David Yaffe-Bellany Photo
Families line up for free backpacks Tuesday outside Clinton Avenue School.
Writing more stories. Taking the bus. Making more friends. Staying out of trouble.
Those were the hopes for the upcoming academic year expressed by children at a third annual Back-To-School Fair hosted Tuesday by the Housing Authority of New Haven.
Children lined up outside Clinton Avenue School Tuesday afternoon to play carnival games and collect free backpacks containing pens and notebooks amid a bouncy castle, a machine spitting cotton candy, and a clown balanced on stilts.
Housing authority staffers handed out the backpacks to the first 800 public housing-dwelling children who showed up at the fair. After collecting their new school supplies, children spoke to the Independent about their hopes for the upcoming year.
Denairy Williams, 5
Denairy Williams, who starts kindergarten at Fair Haven School in September, can’t wait to take the school bus.
She described the prospect of riding the bus every morning in one word: “happy.”
A lollipop hanging out of her mouth, a bright pink backpack slung over her shoulder, Denairy said she imagines the bus will deliver her to a picture-perfect first day of school: a pencil and paper on a desk, a lunch break with friends, a chance to meet her new teacher.
“I like reading,” she said. “When I went to the library, I saw the computers. And then there were books that were there.”
“I got my own library card,” she added proudly.
Asked if she prefers books to television, Denairy replied diplomatically: “I like reading and watching TV.”
Lamar Lawrence, 10
Lamar Lawrence has two straightforward goals for fourth grade: make more friends and tell more stories.
“I don’t know how to make a lot of friends,” he said. “I can’t get along with nobody — well, I just can’t, I don’t know why. They keep running away from me during recess.”
Lamar, dressed in a gray T‑shirt emblazoned with the Superman logo, said he enjoys the morning bus ride from his home on Front Street to Davis Street School. Along the way, he said, he likes to draw pictures with one friend Sophia, who also attends Davis Street.
“Sometimes we draw each other, and then be funny,” Lamar said. “She got a big head and a little body. And then she draw me all big with giant feet and a tiny head.”
He also fills those rides with stories, making up tales about his daily life that often feature his mother and two brothers.
“One day a little boy named Lamar went to school,” he said, recounting one of his favorite stories. “And when he got to school, nobody was there. The only people there were his brothers. And then when he talked to them, they disappeared.”
He paused. “And then I forgot the rest.” Plenty of time awaits for new endings.
Jeremia Symore, 6
“I don’t really like school. It’s very hard for me.”
Jeremia Symore, a plucky 6‑year-old, is set to repeat first grade at Bishop Woods School this fall. He aims to do better this year: higher grades, fewer fights, more attention to the significance of “salami.”
“[My teacher] was kind of being mean to me,” Jeremia said, reflecting on the past year. “She says to stop when she says ‘salami.’”
But Jeremia, who has ADHD, would often keep going. He said he finds it hard to sit still and focus in an environment full of distractions. He’s seen fights break out in the gym, in music class, in the art room. He tries to stay away from the fights, he said, but sometimes he can’t help but fight back.
“They don’t like listening, because they don’t really like school,” he said. “Sometimes they fight me, and I have to hit them back.”
He said he hopes the new school year will herald a fresh start, with more freeze tag than fighting, more salami than suspensions.
I have found that the public schools in general need more cash for trips, supplies, extra curricular activities, etc. I hope individuals and businesses start sharing with PUBLIC schools as I have. When I give to a principal or a teacher I know the largesse will end up with the children of NH not bureaucrats.