Melissa Bailey Photo
Hooker parent Anna Festa.
Of the 52 students who landed coveted kindergarten spots at the Worthington Hooker School this year, 35 bypassed nightmarish lines by pre-enrolling through pre‑K programs like Leila Day.
That was one revelation imparted as two dozen prospective and current Hooker parents gathered at the Whitney Avenue school for a meeting hosted by East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker (pictured). The Ward 10 alderman said he called the meeting after receiving lots of feedback from parents about the school’s enigmatic admissions process.
The meeting addressed one of the most nerve-wracking and rumor-spawning education questions facing some parents in New Haven: How do they land their kids a spot into the most coveted kindergarten class in town, the one some parents feel is their “only” public-school option?
Getting into Hooker is “one of the few issues in the neighborhood that everybody feels frustrated with, and feels needs to be fixed,” Elicker said.
Hooker, which serves 444 students in grades K‑8, is a neighborhood school intended to serve East Rockers within a designated boundary. (Click here for a list of streets in that area.)
Hooker is often touted as one of the best-performing, if not the best, in the city public school district. In a district where elementary schools have a wide range of performance on tests, many look to Hooker as the guarantee for a top-notch education. The perception creates an intense desire among parents to send their kids to the school, so much so that they will buy a house on a certain street or stake out the superintendent’s office to try to get in. Depending on the year, the first three grades of Hooker can be difficult to get into, due to a high number of Yale affiliates with children entering grade school. In grades 3 to 8 typically have plenty of room for kids who live within the designated boundary for the neighborhood school, as well as for kids in other parts of the city.
Parents trying frantically to get their kids into kindergarten have been met with confusing and mixed messages from the school board about the admissions process. This year, an East Rock dad named Ray Saracco got in line at 5:20 a.m at the Board of Education building on registration day, only to find out that the Hooker kindergarten class was already full. He later got his daughter into the school by showing up at that same building in person one to two times per day until a spot opened up.
About three students are still waiting to get into Hooker this year, according to Hooker parent leaders.
Prompted by stories like the one Saracco told, prospective Hooker parents streamed into the Hooker cafeteria Wednesday night to learn more about the process.
One underlying theme was a fear that the spots for neighborhood kids would be given to out-of-district folks with political connections.
The question of preferential admission caused a stir in 2004, when out-of-district kids, including the daughters of State Rep. Cam Staples and school board President Brian Perkins, snagged early spots ahead in an over-enrolled kindergarten class.
“Those spots are their chips,” said Kevin Donohue (pictured), a Hooker dad. “They bargain with those chips.”
This year, no allegations of that type have arisen. All kindergartners live in-district, as do but three of the first-graders, according to school officials.
The meeting focused on areas of confusion over the admissions process — and led into a broader discussion about why parents are so focused on Hooker as the Holy Grail.
As parents sat down at circular seats attached to lunch tables, Elicker greeted them with a handout with some new information about the current Hooker student population, stemming from Freedom of Information requests.
Skipping the Lines
In a letter dated Oct. 15, Laoise King, the chief of external affairs at New Haven Public Schools (NHPS), gave a breakdown of how the 52-member kindergarten class got there. Of the 52 students, two were held back from the previous year, leaving 50 spots open, she wrote. Another 35 locked in their spots in May through a pre-enrollment process offered at pre‑K sites on May 1. Another 15 were people who, like Saracco, registered in person at 54 Meadow St. on a rainy May 3.
All 52 students live inside the Hooker district boundary, according to King. She produced a list of the streets they live on.
How did some parents avoid the fate of waiting for hours in line?
Students in public pre‑K programs or in private pre‑K programs that accept federal dollars to serve low-income students are all considered NHPS students, King explained. “Therefore, their registration rolls over to their home school for kindergarten once they complete a registration form on May 1.” That’s true of all students enrolled in pre‑K programs across the city.
King produced a list of participating pre‑K programs. It includes all district pre‑K sites, as well as two dozen other sites, including private nursery schools such as Leila Day on Cold Spring Road and Bethesda Nursery School on St. Ronan Street.
Of the students who got into kindergarten at Hooker this year, four came from Leila Day, two from Bethesda and 12 from the district’s pre‑K program at the Celentano School. (See above for the full list provided by NHPS.)
Schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark, who was present at Wednesday’s meeting, noted that New Haven has the largest school readiness program in the state.
“We consider them essentially our kids,” he said. If they live inside the Hooker boundaries, their registration “rolls over” to that school. Kids who live outside the boundaries don’t jump the line ahead of neighborhood kids, Clark has said.
Clark said allowing pre‑K kids to pre-enroll makes sense — and cuts down on the already lengthy lines on registration day.
“Do they want a line down the block?” he asked of parents who might suggest eliminating the pre-enrollment.
