Hamden Weighs Future Of Alternative Ed

Malacki Lewis was failing all of his classes at Hamden High School until his mother found out about an alternative learning environment known as the Hamden Collaborative Learning Center. Since transitioning to the smaller public program, he has fallen in love with learning and plans to graduate alongside his peers at both HHS and HCLC this spring before attending Gateway Community College.

Lewis, who is 17, said his life would likely have looked different if he did not find a ​“family” of educators and advocates through HCLC. But while Lewis’ future is looking up, the fate of the school has reached a precarious point — prompting Lewis and many others to push for the preservation of the same community that they say is responsible for changing the lives of many people who were otherwise failed by the system. (Read their letters in support of HCLC here.)

The program’s future is in doubt because Hamden’s Board of Education is in the midst of reexamining the direction of alternative education in town.

That new consideration was prompted by the sale of Wintergreen School, the building which currently houses the district’s special education classrooms as well as HCLC, back to ACES, a nonprofit that provides educational services and support to the district. 

Alternative learning refers to programming that seeks to support students with academic or behavioral difficulties who struggle to find success through mainstream schooling. HCLC primarily serves children who are chronically absent, experiencing mental health-related hardships, in juvenile detention or living in foster homes.

The school sale has led to a debate about whether it would benefit more children to outsource alternative education programming or keep that work going within the Hamden Public Schools System through HCLC. The board will vote on a decision next week.

To prepare for that vote, the BOE gathered on Wednesday at Wintergreen to hear two different proposals from both HCLC and ACES. 

Outgoing schools Superintendent Jody Goeler framed the meeting as a chance to hear from HCLC about what they are currently achieving as well as to pass the district’s challenges by ACES, an outside entity, in the hopes of establishing new solutions to strengthn student support. 

The possible outcomes basically boil down to the following: Dismantling HCLC and bringing in ACES; figuring out a possible collaboration between the two; or finding a place for HCLC to continue their work until the board has more money to further develop the work.

The conversation framed HCLC as an active, long-lasting program that has changed lives — but which the board still believes should be expanded and developed to offer more students more scholastic opportunities.

The obstacle is figuring out how to grow HCLC with limited financial resources, especially after the Hamden Legislative Council flat-funded the BOE this budget season.

ACES, meanwhile, pitched a new program (in response to a request by Superintendent Goeler) called ​“Bridges.” The agency does not currently provide alternative education services other than those aimed at special education students. Under Goeler’s plan, it would launch a plan to do so for the first time for Hamden students, featuring relatively low-cost boosts in offerings compared to what HCLC is able to provide given the BOE’s tight budget. 

Those extra programs would include a teaching kitchen and auto shop. ACES owns multiple buildings — including Wintergreen and a place on Skiff Street — which could mean finally establishing a permanent space for alternative learning in town. And they have independent access to transportation services, which would take some pressure off Hamden as the school administration cuts bus routes in the face of financial hardships.

Ultimately, if Hamden outsourced to ACES, which works with at least 24 different school districts, the organization would turn the program into a regionalized service supporting students from seventh through 12th grades. 

The staff, parents and students who make up HCLC are pushing for the district to continue supporting its own initiative, arguing that none of the above ideas — like mechanics or cooking classes — matter as much as what their program currently offers: A tried and true approach led by trusted teachers who go above and beyond to support struggling students. 

A Look Inside HCLC

Tucked away in a wooded area of southern Hamden, HCLC occupies a small left wing of Wintergreen School. The rest of the building is devoted to independent learning classrooms for special education students, which operate independently of HCLC.

Roughly 60 individuals attend the program. The number fluctuates as more students join the school throughout the year or choose to reintegrate into Hamden High.

Inside the building, teenagers work in small rooms with about ten other students, engaging in creative assignments in Sheera Desjardin’s journalism class like writing obituaries for cartoon characters. Their education is designed to be flexible; classwork as well as classrooms are consistently restructured to accommodate the needs of each unique student population.

“Everything is on wheels here,” Principal Jonathan Pearce, who has worked with HCLC for the past 18 years, joked on Thursday, when the Independent stopped by for a visit.

Since Hamden started its first district-based alternative learning program in 1987, HCLC has changed titles, provided services to differently aged populations depending on demand, and hopped between locations almost ten times.

Besides the typical neon poster boards and wall displays that line most schools, HCLC’s common spaces feature utilities like a donated washing machine, which students without access to clean clothes can use to clean their clothes free of charge.

Many of those who work at HCLC have been there for decades, motivated by their direct connections with kids that last far beyond a students’ short time in the program.

“We have some of the most emotionally vulnerable kids,” said Rose Pawlikowski, who has been at HCLC for six years as a social worker.

