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Magnet School Assistant Program Coordinator Michele Bonanno: The grant came through.
New Haven Public Schools have a much-contested $3 million in hand, officially ending the fight between the city and the federal government over the rights of transgender athletes.
The Federal Magnet Assistance Grant showed up this week as by far the largest of nine federal and state grants on the agenda for the Board of Education’s Finance and Operations committee. The committee briefly lauded administrators for winning the $3 million grant without sacrificing the board’s stance on the rights of transgender athletes.
“I was at the city’s LGBTQ+ Youth Task Force last week. They were very excited and deeply appreciative of the efforts of you in particular and the district in standing up for this,” said committee Chair Matthew Wilcox to the program’s coordinator Michele Bonanno.
Board member Matt Wilcox: Thanks for standing up for this.
The sum — exactly $2,998,084 — supports specialized programs at five of the district’s magnet schools: East Rock, Edgewood, Davis, King/Robinson and High School in the Community. The goal is to promote racial and socioeconomic integration and improve test scores and parent participation at the covered schools each year.
The grant was hanging in the balance for a few weeks in September when the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights tied its approval of Connecticut magnet grants to its recent policies on transgender athletes — that allowing transgender women on female sports teams discriminates against biologically female athletes.
New Haven vowed to fight the ban, in court if necessary. Within a few weeks OCR retreated and allowed New Haven to access its grant without accepting the federal policy. There was still some concern, however, that the grant might be held up by another step in the Department of Education’s approval process.
The largest chunk of the now-approved grant, at around $700,000, covers school partners and contractors like the Yale Office Of New Haven & State Affairs and the CT Science Center. The next largest line item covered by the grant is teacher salaries at around $600,000.
The committee recommended the $3 million sum and the eight other grants to the full Board of Education for approval.