Christopher Peak Photo
Jackson-McArthur at the school board.
After years of turmoil, a period of calm and repair has begun in New Haven’s school system, in the view of a decision-maker with an up-close view.
“There’s a lot of healing that needs to happen” in the New Haven Public Schools System, observed the decision-maker, Board of Education member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur.
The system now has its fourth superintendent in three years: Embattled Superintendent Carol Birks agreed to a buy-out of her contract (though she hasn’t officially signed the deal), and veteran New Haven educator Iline Tracey has stepped in as the acting superintendent.
“Right now we need to cool the coals. She’s the right person,” Jackson-McArthur said during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
For instance, over 1,000 parents were up in arms as the school year began after learning only at the last minute that the district had rerouted bus stops, in some cases endangering children’s safety, in Jackson-McArthur’s view. Tracey is methodically fixing the problem, which will make parents feels safer about sending their kids to school, Jackson-McArthur said.
Similarly, Birks’ tenure was marked by resignations and lawsuits from top district aides. Now “a breath of fresh air” is settling in at Meadow Street NHPS headquarters, which will make it easier for top officials to run the district, said Jackson-McArthur.
The past two years have been marked by open clashes and protests and controversies at school board meetings, over personalities and policies and communication lapses. Jackson-McArthur said she was struck by how smoothly this week’s board meeting went under the new regime.
“She’s fair. She’s professional. She knows what she’s doing,” she said of Tracey. The board has said it is in no rush to begin a national search for a permanent new superintendent; it plans to wait until at least after the Nov. 5 mayoral election. Which is fine by Jackson-McArtthur.
In her first term on the board, Jackson-McArthur led the charge with Board President Darnell Goldson to push the state to allow New Haven to fill 700 more regional magnet school seats (including empty ones) with New Haven children. (Read about that here.)
She also succeeded in having the board establish an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to vet outside research projects on New Haven schoolchildren.
Researchers from Yale and elsewhere had been experimenting on the system’s 22,000 children for years without rules, she said. For instance, one study would have preschoolers wear ankle bracelets to bed to monitor sleep patterns — without regard to the signal that sets in an “urban environment,” Jackson-McArthur noted.
“We need some cultural competency,” she said. “Now we know who’s doing what and why … You can’t just come in here and do what you want.”
Looking ahead, she hopes to help the board establish a unified code of conduct for how schools throughout the district handle restorative justice and other responses to misbehavior.
Jackson-McArthur, who grew up in Fair Haven, also looks after the well-being of New Haven children as a local pediatrician. In the “Dateline’ interview, she discussed her path as an independent community-based pediatrician and her approach to parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. Click on the video embedded above in this story to watch the full episode.
Jackson-McArthur solicits public opinion at a school board meeting.