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by Melissa Bailey | Jul 13, 2010 7:58 am

(15) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Schools, West Rock, School Reform

Melissa Bailey Photo One school is getting a new home and a nearly 10-hour school day. At the other, teachers will send home five-minute DVDs introducing themselves to parents, while the principal aims to share her turnaround story with Oprah.

Those details emerged at the Board of Education’s meeting Monday, as staff from the Brennan/Rogers School and the new Domus Academy shared their plans for the fall.

When the city “graded” seven schools in March as part of an ambitious system-wide school reform effort, both schools were marked as failing. Now they’re undertaking dramatic, and different, improvement plans. Brennan/Rogers, a K-8 school in West Rock, is staying within the district as a “turnaround” school. The city hired Domus, a social services agency that runs two charter schools in Stamford, to take over the Urban Youth Center.

Principal Karen Lott (pictured above), who took over Brennan/Rogers in August 2009, is shaking up her K-8 school, which is made up of Katherine Brennan (3-8) and Clarence Rogers (K-2). The new year will bring a slew of new teachers an expanded rewards system for good behavior: Click here to read a story about some of the changes afoot.

Lott announced Monday that she is closing in on her goal of filling out her 45-person teaching staff. Only 18 of the 34 teachers reapplied for their jobs; 13 were hired back. Amid a teaching shortage, over 200 people applied for the remaining spots.

Two new hires at Brennan/Rogers appeared on a personnel list approved by the board Monday. A Dartmouth College grad with eight years’ teaching experience will teach the fifth grade. Singer/songwriter Jennifer Dauphinais will join the ranks as a co-teacher for one of the younger grades.

Lott said she has four more spots to fill. Meanwhile, teachers will get a head start on the school year: They’ll be called in to work on Aug. 9 for an eight-day training session. Once school starts, they’ll face a longer-than-usual day.

The Brennan/Rogers school day used to go from 8:20 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. Next year, it will stretch to 4:15 p.m., five days per week. On Wednesdays, students will get out two hours early, so that teachers can squeeze in two hours of professional development, Lott said.

Lott said next year, teachers will go an extra step to reach out to parents. Teachers will record five-minute videos introducing themselves to parents and to their classrooms. Students will take the DVDs home to their parents, so they can pop them into the TV.

The announcement prompted a few surprised giggles from the teachers in the audience.

Lott announced a more ambitious TV aspiration, too—she aims to land a spot on Oprah in two years, recounting how students at a low-performing school, beset by poverty, rose to be a top-performing school.

“We are going on Oprah to be hailed as an exemplary model of an urban school success story!” Lott wrote in a playful parenthetical on her Power Point.

Board members overlooked the slight obstacle that Oprah’s packing up her show in September 2011. They commended her for her enthusiasm, and her commitment to more serious goals: Boosting scores on Connecticut Mastery Tests and getting kids’ literacy levels up to grade level.

Decreasing the school’s attrition rate is also high on her list. Many students leave Brennan/Rogers after second grade, she said. Lott said she’d like to retain more students, and get them more engaged in school.

Domus staff are preparing for even more sweeping changes for the former Urban Youth Center. The small middle school serves kids in grades 6 to 8 who struggled in traditional schools because of emotional, social or behavioral problems. Click here for a peek at some of the challenges students and staff face.

Urban Youth did not have a good reputation, acknowledged Craig Baker, Domus’s chief educational officer, as he spoke before the board.

The school will get a fresh start in many ways. It will move from its bleak quarters at 580 Dixwell Ave. to a swing space in Hamden, sharing space with East Rock Global Magnet School on Leeder Hill Road, Baker announced.

The school will also get a new name: Domus Academy.

The fall will bring a new school culture of uniforms, character-building, and a nearly 10-hour school day, Baker said.

The new school day will stretch from 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., he said. The last 90 minutes will be spent on a mix of homework help, sports and other extra-curriculars.

“Is that too exhausting for kids who are not used to being in that kind of academic environment?” asked board member Selase Williams.

Baker said his staff will teach the kids “stamina.” The goal is to get them to sit through a 90-minute lesson without losing concentration, he said.

Domus Academy will be based on a model developed over the last 11 years at Trailblazer Academy, a middle school Domus runs in Stamford serving a similar population to Urban Youth. Key to the model are family advocates—problem-solvers who help deal with every-day problems in kids’ lives that get in the way of learning. Click here for a story following one of Domus’ family advocates on the job.

All students will be invited back to the school, and more will be added, boosting the student body from about 36 to 48. Students who return will face a whole new slate of teachers: None of the nine teachers will remain. Domus hired eight classroom teachers, one literacy specialist, and three family advocates to staff the school. The team includes a range of experience. One new hire approved Monday is a first-year science teacher from Teach for America.

Some Urban Youth teachers reapplied for their jobs, but none were chosen, Baker said. He said that was because of a “lack of mission fit.” Domus will be asking a lot of its teachers, including teaching social skills and going on an overnight camping trip before school starts, he noted.

“We are youth workers as well as teachers,” he said.

Teachers start work on Aug. 16 with a week-long training in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention.

