Maya McFadden Photo
Supt. Madeline Negrón explains merger at Monday meeting.
A proposed new middle school on Wexler-Grant’s campus could open up next fall with around 30 students — before slowly growing over the years to eventually include high school students as well.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supt. Madeline Negrón offered those details Monday night, following the Independent’s reporting last week that the school district plans to merge Wexler-Grant and Lincoln-Bassett schools into a single PreK-8th grade school.
Alongside that merger, NHPS plans to create a new middle school at the current Wexler-Grant campus that will focus on “project-based” learning.
Negrón said at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, which was held at John C. Daniels School and via Zoom, that the first roughly 30 students at this proposed new middle school would be 6th-8th graders from New Haven who are currently educated outside of the city in order to get the support services they need.
Negrón described this proposed new school as a “prototype of what middle school should be,” meaning primarily focused on hands-on learning. “We know what kids’ needs are. The research shows that, and this is what we want for New Haven students.”
Long term, Negrón hopes for the new middle school to add a grade level each year to eventually become a 6th-12th grade school focused on career pathways and hands-on learning. She also hopes for the school at some point in the future to be added to NHPS’ magnet choice lottery offerings.
When asked why the district plans to establish another school, instead of reducing the number of schools amidst lower enrollment and building disrepair districtwide, Negrón said that she and her colleagues have been talking about the need for an alternative middle school for the past year. They just hadn’t been able to identify a building for the program.
Now, as the district plans to move Wexler-Grant’s school community over to Lincoln-Bassett, she thinks the Wexler-Grant building could be a good fit.
As for the merger of Wexler-Grant and Lincoln-Bassett, Negrón promised Monday night that the merger won’t happen “to community, but with community.”
She said the merger aligns with the district’s priority of operational efficiency. With the goal of “sustainability planning” in mind, Negrón said the decision to bring the two neighborhood schools together was suggested by the global architecture and design firm Perkins Eastman, which recently worked with the district to help address its declining enrollment trends and limited resources. NHPS’ enrollment has been on a decline since 2017, she reported.
Merging the Dixwell and Newhallville schools would “create stronger and more supportive educational experiences for all students,” Negrón said.
She said that the architectural firm suggested that the merged school be moved to Bassett’s building, as the Newhallville school building has more space. Bassett’s building will allow the school to retain key spaces, such as specialty classrooms in STEM, art, and music. It also has existing resource rooms that allow “push-in and pull-out programming” for special education students, as well as sensory rooms.
The merger will also allow for more teacher collaboration for Bassett educators who currently are isolated, Negrón said, meaning they don’t have grade-level partners to work with.
The merged school will stay in its existing attendance zone, making it so Wexler students won’t have to travel to a new building across town, even if they will be going to a different neighborhood..
Once established, the merged school will serve six aldermanic wards.
While the district received recommendation for a PreK‑8 building layout in Basset’s building, Negrón said she plans to assemble a design team made up of district staff and community members, particularly from the two schools, to put together programmatic and operational recommendations for the school. The team will help inform the district of community-supported recommendations for the school’s master schedule, building layout, name change, and culture and climate.
Negrón concluded that after having spent the last year listening to the district’s needs, the Wexler-Bassett merge is “my first action toward the 10-year plan that’s coming.”
Last week, school staffers from Wexler and Bassett were notified of the merger, Negrón said. This week, family meetings will be held to answer additional questions.
She said a key message she hopes to convey to families who currently attend Bassett, which serves up to sixth grade, is that they should still remain in the magnet lottery process if they have already entered. That’s because the seventh and eighth grade classes that will be re-established at the merged Bassett building will first prioritize Wexler’s seventh and eighth graders. She noted that the district is not yet sure whether there will be vacancies in the seventh and eighth grade classes.
Watch the full meeting presentation above.