New Haven Independent

Cordero — pictured at right in the photograph receiving the parent handbook at the school year’s orientation session at St. Martin de Porres Academy (SMPA) — works the night shift as a waitress, from 10 to 5. She gets home in time to wake and prepare Xena, a sixth-grader, for school.

Then she drives her older son to his job in West Haven. Then, on the way to SMPA, she may also pick up at least one friend of Xena’s, who has no transportation. She gets the girls to school on time, every day, by 7:30.

Then she will go home and get some much deserved shut-eye. Oh, and at the end of the school day, before she goes to work, at least once a week, and probably more, Cordero will also be conducting as a volunteer a sewing and arts and crafts class for the SMPA kids.

The Independent is following Cordero’s family and two others in New Haven this academic year to look at different ways schools involve parents.

An Essential Partner

This small Catholic school, on the Jesuit nativity school model, has an especially close relationship with the families of its 82 fifth-to-eighth graders. As the president of the school, Jay Bowes, explained it to the assembled parents at Tuesday’s oreintation, “We simply can’t do it without you.”

By “it” he meant give the kids, almost all of whom are from impoverished New Haven families, a solid education, including its academic, social, and moral dimensions, so that they all get into college-prep high schools, and from there into college.

“An absolute key criteria for acceptance into the school,” Bowes said, “is that there be one parent in the child’s life, at least one committed to the boy or girl, to the school, and to us; to getting them here every day, and the rest of it. Without that, we couldn’t do it.” Each child is awarded a full scholarship valued at $12,000

Because parents and guardians, like Cordero, work complicated and sometimes double jobs, the school has the kids 11 hours a day, extensive after-school classes (such as the one Cordero teaches), a compulsory homework hour, three required parent conferences, and a close and ongoing relationship with the kids’ caregivers.

“Every parent signs a contract with us,” said Bowes. “That obligates them to give their kids encouragement to maintain the school’s values, to get them here on time every day; to meet at least four times a year with the teachers; and to give two hours per quarter of volunteer work.”

But the parents, like Cordero, often give far more volunteer time. Xena’s beloved homeroom and English teacher, Danielle Swift, in her second year at SMPA, got away from the ubiquitous hugs long enough to describe the parent involvement from a teacher’s perspective.

“We have a complete open-door policy for parents here. Not only do they help, like Virginia Cordero, with doing full classes; others help me with my reading circle, volunteering to work with a specific group of kids, and with regularity. We see the parents all the time, in the parking lot, or at breakfast, where they’re encouraged to stay, and at gathering [SMPA’s 15-minute spiritual-start up meeting held as a full school conclave every day]. Parents can come and sit in the back of the class any time or teach a unit or a part. I had a parent do a drawing workshop; he wasn’t a professional, he worked in the hospital, but he had skill and passion, and he taught and it was wonderful. We encourage this here, the whole staff. They work on the school plays, the pageants, with costumes, I’ve never met a parent here who I’ve asked for help who said no.”

Virginia Cordero said parents give so much to the school because they receive so much. She was referring not just to the hugs, which are endemic (“Ms. Surowiecki and Mr. Bowes stand at the door every morning and each kid gets a big hug as they enter!”), but to the sense of loving support the atmosphere provides. “Our kids are here with them more than they are with me,” she said. “And what’s amazing is they want to be here all this time.”

Cordero said that when Xena entered the school as a fifth-grader, her father, Cordero’s husband, had recently died.

“We thought it was going to be a difficult year here, but Xena made the math team, honor society, and got straight As. It was wonderful, and the most beautiful thing is that she came home every day with a smile on her face. That’s priceless.”

Not all parents, of course, are naturals. For them the school has provided a parenting skills workshop, some 12 weeks of classes, organized by one of SMPA’s many partners, in this instance the Clifford Beers Clinic. “Some 75 per cent of our kids are from single parent families,” said Bowes, “and some of the single parents can get a bit tired, like the grandparents. There are uncles and aunts doing the parenting too. We’ll be offering the workshop again as needed.”

Xena said she couldn’t wait to get back to class, to see Ms. Swift or Ms. O’Leary, who will be her science teacher, and to return to the geometry that she particularly enjoys. She’ll be wearing a uniform and will not cut corners (“If you wear slacks, girls,” Surowiecki charged them, “make sure your buckle is demure, none of this World Wrestle style buckles”); taking classes only with other girls ( and boys with boys); and observing the usual cell phone, non-abuse of the internet, and other policies expected of the students.

The classes are all small, with no more than 15 students. That accounts for how well the school gets to know its parents and encourages the closeness everywhere apparent at the orientation, and the rounds of applause for each of the returning teachers as they were introduced.

What’s new this year for the parents was that they may provide only fruit or a vegetable as a morning snack. The rest of the day’s meals are all provided free from the school’s fine new kitchen. “Your kids are with us for 11 hours. We exercise as we can, but we must also pay more attention to nutrition too. The teachers will be the role models!” (Applause.) “But if you bring Dorritos, they will be confiscated”

Also it was announced at the orientation, that this teacher, Allison Rivera, will be initiating a graduate support program. That means as the school works up to its first crop of eighth-grade graduates, she will be find them mentors and work to get them scholarships into solid academic high schools by way of preparation for college. By the time they come back so SMPA as seniors preparing for college, Rivera, Surowiecki and the whole SMPA family will also have a resource center going providing SAT prep, guidance, and the whole array of support more well to do kids take for granted. It’s very likely that parent volunteers will be part of this effort as they are in so many aspects of SMPA.

What’s new for Virginia Cordero this semester is that in her spare time (!) she has, with her two sons, launched a fencing business. (Both sons have been employed in this line of work in West Haven for years, so now they are teaming up with their mom for installations of fences of all kinds). “They thought it would be helpful to give my energy a focus after my husband died, and they were right. My boss at the diner where I work,” she said as she and Xena prepared to go home from the orientation, “also helped me get into the business. We’re going to do it on Saturday and Sunday. Oh, and Xena named the business for us: Family Fencing.” (The number is 203-633-2830.)

For previous installments in the Independent’s series on parental involvement in local schools, click on:

Dad Marked Present

and here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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