Teachers Union Vice President David Low asked if Domus would act as other charter schools have, and “cream”—meaning take the best kids away from other public schools, thereby making it easy to succeed.

Baker said no—Domus’s mission has always been to serve the most struggling kids. Students are referred by other schools in the district. Their parents do have to have an interview with Domus before the student is accepted. Baker said he expects to accept “99.9 percent” of the students who are referred there.

Students enter Trailblazers Academy lagging 3 to 7 grades behind their statewide peers, Baker said.

“Growth is going to have to be phenomenal” to get them ready to succeed in high school, noted board member Alex Johnston (pictured).

“What kinds of goals are you setting?” he asked.

Baker said he doesn’t yet know what level the students will be starting at, but he expects them to grow 1.5 grade levels per year.

The changes will cost the district an extra $300,000 per year, mostly due to the family advocates and after-school activities, said school reform czar Garth Harries.

Schools Superintendent Reginald Mayo acknowledged the need for change.

“We have not done a very good job with our at-risk kids,” he said.

He welcomed Domus, which will be the first charter group to take over a public school within the city school district. (Other charter schools operate outside of the school district.)

“Hopefully they will live up to the billing that they’ve delivered here tonight,” Mayo said. “I’m going to hold them up to it.”

Comments

posted by: Threefifths on July 13, 2010 10:11am

Schools Superintendent Reginald Mayo acknowledged the need for change

For real.They how come He will not step down.That would be real change.

“Growth is going to have to be phenomenal” to get them ready to succeed in high school, noted board member Alex Johnston (pictured

Growth to him is to bring in the corporate vampires to run for profit charter schools.
Real growth is a elected school board.

And Dr. James P. Comer has been doing this same thing since 1968.In fact oter countrys use
his sysytem.

School Development Program
Developed by child psychiatrist Dr. James P. Comer and his colleagues at the Yale Child Study Center in collaboration with the New Haven Public Schools, the School Development Program (SDP) is a research-based, comprehensive K-12 education reform program grounded in the principles of child, adolescent, and adult development.

First introduced in two low-achieving schools in 1968, over the years the School Development Program has been implemented in hundreds of schools in more than 20 states, the District of Columbia, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, England, and Ireland.

The SDP provides the organizational, management, and communications framework for mobilizing teachers, administrators, parents, and other concerned adults to support students’ personal, social, and academic development and achievement. The SDP also helps educators make better programmatic and curriculum decisions based on students’ needs and on developmental principles.

While the School Development Program helps bring change to one school at a time, it has been used as a framework for system-wide reform, providing mechanisms by which school boards and district central administration can coordinate and support the reform work at each school.

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=iKQRknqB1W8&feature=related

He welcomed Domus, which will be the first charter group to take over a public school within the city school district. (Other charter schools operate outside of the school district.)

They how come Domus is moving to hamden.How come they will not stay at the Building that Urban Youth was in.Remeber it was agreed that if the school fails that it woud become a charter school.See what they are trying to do is waht King bloomberg and king klein in New york is trying to do and that is put these charter schools in public schools and then take them over. Notice they change the name from East Rock Global Magnet School to
Domus Academy?

Teachers Union Vice President David Lowe asked if Domus would act as other charter schools have, and “cream”—meaning take the best kids away from other public schools, thereby making it easy to succeed.

You need to start getting te law change like they did in New York and that is that Charter Schools must serve at least half of the percentage of special education students and non-English speaking students that district schools enroll.

“We are going on Oprah to be hailed as an exemplary model of an urban school success story!” Lott wrote in a playful parenthetical on her Power Point.

The only show she should land on is the Gong Show for selling out the Veteran Teachers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-oWu8xXOA

posted by: Fred Johnson on July 13, 2010 12:18pm

Now that Urban Youth is gone its time for the Board of Education and the City to do something positive for this neighborhood: raze Urban Youth which sits on a large through block site, build a new Lincoln Basset on the cleared site, raze the old Lincoln Basset and turn that whole block into an urban green space to bring some pride, identity and hopefully, stability to that area of Newhallville. I would think that this direction would go a lot further toward good urban and neighborhood planning than new schools downtown

posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS on July 13, 2010 1:58pm

“Teachers Union Vice President David Lowe asked if Domus would act as other charter schools have, and “cream”—meaning take the best kids away from other public schools, thereby making it easy to succeed.”

This quote if accurate, is once again an example of a union promulgating BS about a high-performing, non-unionized public school model.

I’m looking forward to the day when the rank and file teachers finally figure out that their union leadership does them no favors by publicly and privately trying to undermine charter schools’ success.

The vast majority of teachers want to work in successful high performing school environments -and do right by kids. They don’t want to make excuses. They recognize that they are vital to the success of a child’s education, and they don’t like that bad teachers are protected especially at the expense of children. The data from the teacher survey bears this out.

I also think that most teachers would love to work in a high energy, demanding, exciting, collaborative, high stakes environment like Gina Well’s school, like Ilene Tracy’s school - and like Amistad Academy.

So NHFT, help lift up your members, and stop bashing high-performing charter schools.

posted by: Threefifths on July 13, 2010 5:07pm

This article hit it on the head.

