents help guide and transform what our City implements to ensure the betterment of New Haven. As your next Mayor, I will make sure that parents have a seat at the table as the school system makes decisions.