“We’ve built up a huge source of trust. They have trust here and they are safe here — I don’t know if ACES will be able to foster that same core safe space that we have,” added Sheera Desjardin, Tzvolos’ colleague and an English teacher at HCLC for the past seven years.

“That trust, and our toolbox, are something that we have cultivated for a very long time,” Pearce said. He said that he appreciates the BOE taking the time to listen to HCLC’s presentation on Wednesday night — and that he hopes the BOE will ​“give this program that’s been around for so long the consideration it deserves.”

Teachers at HCLC said they have spent the majority of their educational careers focused on gaining the trust of their alternative learning students, by caring for them well outside of work hours: Calling them Ubers when they can’t find a way home; making sure they have access to meals; providing them with money for laundromats; linking them with jobs for part-time income; and staying in touch with them after graduation, stepping in every once in a while to do things like provide advice about what clothes to wear to a job interview.

“We’ve gone to sporting events at Hamden High, and we’ve gone to funerals students might be at. You can’t put a price on those types of things,” Desjardin said.

HCLC staff also work o create connections between their students and the broader community. Students frequently take classes and engage in activities at Hamden High School. 

All the staff at HCLC have been guaranteed other jobs within Hamden Public Schools if their work were to be outsourced. ​“It’s not about” saving their titles, they said.

HCLC leaders maintain that the only way their alternative students can truly thrive is if the small, hyperpersonal community they’ve built continues to stand as is.

“We’re fearful if this program goes away, what is the fate for these kids?” DesJardins asked. ​“The ACES program is on paper. We have an active, live program. It’s apples to oranges,” she said.

“All we want is a location — a permanent home — and to have that respect… to be established like all of the other schools in Hamden,” said Tracy Tzvolos, a special ed and social studies teacher who has worked with HCLC for 26 years.

One parent who attended Wednesday’s meeting also spoke to the importance of long-earned trust.

“My daughter, Samantha, went to Sacred Heart until she developed schizophrenia,” he said. The diagnosis changed the family’s life and deprived them of hope for Samantha’s future, he continued, until they discovered HCLC. ​“Now she has hope. And she has that not because she particularly enjoys going to school — it takes me three hours a day in the morning to get her up. But she comes because of these people,” he said, gesturing to her teachers. ​“She comes not because of what she’s gonna learn, but because she’s found a place where she feels safe.”

Parent Cherlyn Poindexter also came out to advocate for the district to stick with HCLC.

“When you subcontract work out, the essence of what the school stands for is lost,” she said.

She described how her son, Malacki Lewis, lost motivation and began experiencing mental health problems with the onset of the pandemic. ​“My son was remarkably close to being a drop-out,” she said. 

“He wasn’t doing well at all. He wasn’t going to classes. He wasn’t active at all. It wasn’t just affecting his grades, but himself. He was sluggish, just sleeping and eating. I knew he was in a bad place.”

Poindexter approached a school guidance counselor and demanded answers to getting her son back on track. They told her about HCLC.

“Now he’s taking advanced classes at the high school. He’s an honors student. In fact, last month, he was recognized as a Hamden Hero,” a monthly award given out by the Board of Education.

“You called him ​‘Malakey,’ — in fact, it’s pronounced ​‘Malackai,’” Poindexter said to the board.

“My son never talked about going to college, never in his life,” she said. Next year, he now plans to attend Gateway.

“You’ve got a program that’s been here for 30 years, and it’s working,” Poindexter said. ​“The teachers aren’t only involved in their academic lives, but their personal lives. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken with Mr. Pearce on the phone — nobody from ACES is gonna do that.”

“We don’t need an auto shop, we don’t need culinary classes. That’s why there’s Eli Whitney down the street. My son was accepted to Eli Whitney and could’ve done auto mechanics. But he needed HCLC,” she told the Independent.

“The school’s kind of like my family,” student Malacki Lewis began in a speech to the BOE Wednesday. He broke down in tears while pleading that the district keep HCLC intact.

“I haven’t cried in a while,” he said to his audience. ​“But this really hurts.”

He told the board about his ​“typical day.”

“I wake up at 5 o’clock, 5:30. I go outside and take my dog out. I eat breakfast. I go sit at my bus. It arrives at 6:50. I’m at school around 7 and it’s straight to class. I take math class at the high school. I take trigonometry, I’m doing pretty well — thanks to Ms. Fontaine. 

“Then I go back to HCLC. And I take neurology and then Ms. B’s class, which is senior English and we also learn about jobs as well … In Ms. Roche’s class, she teaches meteorology as well as anatomy and physics. I love that class, thank you Ms. Roche. Then we go to lunch, it’s a pretty fun time because we’re all tight night. And then i go to journalism. I’ve thought about being a journalist, my mom says I talk too much and argue a lot and that I’d be a really great lawyer.