Why Public Schools Need Democratic Governance.

http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v91/docs/k1003rav.pdf

posted by: Somewhere in CT (maybe New Haven, maybe not) on July 13, 2010 5:56pm

To Fix The Schools: Teacher turnover (burnout) at charter schools is very high. http://gothamschools.org/2010/07/08/charter-schools-see-higher-teacher-turnover-across-the-nation/

The demands grind down fresh teachers. Many leave after 3 years.

posted by: Real in the City on July 13, 2010 6:35pm

Best of luck to the slew of teachers entering Katherine Brennan/Clarence Rogers. The students that serve this school truly deserve the best since they have been neglected and overlooked for many years. Hopefully this is not all lip service, however, isn’t Oprah retiring? Also, I love the DVD idea as an introduction for the new year, but what about the families that may not own DVD players? This article also makes it sound as rewards and incentives are a new thing. The real challenge will be in engaging not only the classroom teachers but also the parents/first teachers.

posted by: NHresident on July 13, 2010 6:40pm

Domus(Urban Youth)will be SHARING space at the Leeder Hill School swing space in Hamden. East Rock has nothing to do with “Domus”.
Urban Youth is currently in the old MLK building on Dixwell. The idea of moving Lincoln Bassett over there is a pretty good one although it is a larger area for a park “urban green-space”

posted by: Kris on July 13, 2010 8:51pm

a DVD sent home to parents?? Whatever happened to parents going to the school to meet teachers?If its a low income area than what makes them think these folks own a DVD player?And an extra 300K for after school activities and sports??Why is every other town considering a “pay to play program” New Haven must have more money than other towns.Its sad that kids go to school 10 hours a day cause parents cant do their part and help with homework.The parents failed these children not the nh public school system.

posted by: Threefifths on July 13, 2010 10:02pm

posted by: NHresident on July 13, 2010 6:40pm

If Domus is just sharing space,Then why are they changing the school name to Domus Academy?Also the agreement was that you would take the school over,Not move the studentsto another school.

posted by: Not Happy. . . on July 14, 2010 11:09am

As a parent with young children at Highville Charter School, I am not happy with the relocation of at-risk students next door. Did the current residents (Highville and Metropolitan Business Academy) of the building have any input into this relocation?

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on July 14, 2010 2:46pm

Fred,
Those are great ideas. Here are some quick site plans I did to show possible alternatives:

Existing Conditions:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs018.snc4/34255_1367476662058_1085910074_30859365_6223021_n.jpg

Lincoln Basset remains the same, creation of one new street, a park and developable land:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs018.snc4/34255_1367476702059_1085910074_30859366_2000139_n.jpg

Lincoln Basset remains the same, creation of new create with more developable land and a small public/civic building on Dixwell:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs018.ash2/34255_1367476742060_1085910074_30859367_3869036_n.jpg

Lincoln Basset moved to Dixwell Ave, creation of a new park and developable land along a new street created from Dixwell to Sherman:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs038.snc4/34255_1367476782061_1085910074_30859368_797647_n.jpg

posted by: Fred Johnson on July 14, 2010 4:06pm

Jonathan,
Those are great schemes, thanks for taking the time to illustrate the possibilities. I would like to see more serious discussion along the lines you have illustrated. Notice how the new green spaces enhance the canal line experience from Hamden to Science Park; especially with the green space enlarged by the removal of Lincoln-Basset. I especially likie the idea of a “wooster square” urban model, if only for the future fabric of this area. My first job in architecture was to observe the construction of MLK school, originally called “Newhallville School” and I grew up in the Dixwell area before and during the Model Cities disaster.

posted by: David Low on July 15, 2010 10:12am

As a clarification, the question I asked at the BoE meeting was so that Domus could clarify their position, since they had said that they would be interviewing candidates for admission to their school, and I could already hear the grumbling in the audience. I’ve been to Domus’s Stamford Trailblazers location, and they’re doing great work down there, with a very difficult population of students. I think they’re going to do the same great work up here in New Haven with some of our most at-risk students, and I wanted them to be able to have the opportunity to clarify their admission policy, since they very much do NOT “cream” the students referred to them.

This union is by far the most interested in getting all teachers to do their jobs as any I have see or known. The protectionist garbage has to be a thing of the past. If the new Teacher Evaluation system works anything like it should, then underperforming teachers will be helped as much as they can be, to be improved, and if teaching isn’t a good fit for them, then it should become obvious through this process.

As to Domus having members of the business community on their board of directors, I’m not sure how you have a board of directors without having members of the business community on it. I’m not certain it’s evidence of much.

Domus is going to do great things: just wait and see.

posted by: David Low on July 15, 2010 12:57pm

Apologies for the typo on “see” (should be “seen”) above. BTW: I did stop by to speak with Domus CEO Craig Baker afterwards, and he said he “...recognized a soft floater” (my question) when he saw one, so he knows we’re all on the same page.

posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS on July 15, 2010 9:32pm

David Low - Thanks for the clarification. I apologize if I misunderstood the context.

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