Aliyya Swaby Photo
Lincoln-Bassett crowd applauds the new campaign.
Sparked by a summer of race-related violence and subsequent protests against police brutality, New Haven’s public schools are rolling out a campaign to protect their students and preemptively build their mental and physical health.
School system leaders called a meeting in front of Lincoln-Bassett Community School Tuesday afternoon to announce the launch of the campaign, called “#StartStrong,” before school starts in September.
The campaign includes a few continuing initiatives and a couple of new ones, to engage the larger community in conversations about how to address students’ academic, physical, and social-emotional needs, said Superintendent Garth Harries.
Across all schools last year, New Haven’s teachers were 77.5 percent white, 13 percent black, 7 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Asian, .35 percent Indian and .15 percent Native American. Its administrators were 45 percent white, 38 percent black, 14 percent Hispanic and 2 percent other, according to statistics compiled by the Board of Education’s talent office.
The announcement of the launch was held at Lincoln-Bassett because it “finished strong” last school year — showing large gains on state test scores and improving in its annual state audit for leadership, student and parent engagement, and school environment.
Before the start of school, school leaders will flood the streets to visit students and their families at home — ensuring in person that they are prepared for the new year. The canvasses will target students entering kindergarten and ninth grade, Harries said.
Joseph.
Dropout prevention coordinators do the bulk of the work organizing those visits, said Adriana Joseph, deputy chief of youth, family and community engagement. Throughout this past year’s “Attendance Matters” campaign, they called students at home to talk to families about why students were missing school and determine workable solutions — connecting them with necessary community resources.
This year, they will also partner with school-based health clinics to encourage students to get immunized before the start of school, she said.
The back-to-school kindergarten canvass is in its fifth year in New Haven, said Jennifer Heath, United Way CEO. “It’s a great time for families and children to see welcoming faces at their door,” she said. Canvassers also give families packets of baseline information on the services available to them in the community.
New teachers, too, need to get acclimated to New Haven by September. At their orientations, they will engage in sessions led by experienced teachers, which include a focus on cultural competency, said Mike Crocco, talent director.
Harries.
Lincoln-Bassett Principal Janet Brown-Clayton said the school’s leadership team has worked over the last year to develop a series called “Courageous Conversations,” encouraging the community to have difficult talks about the “education gap and racial gap and divide.”
While the school’s student body is 85 percent black and 10 percent Latino, the teacher make-up is 70 percent white, she said.
To successfully teach at a majority black school, they have to “see the whole child and educate them as they are,” Brown-Clayton. This year, the series will focus on “dismantling systemic racism,” especially as that manifests in the education system, she said.
Lincoln-Bassett staff members were among about 90 people who signed up to get trained as facilitators for similar conversations throughout the district starting this fall, said Lola Garcia-Blocker, district chief of staff. She hopes people will sign up to host and lead small community focus groups and discussions of about 10 – 12 people, to talk about their priorities and how they match with school leaders’ stated goals.
The information that comes from those discussions will be used to adjust the direction of the larger “School Change” initiative going forward, she said.
On Thursday, Sept. 1., the Board of Ed plans to host a symposium kicking off a conversation on social justice, cultural competency and mental health in city schools, Harries said. It will be held at 6 p.m. at Career High School.