Hillhouse Coach Cheers Teens To School

I am in the Hillhouse high school auditorium. The cheerleaders practice here twice a week, and I am watching a group of girls on the stage rehearsing the moves.

I will remember this as one of the most peaceful and calming sights since the pandemic.

The girls are relaxed, happy and fully immersed in the atmosphere of dance and performance. Then I hear the coach’s voice, quietly and kindly guiding them. 

Everything in front of me is unfolding in perfect harmony, and I am sitting there in the semi-dark hall amazed and puzzled for the 100th time by the diversity of life at New Haven public schools, where in some situations kids can challenge their teachers and drive them out of schools, and in some act as quite mature and diligent individuals capable of self-discipline.

“I love my job – it feeds my soul,” says Michelle Sepulveda, the cheerleader coach and truancy officer at Hillhouse High School. 

Below is a transcript of my recent interview with Sepulveda about her work with and dedication to New Haven public school students.

Freedom & Happiness In Dancing

Liliya Garipova: Michelle, you have been a cheerleader coach at Hillhouse high school for seven years. How did you choose this path?

Michelle Sepulveda: I grew up in New Haven, on Rock Creek Road. My grandparents bought a house, later their kids bought houses there, and that’s how I had 23 first cousins who all lived on the same street. It was an amazing upbringing. I was one of the older cousins and used to babysit a lot. So, I’ve worked with kids for a long time.

I was in Girl Scouts too, and I loved dancing a lot. When I turned 17, I started subbing at NHPS, and was teaching dance and gymnastics in the summer. I was a cheerleader myself at Hillhouse, then at Cheshire Academy that I attended for a year, then at Franklin Pierce College. I loved it. I also taught dancing at NHPS. I started with liturgical dancing with my students in the beginning — we danced to gospel music. But the kids wanted to do hip hop so much. And I would use really cool, gospel songs by Kirk Franklin, for example, and the kids would do gospel hip hop without realizing it. Later I taught hip hop at Educational Center for Arts.

How did I become a cheer coach? When I was a kid myself, my mom asked me what I was going to do after school. I said, nothing, I am just going to come home and do my homework. And she said, no, you are going do something. Because if you have idle time, that’s how you get into trouble. You need to find something to do. You will have to pick cheerleading or track or something.

I tried track. I didn’t really care for it too much. Then I tried cheerleading, and I liked it. I was already working as a truancy officer when my youngest son went to college. I was home alone, and I was sad. One day I was walking by his room and seeing that everything was gone, I just started crying. But about a month later, I was made a cheer coach of Hillhouse. I said to myself: God has a sense of humor – seeing that my son was gone, and I was sad, he gave me 22 kids.

Why do you like dancing?

There’s certain freedom and happiness in dancing. You cannot dance when you grieve. When one of my sisters died, every time I was going to a school auditorium where dance classes were held, I was not even able to raise my hands – they wouldn’t go up. I was so sad that I couldn’t dance.

Are you a self-taught coach?

Yes and no. With my sister I was part of Exposure Dance Company. We both took dance lessons at Dee Dee’s Dance Center in New Haven. We had some training but were self-taught as well. We both enjoyed dancing and had a good time growing in a big family.

What do cheerleading and dance have in common?

Even though we don’t say choreography with cheer, it’s pretty much the same. You are taking moves and steps and you are putting them together to create something. We definitely do more dance elements during football season when we have a band. Cheerleading is a combination of a little bit of ballet, jazz, and hip hop. If my students have to go up on their toes, you’ll hear me say ​“releve,” and everybody knows what that means, and they all go up.

What do students learn in cheerleading?

They learn fundamentals of cheer and dance, obviously. They learn to be team members, learn to be organized. They have to attend school, make sure the homework is done. Extracurricular activities could be demanding especially during basketball season, because they need to practice several times a week and then perform at the games, to be in time for the bus, etc. So, you have to keep track of everything that you are doing including your grades.

The purpose of cheerleading is to cheer the team on, to get the crowd into cheering for the team, and to be leaders at the game. I tell the girls all the time, that they are in a leadership position. Even though you’re out here to have fun, to be loud and cheer the team on, you’re also in front of the school community and your parents. You’re representing the school. So, you have to step up and be leaders.

My students do a lot of community service. For example, we participate in the sickle cell walk, in the ALS walk at Lighthouse. We participate in a parade run by Bereavement Care group (they shed light on violence and violence prevention, and one of our cheerleader’s mom is the founder of the group). At these events the girls are being trained to be leaders, but they also get their community service hours that they need for graduation.

