Aliyya Swaby Photo
Rodriguez: Starting early to prepare kids.
Dismissal will wait until 6 p.m. at Clinton Avenue School beginning next fall — as kids attend extra science and math classes, not after-school sports or clubs.
The city signed a letter of intent this week to partner with a not-for-profit group called Citizen Schools to launch an “expanded learning time program” at Clinton Avenue and two other schools.
The program will stretch the school day by three to four hours for fifth and sixth-graders at Clinton Avenue, Wexler Grant and Bishop Woods schools next fall, and then for the schools’ seventh and eighth graders over the following two years.
Click here to read the non-binding letter of intent.
The Board of Education promises to contribute $567,000 per year — - $1,200 per pupil — and Citizen Schools $1.6 million to the program, said Jason Bartlett, the mayor’s liaison to the Board of Education.
City and district officials are using the rest of the academic year to plan and fundraise with the hope of signing a more detailed memorandum of understanding with Citizen Schools in April, he said.
Existing state Alliance District grants and Title I grants for low-performing schools could pay for at least part of the board’s contribution, Bartlett said.
The public-private partnership fills one of the goals of Mayor Toni Harp’s 10-point plan to increase student success, which proposed extending the school day in at least two schools.
It also tests the idea that, as part of efforts to improve education in New Haven, kids can stay in class longer each day to learn more — a proposition principals like Clinton Avenue’s Ana Rodriguez plan to start prepare students for.
In addition, it fits into Harp’s call for longer school days in general to keep kids off the streets and match parents’ modern working schedules. Last year the city launched an extended-day experiment at Newhallville’s Lincoln-Basset School. Unlike the new experiment, that one features before- and after-school arts and recreation and homework-help programs as opposed to extended academic days with more science and math classes.
Citizen Schools
Citizen Schools has set up expanded learning time programs in 29 low-performing schools in 11 districts and seven states throughout the country, to get kids extra time in the classroom and opportunities for apprenticeships. The organization staffs the programs with two-year AmeriCorps teaching fellows on the path to beginning teaching careers.
New Haven would be its first district in Connecticut.
Principal Rodriguez joined representatives from the city, district and Citizen Schools Tuesday morning to discuss the proposed partnership. Click here to see Citizen Schools’ presentation.
“It’s going to be a process, because you really have to have a buy-in, not only from the students but also from the parents and from the community itself,” she said. Many middle school students are “independent,” she said, used to going home by themselves after school while their parents are still at work.
Right now, she said, most of the students who stay for existing extra help programs are not the ones who need the help most.
Bartlett said the the entire grade of students is expected to stay for the longer day. Transportation home will be provided only after the expanded day is over, he said. “We’re not going to rent two sets of buses.”
Citizen Schools “doesn’t want to take over the after-school program. They want to build on it,” using community partners to give kids more options, Bartlett said.
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Wexler Grant Principal Sabrina Breland said the “jury is still out” on whether longer days are right for her school. “The day might be a little too long for our students,” she said.
She said she worries that the AmeriCorps fellows will not have enough training to manage middle school students. “The extended day might lend itself to some behavioral challenges,” she said. Wexler Grant’s existing after-school program targets first through fourth graders, not middle school students.
Breland, who did not attend the Tuesday morning meeting on the partnership, said she plans to follow up to get some of her questions answered.
The city and district are also working to open Saturday academies to improve students’ technological skills, another item in the mayor’s plan.