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DuBois-Walton outside Edgewood: Elicker has not built trust.
New Haven schools should eliminate Wednesdays as a remote learning day, so parents don’t have to juggle work plus their kids’ hybrid learning schedule.
Mayoral challenger Karen DuBois-Walton issued this call Wednesday and blamed incumbent Justin Elicker for failing to build consensus to fully reopen schools sooner.
“The folks on the ground, who were in the buildings, knew that soap wasn’t in the dispensers yet and the HVAC systems hadn’t been inspected in years. Good plans and leadership engender trust,” DuBois-Walton said at the press conference, held outside Edgewood School.
New Haven Public Schools was the only district in Connecticut not to offer any in-person classes in September. The Board of Education voted to delay reopening in-person on a 4 – 3 vote, with Elicker voting for reopening.
DuBois-Walton pointed to decreased enrollment, falling grades and increased student absenteeism as results of that delay.
She didn’t blame those who voted to delay reopening. (Some of the board members most hesitant to reopen schools were early donors to DuBois-Walton’s campaign.) Instead, she argued that everyone would have gotten on the same page to reopen if schools were clearly safe.
Elicker responded in a separate interview that he defers to New Haven Public Schools Superintendent Iline Tracey to run the school system and that he is only one vote among seven on the Board of Education. When city aid seems called for, he steps in, he said.
“When there were concerns raised about some school infrastructure not being ready, the health, fire and building departments began inspections to ensure schools were safe,” Elicker said. “The other candidate has had countless opportunities to raise her concerns over the past year and a half. She has not once testified at a Board of Education meeting, while the rest of us have been working around the clock to ensure we are making safe decisions.”
The city Youth and Recreation Department is deeply involved in school “Summer of Fun” plans as well, he said. The goal with the extensive summer school and weekend activity programming is to reengage students and families with school, rebuild trust, and help students accelerate their learning after pandemic school slides.
Walton responded to Elicker’s criticism by saying she has been asking Elicker privately to reopen schools since the summer.
Five Days — For The Families
Edgewood mom Randi McCray: I need one place for my children to go.
DuBois-Walton said at her event Wednesday outside Edgewood that the STEM and arts-focused magnet school was empty except for an assistant building manager cleaning the classrooms, bathrooms and hallways. Teachers, paraprofessionals and students learn remotely on Wednesdays while this cleaning regimen goes on.
Press conference guest Randi McCray said her children would return to in-person classes at Edgewood if not for this remote day. Instead, the consultant and business owner drops her sixth graders off at the Boys & Girls Club of New Haven’s learning hub. There they learn remotely via their district-issued Chromebooks, with college students and club employees nearby to help with questions.
It’s not the same as being in the same room as teachers and friends at Edgewood, McCray said. The learning hub is five days a week, though, and McCray doesn’t have to worry about her children while she is working.
Four days at Edgewood and one day at the Boys & Girls Club wasn’t an option. This would ruin the small cohorts of students both places are using to track and limit the spread of Covid-19.
“They need to have one consistent place to go five days a week. They can’t go back and forth,” McCray said. “We need a New Haven for all. Many solutions the district comes up with only work for certain parents.”
Davis Street mom Delores Williams: Remote school has challenged my relationships.
Delores Williams is also a business owner, one of the two women behind the bookstore People Get Ready. She has leaned on her business partner and husband more to handle the new childcare responsibilities during the pandemic. Her business partner, Lauren Anderson, has established a daily story hour to read to Williams’ children and others watching via Facebook.
Williams is battling the depression she sees in her sixth-grade daughter and third-grade son. The story hour made all the difference, she said.
Williams’ children attend Davis Street School four days a week. Her husband teleworks and can watch them on the remote Wednesdays.
“He and I try to figure it out and try not to argue in the process,” Williams said.
Williams criticized Elicker for promising to prevent squabbling on the Board of Education and failing to deliver the unity he promised.
DuBois-Walton argued that the intensive cleaning schedule that happens on Wednesday could occur without closing school for the day. She called for five days of in-person school for the rest of the school year and next year. She thinks New Haven should still offer a remote option for students.
Elicker responded that the remote day is important for planning and professional development for teachers facing the Herculean task of teaching remote and in-person students at the same time. He said that the district is planning to reopen five days a week in the fall. Whether there will be a remote option depends on the health situation.
While I am no fan of Elicker and think that schools should have been opened long ago, Dubois-Walton's hypocrisy on this issue is shameless and boundless. Her core supporters, including two members of the BOE, Sarah Miller, et al, are the very people who fought hardest to keep schools closed, regardless of what safety measures were in place. They hurt every child in New Haven and remain unapologetic. Now Dubois-Walton has the audacity to criticize Elicker for not standing up to her bullying supporters?