Cheerleading can prepare kids for leadership roles. I always tell my students about former Hillhouse cheerleaders who are now in leadership positions. The NAACP New Haven president Doris Dumas was a Hillhouse cheerleader. Jeanette Morrison, a New Haven alderwoman who invited us to perform at ribbon cutting event at Q‑House, was also a Hillhouse cheerleader and captain. There are a number of other prominent women in the alumni group like HBCU graduates, business owners, founders of community groups. They all serve as role models for our students. And I feel like I am preparing them to work with other women teaching team spirit and team building.

What did you learn during your years as a coach? Anything that you could share?

I feel like I’m doing a really good job now, and I’m tying things in. I had people, mentors, and specifically some of the coaches from Hillhouse that helped me out. One important thing I learned is that the students need to stay on top of their grades. I monitor academic success of my girls all the time. And if a student is not doing so great, I don’t allow her to participate in our training and events so that she could improve her grades.

However, I’ve learned that you have to take into consideration different family dynamics. I’ve had some girls who are responsible for helping out with siblings. Of course, I understand that because I come from the same environment. So, I have to modify the requirements sometimes depending on what’s going on in a young lady’s life. 

I also had some instances when in the beginning I doubted that the person was right for the squad. But I learned that you have to look at the circumstances, look at potential to see that this child needs it. My mother had the foresight to see that I needed it, but I myself didn’t. For some kids staying with the team keeps them going on the right path so that they can graduate.

In your cheerleading squad, there are only girls, correct?

Some boys come to tryouts but during my tenure only two of them made it to the squad. When the kids come to tryouts they soon realize that it is a little more difficult than they thought. Cheerleading, especially for basketball, is very competitive. I have more than 50 kids at tryouts, but I can only take 22.

If a high school student wants to be a cheerleader, what is the process?

First, you come to tryouts. It’s usually a three-day process. At tryouts you learn the cheers, learn how to use your voice, how to do a jump. It’s advantageous, if you can flip (and I am always looking for that), but it’s not mandatory. Then we have what we call the ​“final cut” where I’ll have judges come in, we have an evaluation form, they perform everything that they’ve learned, and then we take the best of the best.

It is a matter of prestige for kids to be in the cheerleading squad, am I right?

Yes. It is prestigious for teenagers to participate in the event, to walk around in the uniforms, to perform.

There are talented and not so talented kids…

More talented than not. I run a cheer camp called Elm City Cheer every summer at Hillhouse. I tell people, especially if they want to come to tryouts, to attend the camp so that they can improve their skills. And everybody who has ever gone to the camp, made it to the main squad. So, our summer camp definitely helps. We run it in July, and we teach kids from age five to 14. This is also an opportunity for the established cheerleaders from the previous squad to get summer jobs. They work as counselors teaching the cheers and dance. It is a very enjoyable experience for everyone, and we have a good time. We end up having a big show that the parents can attend.

Who does the choreography? How do you come up with all the moves?

I do choreography. The girls are encouraged to do it as well, especially in the summer camp. The counselors come up with their own ideas. I have a few alumni cheerleaders, who are dance instructors. Sometimes they will come and do choreography for us as well.

How do you synchronize the movements?

It requires plenty of practice, but also knowledge of all the foundational moves like ​“high touchdown”, ​“low touchdown”, ​“V”, ​“high V”, etc. Also, the students need to learn to tighten up these moves. You can’t just throw your arms up. The arms must be nice and tight and not ​“spaghetti arms” as I call them. We practice three times a week and attend all the games.

What does it take to be a successful cheerleader?

Keeping up with your grades and coming to practice regularly. I am trying to be nice and keep people included, but if you keep missing practice, it’s better to be honest and let somebody else have that spot. In the past I had a few people who couldn’t make it to their practices, and as a result they could not participate in the games because they did not know the cheers. But coming to school practice is not enough, I encourage the kids to continue practicing at home in front of the mirror and not to worry what their family members might say. I can tell when we meet who practiced at home and who didn’t.

What is required in terms of physical abilities?

We do stunt, and for that kids need to have some physical ability, that is why we do some extensive stretching building up the muscles. I actually thought about bringing the girls into the gym, especially the ones who are on the bottom of the pyramid.

Do you participate in cheerleader championships?

I hope we will participate this year. Last year we could not do it because every single member of our team got Covid. Before the pandemic we went to the State championships, but we never won, except in 2017 when we received a spirit award. The competition is very tough, and there are some things that hurt us. I am always looking for girls who have taken gymnastics and can tumble, but there are very few of them because gymnastics classes are very expensive. However, in other school districts schools and parents have more resources, and looking at our competitors’ teams you can see that kids have been going to gymnastics since they were five or six years old. It is amazing to see that the whole squad can flip.

This year I have five girls who can flip. We cannot compete with a squad of 20 girls who can flip, tumble in perfect synchrony. A couple years prior to the pandemic, I received a grant that funded a vehicle rental and training at the New Era gym in Hamden (reporter’s note: which has special equipment for gymnastics classes). I would load it up the little minivan with the cheerleaders and we would go out there once or twice a week. It was awesome and the students had such a great time.