Pre-enrollment is open to all students at a pre‑K program that accepts federal dollars for school readiness, Clark said. The student does not have to be occupying a spot that was paid for by the federal dollars for low-income families.
That point was one of several areas of confusion for parents, as they brainstormed admissions “issues” on large white pieces of paper. Hooker parent leader Anna Festa (pictured at the top of the story) took notes.
Clark, who arrived toward the end of the meeting, was not called upon to explain anything during the meeting; he did so afterward.
Among the areas of confusion: Does Hooker allow sibling preference?
Clark’s answer: No. (In a past interview, he indicated that Superintendent Reginald Mayo does give some weight to whether a student has a brother or sister at the school when deciding whom to give a spot to.)
If a student lives in the neighborhood when he or she enrolls, then later moves across town, does the district check?
Clark said the district does not re-verify a student’s residency after the initial enrollment, where parents are required to show proof of address. Clark said the later grades are typically not filled, so there isn’t an issue there.
A “Transparent” Waiting List
Much discussion surrounded the lack of a publicly visible waiting list for the kids who don’t get admitted on registration day. The number of kids is not large; it’s typically about five to 10, according to Elicker.
Parents like Saracco who don’t get in on registration day are instructed to physically return to 54 Meadow St. to check if a spot has opened up. The district does not call people when a spot opens up, Clark said.
Parents called this system “antiquated.” What if you’re out of town? What if you have a job that prevents daily visits to Meadow Street?
To add transparency to the process, they talked about creating some sort of waiting list that would be visible on the Web. Kids would be given an identifying number, and parents could check in on that Web page to see where they stand on the list.
Clark declined to commit to a publicly posted waiting list. He said the district has updated its website to include an F.A.Q. on kindergarten registration, and is willing to explain it further.
“If people think it’s not clearly stated, then it’s obviously not clearly stated,” Clark said. “There’s no question that we need to review it.”
He said the district could use technology in a better way — “it’s still a paper-driven process.” He said the district “will commit to engaging in this process” of how admissions could be made clearer to parents.
Clark urged parents to “look at all the options in New Haven,” instead of just Hooker. He mentioned Davis Street 21st Century Magnet School and Mauro-Sheridan. “If people actually walked into those buildings, they’d be amazed at the wonderful teaching that is going on.”
Hooker or Bust
Discussion Wednesday night touched on that issue but mainly stuck to the goal of the night: identifying concerns with Hooker admissions.
Justin Elicker
At one point, the suggestion arose of adding a kindergarten class at Hooker and eliminating the hair-pulling experience of admissions there. Alderman Elicker said while there isn’t enough room at the K‑2 Hooker school on Canner Street, the revamped East Rock Global Magnet School might have room for one Hooker class. He said that would be part of a broader discussion that he wasn’t going to get into Wednesday.
“It’s an absurd and tragic situation” that parents feel that Hooker is the only school for their kids, pointed out one mom toward the end of the meeting. She suggested dividing the Hooker population in three, sending a third to the Celentano school, and a third to East Rock Global Magnet School, neither of which has the track record of high-performing scores that Hooker does. If the population were dispersed in this way, she suggested, then each school would be a half-Hooker, and students at each school would get the benefit of the Yale-affiliated community that is part of what makes parents love Hooker so much.
The comments touched on what one lifelong East Rocker in the crowd has been focusing on as he hit the campaign trail over the last couple of months. Alderman Matt Smith, who just got elected to serve East Rock’s Ward 9, graduated from East Rock Global Magnet School, Wilbur Cross High School, and Yale University.
On the campaign trail, he talked about the need for choice in schools, “so it’s not ‘Hooker or Bust.’” Now that he’s alderman, he said he’d like to focus on making East Rock Global Magnet “a viable alternative to Hooker.”
“What about the other schools in the area?” Smith asked, mentioning Celentano and East Rock. “What is it about Hooker that makes it so attractive? Or, what is it about the other schools that make it unattractive? Those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking as a community. What can we do as a community to make those school the kind of schools that everybody wants to go to, not just Hooker?”
During the meeting, Elicker posited that there has been a spike in Hooker enrollment due parents not wanting to pay for private school in hard economic times.
Smith said that other schools need to improve, so that “there are schools that people want to send their kids to even when economic times are better.”
“We have these great young families,” he said. “I’d hate to lose them to places like Hamden or North Haven” because of New Haven schools.
Smith he’s looking to the city’s school reform drive for some changes — including a new college scholarship program to kids in city public schools.
“There’s got to be a solution other than even a waiting list,” Smith said.
Past Independent stories (and discussions!) on the Hooker admissions process:
• Desperation At Meadow Street
• Hooker School Boundaries Revealed
•
Parents Learn Hooker School Admission Tricks
• Move, Stakeout Fail To Land Prized School Spot
Great coverage.
Elicker has done an amazing job with all of this work, basically as a volunteer.
I like the suggestion of creating "Half Hookers" at each of the three area elementary schools.