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Assistant Supt. Keisha Redd-Hannans: We weren’t taught how to teach during pandemics.
New Haven teachers will have more formal guidance on how to handle distance learning this fall than when the Covid-19 pandemic started, along with helping kids wrestle with trauma, if all goes according to the district’s latest plan.
New Haven Public Schools expects to blend in-person with distance learning when schools reopen in the fall. To prepare, the district plans to hire a firm called Learning Innovation Catalyst to train administrators, teachers and paraprofessionals to handle that new world.
“Due to the pandemic, we were forced into remote learning. Our teachers weren’t prepared to teach and our leaders weren’t prepared to lead in that environment,” said Assistant Superintendent Keisha Redd-Hannans.
Redd-Hannans presented the contract at the Board of Education Finance and Operations Committee meeting Monday evneing.
The yearlong contract would be for a maximum of $269,000 based on the number of workshops the Washington, D.C.-based company provides to the district. This breaks down to around $115 per educator for the year, according the contract memo.
The workshops would be virtual and self-paced and include individual coaching.
“This is equalizing the game for all of our teachers and leaders,” Redd-Hannans told the committee.
City teachers and principals have discussed the difficulties of getting students to achieve their best work from afar. Each school and teacher has found different ways to tackle the problem through trial and error.
Redd-Hannans said that the administration is aiming to cover the cost of the contract with Covid-19 relief dollars.
The committee members recommended the contract to the full board for a final vote.
De-escalation Training
NHPS
According to another group of board members meeting at the same time, blended learning is not going to be the only pandemic curveball educators will need to face in the fall. Handling the traumas children and teachers survived this spring will be equally important.
“We’re starting to see it in the community. Kids are crying and scared,” said Governance Committee Chair Tamiko Jackson-McArthur. “My son asked me about the spike in Southern states and whether that’s going to come here.”
One way to make sure those traumas don’t turn into punishment for suffering students is the move towards restorative justice and away from suspensions in New Haven schools.
Governance Committee Chair Tamiko Jackson-McArthur: We’re starting to see child trauma.
The school system has been working on the move for six years and has found success so far, although racial disparities persist.
School staff is close to formalizing the move district-wide in a new code of conduct at an upcoming board meeting. Trainings for administrators are being scheduled as well.
District restorative practices trainer Cameo Thorne explained the shift as about seeing every behavior as an attempt to get needs of safety or esteem met — needs not healed when a teacher sends a student out of the classroom.
“This is not race-agenda neutral,” said committee member Edward Joyner. “Writ small, this is exactly what the country is facing.”
Recent Black Lives Matter protests have included a mantra of defunding police departments and removing police officers from schools. Student board representative Lihame Arouna, who brought up the demand at a recent school board meeting, has advocated for restorative justice as well.
“This is the prime time for this code of conduct. It’s almost like it took six years because God’s plan was now,” Jackson-McArthur said.