Unfortunately, it was just one time thing, and I wish we could do it all the time. I wish we, coaches, had at least a van to take kids to field trips. Also, our competitors have special gymnastics coaches. And that makes a big difference.

Can you speak of any memorable moments during your tenure as a cheerleader coach?

Of course, it is Hillhouse vs. Cross, big rivalry games. I participated in them since I was a cheerleader myself. These games are popular and bring many people. And, of course, the most memorable are the ones that we won. I have three championship rings.

Walter Camp’s Stay In School Rally is another event that was memorable for us. Unfortunately, Sam Burrell, the long-time sports enthusiast who started and helped to run it, died. He did it every year, and now after his passing, I am not sure if they will keep this tradition alive. It was awesome. He would bring all the middle school students from around the city into Floyd Little Athletic Center and invite professional athletes to talk to the kids about the importance of school and sports. The athletes would give their autographs. Sam always invited us too, and we would be the ones who escorting out all these important people.

I am always amazed at the people who graduated and come back to me. I love that they still feel like we’re all family and want to work with me. Last year, around Thanksgiving two people came over to the school to take care of their children’s matters. I happened to talk to them, and I knew one of them was a cheerleader in the past. We were in the front of the building, and we were just talking about cheers. And then somehow, they asked about one cheer, and we all started snapping because we remembered it. We were doing the chant standing in front of the school. I told them: you need to come to a game and do a cheer with us. And they did! They found their alumni connections, bought the sweats that said ​“alumni cheerleader,” practiced. There were maybe about 30 or 40 women who showed up at the game and cheered out on the track right next to my girls. It was an amazing experience!

On The Front Lines Of Student Absenteeism

You are also a truancy officer at Hillhouse. Tell me more about that job, please.

It is about dropout prevention. I help students who have a lot of absences. When I first started, I felt rather sad seeing families having tough times. But then I learned how to use my resources to help them. Today I enjoy doing my work as a truancy officer.

In my work it is important to find the reason why students miss school. Fresh example: I found out there was a young man who stopped coming to school because his face was breaking out, and the kids were being mean to him. He was also an illegal immigrant, and his parents didn’t have health insurance, so he couldn’t go to the doctor for treatment. I was able to connect him with the school clinic. The student got the ointment, and his face cleared up. He started coming to school, he graduated.

Another example: the student had absences because he had a single parent, and his family fell on hard times not having access to a washer and dryer. The kid did not have clean clothes and didn’t want to come to school. I can relate to this situation because I grew up in New Haven, and after my grandmother passed away, my mom fell on some hard times as well. We ended up moving into public housing. For some time, we did not have a washer and dryer and had to do laundry in a tub.

So, I taught the boy how to do that. Shortly after that he started coming to school.

You are dealing with absences and truancy daily. What are the main causes, in your opinion?

It’s hard to make a blanket statement for everybody, but it really got tough with the pandemic, obviously. When we first came back to school last year, I had some students, siblings who were not coming to school, and when I spoke to the mom, she said she didn’t believe that the kids would be safe in school. She had a baby and was afraid that the elder kids could catch Covid and compromise the baby’s health. So, people were making their own rules because of the pandemic.

This year, we have a lot of students missing school as well, and I attribute it to the fact that during the pandemic some bad habits were formed. But it is also a flu season, so it adds to the overall number of absences.

Another scenario is that parents are trying to do their best to oversee the kids, but their work schedule requires them to leave before the kids go to school. Some of them have to be at work at five o’clock in the morning! In these cases, they may wake the kids up and leave, and later they may find out that the kids didn’t go to school. And there are no other family members who would see the kids off to school.

Another common scenario for being absent or tardy: when students have to act as babysitters or caregivers because there are no other adults in the family. If a student is absent for the first period class in the morning and then shows up, chances are we are dealing with this scenario. And of course, the fact that high school starts earlier than elementary does not help the situation at all.

So, the problem is that many families do not have enough resources to take care of the kids.

There are probably also students who have all the resources but still have truancy issues…

Of course, but the good thing is that we have mentorship programs for such kids. Kids are doing better when they have mentors or coaches. It seems to me that our athletic teams do not have the same number of absences as other students, and I think it is because they have a coach who oversees and supports them.

All adults act as mentors, of course, but the most important of them are the parents. I always tell parents that they are demigods for their children.

Could you please tell me a little more about what your day of a truancy officer consists of?

I start with running absence reports in PowerSchool to see what’s going on. Right now, we are looking at students with six to ten absences. We are trying to keep them from getting any more. Usually if a student gets over 17 to 20, he/she may not graduate. Then I meet with kids, especially the seniors, then I call parents. I schedule appointments or visits with them. All these measures are helpful. I’ve done home visits to discover that some parents didn’t even know that their kids were missing school. My task is to bring it to their attention.

