New Haven Independent

So reported Nichole Jefferson at Monday night’s meeting of the Board of Education’s Administration and Finance Committee. Jefferson (pictured) is the executive director of the city’s Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO), which placed over 600 New Haven residents on school construction jobs in 2007 alone. She was at the meeting because up for approval was continuation of the board’s contract with CEO to monitor compliance with minority hiring requirements on school construction projects.

The CEO runs the J. Miller Pearson Career Development School, the only construction school in the New Haven County area. At Pearson, students work eight hours a day learning a trade until they are accepted to a jobsite apprenticeship.

“We don’t want to just say we’re creating jobs because that’s not really it,” Jefferson said. “We’re giving people a career in the trades. They’ll be able to feed their families and retire.”

New Haven has the best hiring practices in the country for minorities and women, Jefferson said, a fact that derives directly from school construction hires. But not all of the unions she works with on placements are so accommodating. Last year an unprecedented 3 of the 92 students accepted from Pearson into union jobs were taken by the elevators union. Unprecedented, she said, because the elevators union is notoriously difficult.

“I asked them to take some people from us; I said, ‘Could you take some minorities?’ And they said ‘No, we can’t take any minorities because minorities don’t like to be in confined spaces.’ Yes they did, point blank.”

After a complaint to the national leadership of the elevator’s union, the Connecticut chapter took on an African American and a Latino man from Jefferson’s program. “And they call me back after a month and say, ‘You got another one of those African American people?’”

She was happy to comply, but had one more question: Would they take a woman?

Out of the question, she was told: women can’t carry cables. “That’s the kind of thinking you have to change,” Jefferson said.

Bringing the Message to Hartford

Before Jefferson headed home, Keith Stover grabbed one of her business cards. He was then formally introduced by schools construction coordinator Susan Weisselberg as the director of Robinson & Cole, the lobbying firm hired by the Board of Education in mid-March to represent the Board in Hartford during the legislative session. On the committee’s agenda Monday night was approving the continuation of his firm’s services for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, at a rate of $5,000 a month.

“I’m here so you can see that all lobbyists don’t have horns,” Stover (pictured, right) said, after an introduction from Wesselberg, who reported on Robinson & Cole’s work during the the last legislative session.

“The legislators who vote for your construction bills have no idea how you guys have started to revolutionize the educational process for 20,000 kids,” Stover said. “There are some really cool things going on, and people want to know that. But they’re legislators; they don’t have the time to seek that out.”

“Keith knows legislators — who to talk to, and when,” said William Clark, the schools’ chief operating officer. “When we go up to Hartford, we want to use our time wisely.”

Stover believes stories like the ones Jefferson brought to Monday night’s committee meeting should be shared with legislators. “It’s a very anecdotal place,” he said. “The more stories we can tell the better.” It would be great, he said, to tell legislators about the fifteen new minority journeymen who have union jobs working construction at New Haven schools because of the bill they signed. And it would be even better to do so before the legislators are bogged down with the demands of the new session.

“And you’re not just sending me forth, I will call on you as well,” he said. “There is nothing more valuable than someone from town going up to meet with legislators, having an informal discussion where it’s not, ‘Will you put two million dollars in Early Reading Success?’ What we really need to do is break through the idea that we’re just up there looking for dollars. If we don’t, we’re just up there looking for dollars.”

Housing Secured for Chinese Guest Teachers

The committee also approved a residential lease agreement with Elm Campus Partners to provide housing to two Chinese teachers as part of a new Guest Teacher Program. A $175,000 state grant to support Chinese and Arabic language instruction in the schools will pay for the teachers’ travel expenses and salaries, but the Board of Education is responsible for the cost of housing and support. The two-bedroom apartment is located at 559B Prospect Street, and it will be leased at $1,260 a month.

“Elm Campus Properties stepped up to the plate and offered us use of this rental,” said Clark (at right in phto). “It serves our purposes very well.” The apartment on Prospect Street is in a safe area close to transportation routes. The area has a large Chinese population. The guest teachers, who will arrive from China later this summer, will also have access to the Yale graduate school’s cultural organizations.

Mandarin was introduced to Betsy Ross High School during this past school year; the guest teacher program is part of a state initiative that will allow New Haven to build on that foundation. “The state came to us with this program, and said ‘We’d like you to participate,” Clark said. “It was a bit of a no-brainer. It also gives us the chance to rev up the existing program.”