“I’m not good at some stuff, but I’m good at what they teach me here. I’m a hardworking student, I try my best. Later, I go from the shuttle to the high school again and I take photography. One of my photos was placed in a special collective because it’s such a good photo. I actually felt pretty excited about that, and I thought about being a photographer. And then, sometimes, I go to work straight from the high school from 3:30 to 7:30. Then I go home, I take my dog again… and then I talk with my cousins. 

“I love my family. You guys too,” he said, turning to his teachers. ​“I love this place. I love this place. I love the teachers and the staff here,” Lewis continued.

“Honestly, as long as they have a place to stay — I’m fine with that. They’re the best teachers I’ve ever had.” 

The Alternative To The Alternative

Lewis — alongside other HCLC staff, students and families — insisted that HCLC is doing fine as it is, with a few exceptions: They requested an additional social worker, security guard, and funds for a foreign language course.

Goeler argued that improvements need to be made to the program. He said he believes ACES offers one opportunity to make some of those upgrades.

Superintendent Goeler and board members joined parents and students in praising HCLC — but listed a variety of ways they hope to see alternative education in town evolve, as well as reasons they think the district might have to make sacrifices to offer such programming next year and beyond.

“I’m almost always looking at ways we can improve programs for our students,” Goeler told the Independent. ​“ACES exists to provide districts like Hamden cost-effective solutions for things we’re struggling with.”

The board’s priorities in developing alternative education include locating a permanent place to house the programs; opening a program that is currently only available to tenth through 12th graders up to seventh through ninth graders as well; and broadening program options for that subset of students.

In ACES’ presentation on Wednesday, Tom Danahey, the executive director of ACES, described a potential program that would provide all of the above, including increased vocational and college preparatory training — as well as education about other life paths, like military service.

“It sounds like there’s a lot of good things going on,” Danahey, who was asked to put together a proposal by the BOE, told representatives of HCLC. ​“The awkward part is — I don’t wanna take from the good work you’ve all done.”

It’s unclear precisely how much money Hamden currently spends on alternative learning services. Those costs are integrated into a broader Hamden Public Schools financial outline split into cost categories, like salaries and technology.

Hamden schools Chief Operating Officer Tom Ariola performed a cost analysis to demonstrate the costs of continuing to run HCLC as opposed to outsourcing to ACES.

In total, he said, it would cost the town $2.34 million to pay ACES for all of their work. That includes a tuition cost of $39,900 per student for 60 student slots. That also includes payment for staff — who would be hired by ACES and work independently of Hamden Public Schools — as well as rent and space for an auto shop and culinary studio. 

Danahey, the executive director of ACES, said that the cost of tuition will decrease per pupil as the number of students attending the program increases. 

HCLC currently costs the town about half of that amount; Hamden pays $1,333,831 a year for Wintergreen staff and operations. But next year, the town would need to find a place to house HCLC. Ariola estimated that new cost would come to about $380,000, calculated based on paying $19 a foot for 20,000 square feet of space. To offer the same services as ACES, he argued, would mean constructing another multi-million-dollar building outfitted with a kitchen and mechanic studio, as well as another $600,000 for more staffing to run the program comparatively to ACES. That calculation would bring HCLC’s total to $3,313,831 to compete with what ACES could provide students.

Additional complications include transportation. After the BOE was flat-funded by the Legislative Council, the costs outlined in their transportation contract surged by 16 percent. They’ve planned to cut the number of bus routes from over 80 to 63. Because HCLC cannot offer all of the core courses required for a Hamden High diploma, like a foreign language credit, they need not only regular transportation but additional shuttles through the day between their campus and the high school so students can take classes.

ACES, on the other hand, has its own transportation contract.

“The question is: How can we get the best of the HCLC program and keep that while also broadening our program? There’s something very wonderful about a kid that can come to a very small school and be cared for the way they’re being cared for at HCLC. But because of limited funds, we don’t have the money to create the kinds of opportunities ACES has available to them — the transportation system, the culinary equipment, the laboratories. Is there a way to access some of what ACES has to provide?” Goeler said.

“I would be lying if I said I was confident we could find a permanent place and transportation and all the mental health supports we need” if the town continues to solely fund HCLC. 

No matter what path Hamden chooses to follow forward, the question of how to fund either and any project remains unclear. The town will likely rely on taking from their $9 million of federal pandemic-relief funds — though officials expressed concern that relying on temporary outside money would result in a fiscal cliff down the road.

New school board member Mariam Khan urged the board to think specifically about what key pieces students engaged in alternative learning require to feel fully resourced and seen within the district.

“Is it Hamden High School classes, or leveraging facilities, or extracurriculars?” she asked.

She concluded the meeting, saying: ​“Nothing is black or white.”