When I visit, I take a copy of the student grades and the record of their absences with me. I show the parents when and how much their children missed school. There are a lot of surprises when I visit families in their homes. Some parents are not even aware that school starts at 7:30 am!

Typically, I do five visits a day. The great thing is that with my background and years of experience working and living in New Haven, I know a lot of people. Sometimes they’re even former students.

All that works in my favor.

What do you do when you have a long list of students and parents to work with?

I am not alone, there are two more truancy officers in Hillhouse school. We break up the load between the three of us. I try to target a certain grade or grades at one time and juggle other responsibilities like phone calls, follow up meetings.

According to Attendance Works (AW) – the company that the district is collaborating with to address absenteeism, when it comes to the roots of absenteeism, there are myths, barriers, aversion and disengagement. For example, the notion that absences are only a problem if they are unexcused, is a myth.

Correct. I had to deal with a young lady today who missed school because her grandfather died, then her dog died. Those would be excused absences, but they are absences, nonetheless. Another myth is that it’s ok to miss a day here or there. Students do not realize how these absences add up very quickly.

Among various factors affecting attendance, AW mentions unmet basic needs (transportation, housing, food, clothing) and also trauma.

Trauma is a big factor, especially for the kids living in an unsafe environment. They witness crime, homicide and it is very traumatic.

AW lists academic or social struggles as aversion that demotivates students and contributes to absenteeism.

I noticed that if an academic struggle is an ongoing problem, kids may develop anxiety and try to avoid certain classes. It can be detected by running a report in PowerSchool for missed time and classes. The report may reveal a pattern for absences that indicates that a student is avoiding a particular class. Sometimes I feel like a detective culling through this information and trying to understand what’s going on with the student.

When you sense this anxiety, do you refer students to social workers?

Oh, definitely. Luckily, we got more social workers helping us with social-emotional needs and mental health issues (I think they hired more in the last years). At Hillhouse we also have a clinician in the school-based health center for somebody who might need a little bit more intensive therapy. Then we have a virtual mentorship program within the Governor’s Prevention Partnership that we refer the kids to. We can also find mentors for them in the school.

Truancy officers are having conversations with students too. What we are trying to do here is to build relationships and to use existing relationships to reach the students. I may utilize various connections, various people to achieve that, if I know that the person may help to influence the student. I need to make sure that the students are comfortable talking about their problems with someone, and my task is to find this someone.

Do you think school climate contributes to the aversion and unwillingness to come to school?

Could be, but I sense that often people have misconceptions and ungrounded fears about things. I’ll give you the perfect example. My son attended a parochial school for nine years, but then I decided to send him to Hillhouse to save up for his college. He was horrified at first and thought that I was the worst parent in the world. I was able to convince him to come to Hillhouse and shadow one day. And when he walked in the door and suddenly saw some of his friends from basketball camps he went to, he was relieved. He found connections, but it was still tough for him. He ended up getting a scholarship from Hillhouse and going to Providence College.

If parents had negative school experience, it will affect their children’s attitude as well. I recall talking to a parent whose daughter was a cheerleader in my team, who never forgot how his school counselor said to him that he would never go to college. He was deeply traumatized, and never got over that. Although we’ve always had some great people in the school system, we haven’t always been attentive enough to address such situations. But for the most part parents are supportive of what we do.

Talking to families I try to make sure they understand that we are there to help them and that we are genuinely interested in them. Today talking to a student and to her mom who lost their family member and a dog of 14 years, I asked them what I and the school could do to support them. In response, the student tried to glaze over the situation saying that there is nothing that we could do to help them. Then I suggested that the student meets with the school social worker, because it is good to have someone in the building who could listen to you when you are stressed out. And that suggestion alarmed them judging to their body language. I had to tell them my own story when I was grieving the death of my sister, and I had triggers that would resume my suffering. Thankfully, my supervisors understood and supported me in this situation, and with the time it got better. I could see how the student and her mom relaxed listening to my story. 

So, there is a stigma attached to seeing a social worker?

Sometimes there is, and I have to explain to students and parents what the school social worker mission is. Sometimes people put the wall up, if they’ve already had a negative experience dealing with DCF.

Can you say that our students feel disengaged and that is one of the causes for absenteeism in the district?

During the pandemic some students and parents did not know how to reach out for help. Some homes were not conducive to working and learning. So, when right after the pandemic kids returned to the classrooms, everything looked different. Doing work looked totally different. People had to relearn, and that was tough.

I also see more cases of school anxiety after the pandemic. Some kids do not want to be around people anymore. For example, some students elected decide to walk to school avoiding school buses.

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