Contributed
Rosemary Russo: “I had to do it for me."
After teaching New Haven’s youngest special education students for the past 35 years, Rosemary Russo has now made the difficult decision to say goodbye to the energy-demanding work that only continues to increase.
Russo’s last day as a preschool teacher at Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School on Goffe Street was Feb. 28. She retired after teaching in the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district for three-and-a-half decades, following her first ten years as a teacher in Boston.
On a recent Wednesday, Russo sat down with this reporter to reflect on her decades of service to New Haven’s growing special education student population and on the guidance and support she’s offered in the classroom for students having their first learning experiences.
Russo’s mid-year retirement came abruptly even for her. She thought she’d be able to continue through the full 2024 – 25 school year. However, due to health complications and a decrease in the energy she’s able to offer her students daily, she decided her retirement needed to happen earlier.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make, she said. She described leaving the job as “sort of feel[ing] like I cut off my right arm.”
She said while she will miss teaching alongside Dr. Mayo’s admin, educators, and paras, she does look forward to traveling more in retirement and just simply relaxing.
“This building was a dream come true for me,” she said.
She recalled first coming to New Haven from Boston “kicking and screaming” as a result of her husband getting a new job. When she first began teaching for NHPS, she said the buildings were a lot different than the private preschool she had previously taught at in Boston. She began at Wexler’s old building, which she said suffered greatly from maintenance neglect. “When it rained outside, it rained in the building. There were buckets everywhere,” she recalled.
She then transferred to Lincoln Bassett.
She described one of the most significant shifts she’s witnessed with NHPS as the revitalization of its school buildings. “It was good for staff morale because it was truly depressing going into buildings and just breathing the air there,” she said.
She added that more recent shifts she’s glad to have experienced were the district’s shift in core curriculums and increase in its offerings of professional development for educators. “New Haven has come a long, long way.”
Over the years of working at several schools around the district, Russo said she is proud she helped to mentor three of her colleagues who were previously paraprofessionals to go on to get their teaching certifications.
At a January Board of Alders education committee workshop focused on special education services, NHPS student services executive director Typhanie Jackson reported to alders that, as of November 2024, more than 3,000 NHPS students received special education services to support a disability.
Despite numbers increasing over the years, Russo said she has always remained committed to working as a special education preschool teacher because of her childhood, where she witnessed her parents’ strong advocacy for her younger brother in need of special education services. “There was never anything else I wanted to do. I saw my parents advocate for him and I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to help families like mine,” she explained.
Russo said she is worried that her mid-year retirement will be a difficult adjustment for the school in a district that’s already dealing with staff shortages particularly in special education. She said she believes the paraprofessional she worked with daily, however, will help keep some normalcy for the students.
“I don’t think I’m on top of my game anymore, and I don’t think it’s fair to the kids,” she said.
She is considering volunteering to support the schools in a smaller capacity in the future, but first needs a break. She also previously served as the chair of West Haven’s Board of Education and said she may also consider returning to similar work.
But for now, Russo looks forward to “spending time on me.” She hopes to remodel her kitchen and vacation in a place like Italy, which has been a lifelong goal of hers.
While Russo fondly remembers the challenges from her first few years in education and the constant reminders from her uncle that “this is your learning year,” she said the increasing special education and mental health needs for students during the school day has also been a learning curve.
She recalled struggles like teaching special education preschoolers remotely during the Covid pandemic’s shutdown of in-person schools. Then when schools in New Haven returned with a hybrid option, Russo struggled to teach both in person and online while still developing her own technology skills.
She added that it also doesn’t help that there have been multiple neighborhood shootings that make teaching more stressful.
When asked for advice from her long career, Russo said she believes there should be fewer preschool assessments and more play-based learning, and that parents should “make anything a learning experience” at home, from counting cracks in the pavement to reading road signs. She also cautioned parents to put away the phones and give their youth “200 percent of your attention” by asking them about their school days and learning.
For Russo’s final day as a NHPS educator, she took her students on a field trip to the Connecticut Children’s Museum and celebrated with cupcake treats.
When asked if anything would’ve made her stay for the remainder of the year, Russo said, “If I had more energy” and if her health was better.
Despite it being a hard decision, Russo reminded herself in her final week that after 45 years, “I had to do it for me.”
Reached for comment Wednesday, New Haven Federation of Teachers Vice President Jenny Graves told the Independent departures like Russo’s will continue if the district doesn’t address staff burnout and implement effective retention efforts. “I’ve known Rosie for 15 years, and to lose a veteran special education teacher with her expertise, kindness, and dedication is a huge loss to our district.”
Graves added that when she spoke to Russo just before she put in her retirement, she recalled Russo saying “the first 42 years were a ‘dream’ and the last few years just became too difficult with high class sizes, the intensity of complex needs growing, and her inability to meet the kids’ needs.”
She concluded that if there is not improvement in school staff’s working conditions, then “unfortunately, I believe we will continue to see a loss of excellent special education teachers and related service providers due to these reasons.”
“These professionals are the only student-facing educators in our union who have no class sizes, caseloads, or workload limits,” Graves continued. “There’s literally no cap to the amount of students or work they are given. It’s bad for kids, it’s bad for educators, and it’s causing a retention crisis. Our educators deserve better, and our most vulnerable students certainly deserve better.”
Maya McFadden Photo
Decades of Russo's memories with students.