Parading teachers, students deliver a message.
Lopez, a third-grade dual language teacher, and Meneses, a fifth-grade bilingual teacher, didn’t imagine their first school year of teaching at Fair Haven School ending with the Covid-19 pandemic causing an abrupt school closure and switch to online learning for their students.
Principal Heriberto Cordero didn’t have to do much convincing to get the pair and others of his 70-member staff to make signs and show up Wednesday to the reverse parade on Grand Avenue.
Cordero and his staff have been eager to safely gather since the second week that all New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) closed.
“We want them to know that everything is going to be OK and that we miss them,” said Meneses.
Since moving to virtual teaching, Lopez and Meneses have had to adjust how they teach in a few ways, like limiting poster projects and being patient with students not meeting due dates.
“We don’t know what everyone’s home life looks like, so we don’t know if they have access to help or the ability to get supplies,” Lopez said.
Cordero said the staff had the option of hosting the parade on Exchange Street but decided Grand Avenue would feel more like home.
“We wanted to bring back some normality of our community,” he said.
Many families drove by multiple times to enjoy the socially distanced gathering. Some played music and honked their horns as they went by, with the students holding “I miss you” posters out the car windows and sunroofs.
The gathering also offered a break from virtual staff meetings.
Cordero said his original idea to have a caravan of teachers drive around the neighborhood to students’ homes was not approved of by the district.
Dual language kindergarten teachers Nancy Elgerd and Anna McCarthy (pictured) encouraged each student that passed through to keep going. The two were gifted handmade drawings from their students as they passed by.
McCarthy called it a much-needed “heartening day.”
Since school has been moved online, Elgerd said her mission is to keep her students enjoying learning. “It’s hard because they don’t really associate school with home,” she said.
Many eighth graders made Class of 2020 signs for the parade.
“I think for many of them it’s their way of processing their graduation,” said K‑8 music teacher Dan Kinsman, who has been teaching at Fair Haven School for nine years.
Physical education teacher Sharon Arnold joined the parade to see the students and her colleagues after two months of no in-person meetings.
Arnold, who has taught for 27 years at Fair Haven School, has been getting creative on the Google classroom platform. Her lesson plans have ranged from sending the students links to timer apps to track how many exercises they can complete, to sending video links of yoga and kickboxing lessons.
Cordero has since created a Youtube channel after schools closed to post daily morning announcement videos. He said that after the pandemic the school will continue its heavy integration of technology. “We won’t ever go back,” he said.
Fair Haven School staffers are currently working on planning a graduation parade for graduating eighth graders.