Jabez Choi photo
Josue Algea Castro with his mother Nellie and his baby brother: “I like gym too, but art is so cool. You get to paint.”
Homework assignments and paper crafts lined the hallways of Fair Haven School as part of the summer school’s “Celebration of Learning” — an event that brought teachers, parents, and children together to recognize the students’ accomplishments over the course of the past month.
That celebration took place Monday morning at the 164 Grand Ave. public elementary and middle school.
One assignment, taped to the auditorium wall, asked students: “What is your heritage?” A student had written: “I am Mexican. I am proud of it.”
This summer, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) has ten locations offering summer schooling programs. Fair Haven School hosts the most students, with a little over 200. Joan Meehan has served as the Fair Haven School Summer Learning Academy’s building lead, and Dave Weinreb as the school’s curriculum lead.
Meehan told the Independent that the program has shifted: students are continuing to learn similar concepts to those they tackled throughout the school year, as opposed to starting a separate curriculum.
Aged K‑7, students have also been visited by outside programs like Arts for Learning and Little Scientists, and coding instructors. The program is one month, from July 1 to July 31, according to Meehan.
“We see that learning actually slides during the summer. This is supposed to supplement that,” Meehan said. “If kids missed stuff during the school year, they can get help.”
Mike Rebeschi is teaching fourth and fifth grade this summer and has taught summer school for the past eight years. He noted that the issues that he usually sees during the regular school year — like fighting — are not happening.
This summer, Rebeschi has been enjoying reading stories with his students, as well as making crafts with them.
“This class has been so much fun,” he said. “It’s a nice break from routine.”
Noel Salvador has been teaching second and third graders this summer, and noted that the Fair Haven location has a lot of staff support, more than the other locations he’s worked at. According to Meehan, the site has some 30 adult staff, including teachers, paraeducators, and resource teachers, as well as nine student workers, some employed through Youth@Work. But Salvador wondered if the new curriculum was a little strenuous for the teachers.
“I feel like this year there’s more of an intention to focus on addressing some of the needs of kids who are coming here. There’s a lot more on our plate for this summer,” Salvador said. “I think it’s both great, but also a challenge because I feel like we need more direction and focus.”
Regardless, Salvador said that he has enjoyed working with the students, celebrating them to their parents when he can. “I try to communicate and fill in the parents on how the students are doing…as well as their strengths.”
In the hallways, fourth grader Josue Algea Castro sat crisscrossed next to his friend, third-grader Naideri Torres, and his baby brother. Castro pointed out to Torres a picture taped to the wall.
“That’s me right here! I was doing those… What are those…” he said, his voice trailing off.
In the picture, Castro, just out of sight, bunches red, orange, and yellow paper into a plastic cup — creating a paper craft campfire. Just to his left in the hallway, there was a table filled with campfires that he and his classmates made. Castro and Torres pointed to the other pictures, trying to get his baby brother’s attention, Castro’s voice getting louder. (“He is very loud,” Castro’s mother Nellie said, laughing.) After a second, they gave up.
“Art is better than gym,” Castro said, when asked about his favorite subject. “I like gym too, but art is so cool. You get to paint.”
Torres shook her head in disagreement –“Gym!”
Genasis Hernandez, a seventh grader, said that going to summer school had made her a little anxious for the school year. But her friends Raniah Ford and Josaralynette Vasquez chimed in — they would be there with her too.
Hernandez said she didn’t really enjoy summer school. Then, after a pause, she said: “There’s lots of funny stuff, though. My friends make me laugh.”
Noel Salvador's third grade class.
The hallways of Fair Haven School.