Ivelise Velazquez.
At a time of controversy over how New Haven is or isn’t teaching kids to read, the top official directly responsible is leaving the school district.
The official, Ivelise Velazquez, currently serves as assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction, and assessment for the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS). Velazquez’s last official day in the post is Sept. 30.
On Oct. 11 she is scheduled to begin work as deputy superintendent of New Britain’s public schools, according to a release from that school district. The release touted her “more than 15 years of experience leading school districts to design instruction and implement systems and professional learning programs for educators on topics as varied as literacy, resource allocation, co-teaching, and racial equity leadership.”
The release quotes Velazquez as saying she is “honored and thrilled” to be named to the new position.
In her New Haven role, she has served as the public face, to the limited extent the district has publicly addressed the issue, of the New Haven schools’ reluctance to follow a state-mandated and national trend away from “balanced literacy” instruction in favor of more phonics-centered “structural literacy.” Meanwhile, the most recent statistics showed that 84 percent of NHPS third-graders are reading below grade level.
NHPS has not yet publicly announced who will replace Velazquez. The topic may arise at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting.