Melissa Bailey Photo
Student activists Isaiah Lee and Jazlyn Ocasio with petitions.
More than 150 high school students are threatening to sit out a high-stakes standardized test unless officials come through with a promised meeting.
Wilbur Cross School Student Council President Lea Winter said the promise came on March 30, on the day that students were planning a public protest against “wasteful” administrative spending at their school.
Winter said administrators urged students to ditch the protest and take a more diplomatic approach: Charles Williams, the director of high schools, said he and New Haven Superintendent of Schools Reggie Mayo would meet with the student council instead. Winter agreed to the deal. She discouraged students from participating in the protest; as a result, only two dozen showed up to march to City Hall.
Now, Winter said, students are getting frustrated with a “lack of responsiveness” from the powers that be. She said she has sent Williams two emails and two phone calls requesting to set up a meeting, but “I have not heard a thing.”
“The students are getting antsy,” she said, “and we won’t be able to stop them” from pursuing a more radical approach.
Now student activists Isaiah Lee and Jazlyn Ocasio are doing just that. They’re rallying students to boycott their June quarterly assessment, the district’s standardized test, if Williams and Mayo don’t follow through with the meeting.
On Friday, the duo produced a petition with 153 signatures of students who committed to a “Quarterly Assessment Strike.”
The students said they collected the signatures for a couple of hours in school Wednesday. The list showed students from a cross-section of the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
On Friday, Williams’ secretary directed a request for comment to schools spokesman Chris Hoffman. Hoffman said the student council already met with Will Clark, the chief operating officer for the school system.
“Dr. Williams believed that the meeting with Will Clark addressed the students’ concerns,” Hoffman said. “If the student council has further concerns, they can contact Dr. Mayo’s office to set up a meeting.”
Club Disbanded; A New One Rises
Lee, an outspoken junior who led the March 30 protest, and Ocasio, a freshman, are getting involved in a new form of activism after their school-sanctioned Political Action Club was disbanded in the wake of the public demonstration.
Isaiah Lee at last month’s protest on the Green.
Hoffman said the club had to stop meeting because the advisor stepped down. Students claim the principal pressured the advisor to do so after the student protest, even though it was not sanctioned by the club. Click here for an Advocate story on the topic.
The former advisor, calculus teacher Barry Kleinfeld, declined comment for this story. Hoffman said school policy requires every student club to have an advisor; as soon as the club finds another advisor, it can start meeting again.
Members of that defunct club are taking a different route. They’re regrouping in a new coalition that Lee is calling New Haven Students for Change (NHSC). This club won’t need a teacher advisor, Lee said—it’s an independent group of students.
“The goal is to get more student involvement int he process of school reform,” Lee said.
The test boycott would be NHSC’s first action. It’s meant to supplement the work of the Student Council, Lee said.
Lee said the action comes in response to advice from Mayor John DeStefano. After the recent protest march, Lee and two fellow students camped outside the mayor’s office until he returned, then met with him for about 50 minutes. DeStefano advised them, among other idea, to go through their elected student leaders (i.e. the student council) when seeking to communicate with top administration officials about the schools.
Lee said the petitions are meant to pressure Williams into meeting with the student council.
The council, he said, tends to take a “diplomatic approach,” while “I’m a little more aggressive.”
On the day of his protest, Lee heard the call from student council leaders to call off his march so students could pursue a private meeting with the administrators instead. Lee didn’t follow the advice.
“These are politicians,” he explained. “They know how to brush things under the rug.”
“We Tried To Go Through The Ranks”
Council President Winter said the student council does “not necessarily endorse” the petition or the boycott. She said she’d have to check with fellow council members as to whether they want to get behind it.
“I do want to note that we do not necessarily agree with all the opinions of the NHSC.”
Winter, who took the diplomatic approach, said the student council now shares Lee’s and other students’ concerns.
“We understand that students at large are frustrated,” Winter said. “Frankly, the student council is frustrated” with the “lack of responsiveness” from the school system’s administration.
Winter said this is not the first time students have encountered that problem. After Cross cracked down on students using cell phones in the hallways, Williams directed Winter to come up with a proposal about appropriate use of personal electronics in school. Winter said she went through the appropriate channels: The student council drafted a proposal, got it approved by the citywide student council, then submitted it to administrators at the end of last school year.
“We tried to go through the ranks,” she said. But the students never got any reply.
Winter, a senior who’s deciding between attending Yale and Brown for college next year, is in her second year as president of the 30-person student council. Council members are elected to their posts. She said one of the council’s goals is to “get more student representation in the city.”
She said she did get the chance to sit down with Clark and a member of NHSC the week after the protest. But the student council has larger issues it would like to address with Williams and Mayo.
Their concerns include: consistency in discipline, adequate resources and tutoring, saving energy through conservation. and “more open, competent, accessible and helpful administrators.”
Among the ideas they’d like to raise with Williams is empowering young teachers to take on more administrative responsibility in the school.
They’d also like to have a student representative sit on the Board of Education, even in a non-voting capacity.
Winter said students are concerned they’re being left in the dark about changes going on in their school. Winter said she was told that information about the school reform drive is posted on the city website.
She said the council would like a greater level of communication than reading information on a website.
Winter said in the quest for a more open conversation about school reform, the council has been gathering opinions not just from NHSC but from other students and staff.
“We’re also talking to some teachers—though we’re keeping them anonymous,” she said, “so as not to endanger their jobs.”
As do many New Haven taxpayers, I believe that far too much money is spent on administrators at WCHS. Cross has around 1100 students, and yet it has 8 administrators. And the enrollment numbers don't reflect the number of students who are actually in attendance each day.
Administrators, by trying to stonewall the students, you are calling even more attention to the problem. But don't assume that you can placate these very intelligent students merely by having a meeting; you need to take their concerns seriously. If you can't justify the number of administrators, you ought to reconsider administrative staffing at the school.
Students, you run the risk of having the administration become heavy handed if you carry out your plan to boycott the quarterlies. They can require teachers to make the quarterly grades a significant part of your report card grades, giving you grades of zero if you refuse to take the test. I hope that doesn't happen, but I want you to understand the risks before you make your move.
The greater concern here is not the number of administrators; it is the perception by students that they are being mistreated, as they seemed to be when they had the peaceful demonstration, and that they lack a meaningful voice in their school. And I have one more point. The school district spokesman isn't the person who should be communicating for the administrators. They should be able to stand on their own two feet and speak for themselves.