New Haven Independent

It’s every parent’s early October dream that all her kid’s teachers will proclaim her child a joy and a perfect student at that first conference of the school year. Well, Cordero’s daughter was described just that way by the teachers at St. Martin de Porres Academy (SMPA) at the school’s first parent-teacher get-together for sixth graders on Wednesday night. But Cordero wasn’t all that surprised; she knows Xena is even dreamier than that. “Xena is my rock,” said Cordero. “I share everything with her.”

The Cordero family is one of three the Independent is following this school year to look at how different local schools involve parents in their children’s education. (Click here for the last story on the Corderos).

Cordero, who works the night shift as a waitress as well as trying to expand the small family fence-building business, said she had had a particularly hectic day. Still she got her usual three hours of sleep after work - all she has needed for many years - took a shower, dressed, and came over to school. She loves to hug and be hugged, and of course to hear fine things about Xena, and on none of these scores was she disappointed.

Because there are only 11 sixth grade girls in this Catholic nativity-model school sixth-to-eighth-grade school with a total population of 79 kids, Xena’s teachers, such as math instructor Allison Couch (on the left above) and the Spanish and religion teacher, Charlene Araujo, really know her well. “She’s so hard-working,” said Araujo. “She got a 98 on her Spanish test, and was upset!” And the math teacher confirmed Xena was very strong on what was called her “mental math” as well as the order of operations, which the class had been working on in the initial weeks of school.

Ms. Arajuo said she saw another side of Xena during religion class when they were reading the book of Jonah. “Xena’s so smart,” the teacher reported. “We were playing a kind of bingo game, where the kids who got the right answer to my Jonah questions, got the tabs, but Xena, who knew all the answers instantly, called out, “Oh please, you don’t have to describe things.” She knew all the incidents of the book right away.”

Cordero said that she wasn’t surprised. She had studied and was baptized with her daughter, and they used to read the Bible together, with Xena’s dad, who died two years ago. “Xena was very close to her father. Especially at the end of his life, she spent so much time with him. They read, and they watched the history channel together. I think maybe Xena knows so much and wants to hold onto it, all of it, in part, in memory of him.”

Xena’s English and reading teacher, Nicole Swift, explained to the kids and their parents the expectations of English class, that all the kids learn what was called PACE, an acronym standing for punctuation, accurate grammar, capitalization, and effort in all assignments.

Needless to say, Xena was excelling. “Oh, she’s prepared, she’s on time with all her work. You really can’t ask for more,” said Swift. “She’s matured since I had her last year too, and, yes, she takes school very seriously.”

Ben Dylan, the girls’ social studies teacher, said he was going to challenge the girls with learning to write the classic five-paragraph essay. They were going to be studying early humans, the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Cush. And, he like, all the teachers, was continually reminding the girls to establish a sense of independent responsibility for doing good work, so they could, with SMPA’s help, get scholarships into good high schools and college. The t-shirts, with a projected date for college graduation, which many of the sixth graders wore, testified to the serious focus.

To make all this happen, of course, in a very small school, every parent had to contribute not only to support their child through homework supervision and so forth, but by volunteering at school. Virginia Cordero has already begun a sewing and crocheting class on Mondays from 3:45 to 5:30. She has nine girls and one boy making blankets, scarves, hats, and, in the boy’s case, a mask.

This other mom, D’nai Dubose, whose daughter Shanice is Xena’s friend, volunteers several mornings a week in the kitchen helping prepare breakfast for the kids. The school’s director, Jay Bowes, says that there are about a dozen parents actively involved as volunteers. Two regularly relieve the school’s office manager, and others are on call to work in the office and the kitchen as need be. “We haven’t yet called on the parents to do special tasks they’ve committed to, but we will. We can’t teach these terrific kids how to be prepared for high school and college, how to internalize independent responsibility without our parents, and without the parents helping to be examples and models.”

Xena’s schedule for her post-academic extra-curricular part of the long 7:30 to 6:30 day has also worked out nicely for her. On Mondays she is working on Hairspray, the play she will be in; Tuesdays she’s in chess, and she is a strong competitor; Wednesdays she is in a group called Peace and Justice, which does volunteer work at shelters and old age homes like Mary Wade (the kids picked up litter around the soup kitchen last Wednesday); Thursday is pottery; and Friday is athletics with a fun class in double Dutch jump-roping.

At home she reads and reads, so much, says her mom, “that when I clean up the house, I see a book in every room, and I’m careful to leave the book just so. I don’t even move the book, because “Z” [Ed: Xena’s nickname] might be on a certain page and I don’t want to disturb that.

But Xena does a lot more for her mom than provide such great school reports, and that’s what she conveyed in calling her “my rock.” “When my husband died,” said Cordero, “my sons and I went pretty much apart. But not Xena. Even when I would tell her at various points that it was okay to cry, Xena said that her father had told her to remain strong, and so she was not going to cry. She’s marvelous. I tell her everything. She’s always asking me when I see her at the end of the day, ‘And how did things go for you today, Mom? Things like that. She’s like my sister.”

But that can-do attitude of the child also comes from the mother, which is why SMPA’s principal Mary Surowiecki came up to Cordero and whispered at the tail end of the parent-teacher meeting, “Virginia, would you mind sewing us a little elf costume for our Christmas pageant? Something, you know, elflike, simple, but I like those cute turned up shoes.”

Cordero said, with a huge smile, that she would get right on it.

And what does a remarkable mother-daughter duo discuss at the end of the parent-teacher conference? Not grades or assignments not done. Xena’s got it all so under control that her mom could tell her how excited she was because this day, the business, Family Fencing, received its LLC, its limited liability corporation status. Xena, who had named the business in which her mom and two older brothers, Alexis, 22, and Maurice, 25, build business and residential fences, seemed to know all about it.

This weekend, where will Virginia and Xena Cordero be? “We’re finishing a job on Orange and Linden Streets,” said Cordero. “And Xena will be there with me and the boys. Oh, yes. She brings along her books and she reads and does her homework while we’re there, and helps out.”

Does she ever.

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

Mom Gets A Politics Pep Talk

Dad Meets The Teachers. All Of ‘Em

Ms. Lopez Moves Brandon’s Seat

Night-Shift Waitress Gets Xena To Class On Time

Dad Marked Present

Fifth-Graders Get “Amistadized”

Board of Ed To Parents: Get Involved!

Sumrall Looks To Parents

Task Force Hones Plan for Kids

The New St. Martin DePorres Comes Home

Parents Graduate

Parents Hit the Books

“Parent Power” Hits The Park

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