Alders Speak Out For Brennan-Rogers

Two west-side alders and a state representative stood alongside teachers, parents, and community advocates Wednesday at a press conference calling for New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) to release a line-by-line budget breakdown — and to keep Brennan-Rogers School open.

West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith led that press conference with Westville/Amity Alder and Majority Leader Richard Furlow and State Rep. Pat Dillon at The Shack community center at 333 Valley St. 

The presser marked the latest community pushback, and the first spearheaded by elected officials, against Supt. Madeline Negrón’s new plan for trying to close a nearly $15 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

The superintendent’s most recent plan, revealed to the Board of Education on Monday, calls for the closure of Brennan-Rogers School, the elimination of vacant teacher and central office positions, the reduction in funding for athletics-related travel, and a number of other cuts in order to avoid a previously pitched plan to lay off up to 129 student-facing school staffers.

Negrón has cited the Wilmot Road PreK‑8 school’s declining enrollment – of only 132 students — as a primary reason for why it might close. The district has also decided to close Wexler-Grant school in Dixwell and merge its student body with Lincoln-Bassett in Newhallville.

“I must publicly and firmly express my opposition to such a proposal,” Alder Smith said on Wednesday about the district’s proposal to close Brennan-Rogers.

Smith said she opposes the plan because closing Brennan-Rogers would negatively impact the West Rock/West Hills community’s sense of wellbeing; because of Brennan-Rogers’ legacy as a community school; and because the school is currently used as a polling place, and shutting it down might make it more difficult for neighbors to cast their ballots.

“This school carries the legacy of a woman who dedicated her life to empowering families who were often forgotten,” Smith added about Brennan-Rogers’ namesake, Katherine Brennan.

Smith went on to emphasize that the school is in a neighborhood with six large public housing developments. She said that McConaughy Terrace has 208 school-aged children, the Valley Townhouses has 90, Westville Manor has 109, Twin Brooks has 88, Brookside has 115, and Rockview has 43. And that doesn’t include children who live in privately owned or rented properties. 

“Closing it would be a devastating blow to this community’s future,” she added.

Students may face increased absenteeism, suspensions, and lower academic performances if displaced from Brennan-Rogers and bussed elsewhere, she said.

Smith also said the school’s closure would displace the neighborhood diaper bank and health care supports.

Reached for comment Wednesday, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon told the Independent that Brennan-Rogers is a magnet school. He said students from all over the city can apply to attend, though the school is not open to students from outside New Haven. 

Of Brennan-Rogers’ 132 registered students, 46 in total — or 34 percent — live in the school’s neighborhood, according to Harmon. 

He also noted that the district is working to create a more detailed budget book but does not expect it to be complete before this week.

Also at Wednesday’s press conference, State Rep. Dillon said she’s witnessed first-hand the consequences of ​“the lack of communication between the Board of Education and our own delegation.” 

“All of a sudden, at the last minute people, were saying we want X money, but they were doing it at press conferences and nobody had spoken to us,” she said. ​“I think we should sit down in a room [and] go over every single line the same way we do the state budget.”

She said she thinks communication is not in a healthy place and should be addressed. ​“I’m not here to make any promises,” Dillon, a former alder, added, ​“except to say I do think having been on both sides of this that we need to look over the budget piece by piece.”

Other speakers at Wednesday’s press conference included Alder Furlow, Westville’s Dennis Serfilippi, former city alder Portia Jenkins and her brother Gregory Jenkins, and Brennan-Rogers staffers Charlene Neal-Palmer and Kristin Kazakewic. 

Serfilippi criticized Negrón and Mayor Justin Elicker for not coming up with a detailed budget-mitigation plan sooner for the school district, and he called for NHPS to publicly provide a detailed operating budget for the school district. 

Furlow agreed that a detailed NHPS budget analysis is needed. ​“We’re going to get the answers,” he said. ​“And we’re going to keep asking the questions until the answers make sense.”

In regards to Brennan-Rogers’ potential closure, Furlow said, ​“I do have a concern about removing a resource from an area that is lacking resources… I think this is more than about a school closing. It is about creating and maintaining an area, a neighborhood, a community that needs to remain vibrant” like East Rock, Westville, and Edgewood.

Kazakewic, an educator at Brennan-Rogers for the past 15 years, said Wednesday, ​“Dr. Negrón stated that she understands the impact closing would have on our students, but does she really? Does she know what it’s like to go to the home of your kindergarten student in the morning after his mom tragically passed away, and to feel the tightness of his little arms wrapped around your neck? I do.”

Brennan-Rogers Principal Kim Danely joined staff during Wednesday’s presser. She said she understands the district has a budget deficit to mitigate, but is ​“hoping they can find a way to protect our school, the community, and dedicated employees’ jobs.” 

West Hills native Gregory Jenkins said that, when he was growing up, he went to open gym at Brennan-Rogers with others in the neighborhood, ​“That gym was everything we had. It’s what kept us out of trouble,” he said. ​“This is criminal. At the end of the day, kids are a product of their environment, so what are they going to do?”

Smith concluded that several Brennan-Rogers staffers have reached out to her to get resources for their students over the years. She concluded that, without Brennan-Rogers’ staff’s ​“first contact with these kids, they would be lost.”