Maya McFadden photo
Troup graduate and school board Prez Yesenia Rivera reads to Troup second graders.
Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera returned to her alma mater middle school on Edgewood Avenue — and then traveled with the help of a children’s book back home to the beaches of Puerto Rico — while reading to second graders at one of the public school district’s summer programming sites.
That was the scene in a “Summer of Fun” classroom at Augusta Lewis Troup School at 259 Edgewood Ave. Tuesday morning. The young students were surprised with a guest visit from Rivera, the president of the city’s school board.
As the district’s Summer of Fun programming nears an end this week, Mauro Sheridan School staffer Sean Hardy, who is working at Troup this summer, arranged yet another guest visit for the district’s “Unity in the Community” initiative aimed at bringing community leaders into city schools.
Rivera and Troup staff with students.
While Troup building leaders Kim Steele, a retired NHPS educator of 41 years, and Malcolm Welfare, a retired Troup administrator who taught for 38 years, welcomed summer students into the building Tuesday morning, Steele emphasized the importance of introducing students at all schools to community leaders.
“This is one district and we provide for all our children, not just those that get picked in the magnet lottery,” Steele said.
During the four-week summer program, Hardy and sixth grade teacher Da’Jhon Jett arranged visits to Troup from Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli, retired Probate Judge Clifton Graves Jr., State Sen. Gary Winfield, teachers union president Leslie Blatteau, Pastor Kevin Hardy, New Haven Public Schools Director of School Choice Marquelle Middleton, and attorney Rodney Vining, Jr.
“It’s all about the children and bringing community leaders to them face to face for them to build social skills,” Hardy said.
Hardy and Rivera.
During Tuesday’s visit, Rivera recalled Troup, where she graduated from after attending during her seventh and eighth grade years, being just the same as when she attended the middle school in the mid-1980s.
After graduating from Troup, Rivera returned home to Vega Alta in Puerto Rico, and then came back to New Haven as a sophomore at Career High School, from which she graduated.
She recalled being a spelling bee champion in the seventh grade at the Dwight neighborhood school.
On Tuesday, Rivera read the book “Across the Bay” by Carlos Aponte to a classroom of a dozen second graders and four third graders.
She told the story of the character Carlitos, who visited the big and colorful city of Old San Juan. In the book, he travels across the bay from his home in Cataño to go on a mission to find his father and along the way discovers beauties of the city like food carts selling piragua shaved ice, blocks filled with lounging cats, and parks full of people playing dominos.
Rivera read about Carlitos’ cat named Coco and recalled a dog she had who was also named Coco.
As she sang some of the words to “Que Bonita Bandera” she told the students about the music, costumes, and dancing that take place in Old San Juan for the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián. That was a festival she planned to visit the first year of the Covid pandemic, but wasn’t able to.
By the end of the book, Carlitos returns to the beach with his mother and abuela. Several students raised their hands to tell Rivera about their trips to the beach with their own families.
“The beach is one of my favorite places,” Rivera said.
After reading the book Rivera asked the class what moments stood out from the story, then students asked her questions about herself.
“Why do you only have seven fingers?” asked one student.
Rivera thanked the students for asking instead of just looking at her left hand, which has three fingers surgically removed. She told the students she was injured in a car accident about 13 years ago after falling asleep behind the wheel.
Another student asked what exactly Rivera was president of. She told the students she is president of the city’s Board of Education but also works as an asset manager for the state Department of Housing.
Before Rivera left, at the request of some students, she signed her autograph on a piece of notebook paper.
Sean Hardy with Rivera and Troup teacher Mr. Ward.
While visiting several K‑4 classrooms around Troup, Rivera was invited by Troup first grade teacher Mr. Ward to visit Troup again next school year.
Rivera agreed before jumping in for a selfie with Hardy and Ward.
Nathaniel Joyner works on reading skills with rising first graders.
She was greeted into classrooms by singing kindergarteners, who welcomed Rivera in their classroom with “Grand rising!”
Their teacher, Nathaniel Joyner, told Rivera about their current reading lesson focused on identifying letter sounds and sounding out words using their pictures on index cards.
On the classroom board were several sight words for the rising first graders, who practiced the grade-level words.
School staffers take pictures with Rivera.
On her way out from the school, Rivera pointed out the corner of the lunch room she recalled sitting in daily as a student.
“It looks exactly the same,” she said. “This was fun.”