nothin School Shrinks As Teen Moms Mainstream | New Haven Independent

School Shrinks As Teen Moms Mainstream

Melissa Bailey Photo

McCabe’s Carberry: Times have changed for the better.

The Board of Education is considering shutting down a building for one school and letting another stay in its North Haven facilities.

The board’s finance committee debated these plans as part of a five-hour discussion Monday afternoon on how to cut costs and better invest money in school programs and initiatives. The five members in attendance came to a consensus that Polly McCabe Center should continue its services to pregnant teens without operating out of a building, and that Hyde School of Health Sciences and Sports Medicine should stay in North Haven instead of being incorporated into an existing school in New Haven.

A committee of Polly McCabe staff and district officials has been meeting to decide its future, said Billy Johnson, district director of instruction, at the meeting. Right now, just four students are being educated at Polly McCabe’s building at 400 Canner St. — way fewer than the number of pregnant students in the district overall, he said.

The center’s Principal Belinda Carberry was not at Monday’s meeting. When contacted by the Independent Wednesday, she said in recent years more and more students have chosen to receive services including counseling, health education and social/emotional support in their original, mainstream schools .

Johnson (left): Close Polly McCabe’s building, keep the program.

This year, school leaders tried to get pregnant students back into mainstream schools as quickly as possible after they gave birth and were ready to continue learning in a school, she said. They get better academic support in mainstream schools, which also have more electives such as art, physical education and language classes, she said. Polly McCabe does not have those electives.

I look at it as a gain,” she said about the potential for all pregnant teens to be in mainstream schools.

Besides the four students being educated at Polly McCabe’s Canner Street center, two are on bed rest before delivery and two others just delivered their babies. One student is scheduled for intake next Tuesday, she said.

The state pays about $175,000 annually for services for Polly McCabe students and would continue to provide wraparound services for students in the program, Johnson said at Monday’s meeting. The program will keep its name — but not a central building.

The stigma of being a pregnant teenager has changed over the years, said Carberry and Polly McCabe counselor Irma Davis. When Polly McCabe was first founded in 1966, students were not allowed to go to other schools when pregnant, Davis said.

And pregnant students worried that teachers and other students would look down on them, Carberry said.

People thought of teen pregnancy as something contagious” — that one pregnant teen would encourage others to get pregnant, Davis said. The federal Title IX law requires that pregnant students get the same education and academic services as everyone else, which helped make it more acceptable” for pregnant students to be in mainstream schools, she said.

And more pregnant students from mainstream schools sought out Polly McCabe services, which are funded by the state, Carberry said.

Ariela Martin Photo

Former Polly McCabe students Elaina Williams, Angelica Santiago, & Kendra Tate.

Shutting down the center would mean a cost reduction of $135,306 for the principal’s salary, Johnson said.

The center currently has six staff members who provide services for pregnant teens across the district, including two outreach workers and one social worker, Carberry said. School leaders asked the district to increase that number to three outreach workers and two social workers for next year.

Board member Ed Joyner said Carberry is an experienced administrator who should be put in a place with more responsibility” than a four-student school. Carberry would not say Wednesday where she hopes to be next year.

Pregnant middle school students who don’t want to attend mainstream schools will be able to learn separately within their schools through Homebound, which offers instruction for students who need different learning structures due to expulsion or illness. Superintendent Garth Harries said Monday that Homebound is being revamped for next year.

And officials will brainstorm places to open another daycare for children of pregnant students next year — which could be in Hillhouse or in the new Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School on Goffe Street. The only existing daycare in a mainstream school is at Wilbur Cross High School on Mitchell Drive.

Board members agreed to Johnson’s proposal. We’re mainstreaming the girls. That’s a good thing,” said the Board of Ed’s finance committee chair, Darnell Goldson.

Keeping Creed

Aliyya Swaby Photo

Parrish (right): Don’t consolidate Hyde with another school.

Chief Financial Officer Victor De La Paz submitted before the Board of Education a list of secondary potential cuts and investments for the fiscal year starting July 1, in case the first round proves inadequate to balance the budget.

On that part of the list is the consolidation of Hyde School of Health Sciences and Sports Medicine — recently renamed the Cortland V.R. Creed Health and Sports Sciences High School — into an existing building in New Haven. A damaged roof at its former home on Long Wharf in 2013 drove the school community into a North Haven building owned by Gateway Community College.

Superintendent Harries said the district may be able to save $727,000 by bringing Creed School home and eliminating transportation to
North Haven, as well as operational costs of that building. Past proposals recommended it be consolidated into Hillhouse High School’s building, or move into St. Stanislaus Church on Eld Street.

Zakia Parrish, principal of Creed School, said she was previously told the school would not be consolidated into another school’s building — which she said would be a poor substitute to having its own in New Haven.

I don’t want to waste my teachers’ time. I don’t want to waste my time if that’s the eventual outcome they want,” she said.

Since becoming principal in 2013, Parrish has raised graduation rates and PSAT/SAT scores, among the most significantly in the district,” Harries said.

What is the existing building you’re proposed us moving into?” she said.

There is no plan for a long-term facility at this point, Harries said. Though critics call the 200-student school too small, he said he is committed to preserving it. Enrollment will jump to 250 next year, and the number of applicants for the magnet school has increased by 25 percent this year compared to last, he said.

Harries said he put the proposal on the list in case the board felt it was a necessary cut, but that he wants to keep it going.

District Director of Instruction Gil Traverso said he was disappointed” it was on the agenda at all. I’m trying to contain my emotions because of how upset I am this is here,” he said. Parrish has worked hard to improve the school; consolidating it into another school would negatively impact many of our students,” he said.

Nast said given the commentary from district and building leaders, he would recommend that item be taken off the list. Other board members agreed.

Click below to hear an interview WNHH host Alisa Bowen conducted with Polly McCabe Principal Carberry this winter.

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