Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Second-grade teacher Tori Luageni.
“I’m a proud parent of Church Street School!” Family Engagement Coordinator Hector Velazquez declared Monday at a drive-through graduation ceremony he organized.
All of the elementary school students, from kindergarten to sixth grade, were invited to Church Street’s socially distanced parade in order to celebrate the end of the school year.
The first hour was dedicated to the 47 sixth-graders who are moving on to middle school in the fall.
Hector Velazquez.
Velazquez, who works as the primary liaison between students’ families and the school, is not only a father figure to the school community but a dad to a sixth grader graduating from Church Street this month.
Hector Velazquez’s car.
“If this was a normal graduation, I’d be hollerin’ and screamin,’ here’d be flowers and balloons!” said Velasquez. Instead, he decorated their car with banners, pom-poms, and a sparkly gold “Woohoo” decal.
“She is gonna be someone big in this world,” he said of his daughter.
Faculty at the graduation.
In lieu of a standard ceremony, staff and faculty came together after months of isolation to offer an alternative. Principal Karen Butler originated the idea, Velazquez saw to the details, and teachers created posters and decorated the front of the school.
They also created a video full of photographs and memories from the school year as well as “words of affirmation” from teachers.
“It’s a monumental event,” Velazquez reflected. “Next comes middle school, then high school.” His oldest daughter also graduates from Southern Connecticut State University this year, though the date for that ceremony is still tentative.
“I’m overwhelmed,” stated Velazquez.
In addition to celebratory excitement, Velazquez estimates that his workload has increased “three to four times” over the past few months.
“Everybody’s confused,” he explained.
As students and their guardians attempted to navigate online learning, Valezquez made his phone number available to the school’s families.
He filmed videos in both Spanish and English to instruct families on how to use Chromebrooks and other technology, often going through the steps over and over again during calls with individual families.
He also worked with Hamden CERT, Hamden Community Development Manager Adam Sendroff, Hamden Public School’s Superintendent Jody Goeler, the Hamden Police Department, and others to focus on effectively distributing food from the CT food bank throughout the pandemic.
This meant packing up enough individual bags of groceries to feed at least 350 families in the area.
While Velazquez focused on engaging and supporting his community, he worried about the fact that his daughter was not engaging with anybody outside of her parents.
“She texts her peers, but they’re not always around; so she starts asking us the questions that would usually be aimed at a tutor or teacher.” Velazquez and his wife, who is a preschool director in East Haven, found themselves not only working within two distinct school systems but creating a smaller one within their home.
Velazquez fixed the basement so it could operate as an office. His daughter’s bedroom became a second classroom.
“We’re adapting,” he suggested. “It’s a whole new world.”
Camila Vera’s car.
Students also noted the heightened tension felt in their households since March.
Sixth grader Camila Vera shyly confessed, “it’s a kinda stressful time.”
“Usually being at home means being close to people you love and having fun around them,” she pointed out. But with all of her siblings crowded into one house while trying to complete the school year from home, familial closeness has started to feel less comfortable.
Over the summer, she hopes to move to New York for a while to stay with her cousins.
Her mother had only one word with which to describe the last several weeks: “Stressful.”
Victoria Clavero grabs a goody bag as she exits the drive-thru.
Another student, Victoria Clavero, said that the difficult part of schooling through the pandemic was that “the teachers are not really there.” She was just “really happy to see them all one last time” at the graduation ceremony.
Natalia Borzillo and mother Stacey Grant.
Their peer, Natalia Borzillo, admitted that she “would love to have the graduation that other sixth graders have had.”
She recalled the past few months as focused on “just answering questions,” without the fun of interactive activities. As an aspiring medical student, she has missed “science experiments” and hands-on learning opportunities.
However, Borzillo is optimistic about the future and excited for “more challenges” in seventh grade. Specifically, she wants to start learning a new language, hopefully Spanish.
“She’s very independent,” said her mother, Stacey Grant. “She’s actually already been learning German through language apps.”
“We just make sure to communicate regularly,” Grant remarked. She herself is a current student pursuing work in human services.
Grant noted a silver lining to the hardships of working from home: “We’ve actually gotten to spend more time together.”
Second-grade teacher Tori Luageni commented on the difficulties of connecting with students online. “There’s no way to know if they’re doing OK, socially and emotionally, through a video screen,” she stated.
“We’ve been online for so long; it’s really special to come face to face again,” she added.
Staff-collected rental instruments.
First-year music teacher Emily Lombardo described how teachers have stayed in touch with and supporting one another during the crisis.
“Tomorrow is trivia night, I think!” she mused while describing the School Connectedness Committee, which has been putting together digital events.
As Lombardo cheered and waved to the graduates, she exclaimed, “Children just make me so freakin’ happy!”
Likewise, she remembered how many kids described music and other “specials classes as the highlight of their week.”
Contemplating her growth over the course of the year, she said, “I feel like I went from a first-year teacher to a college professor!”
