Laura Glesby photo
The mayor and superintendent greet new and old Lincoln-Bassett students.
On Jai’ana Henderson’s first day of fourth grade Thursday, she found familiar faces in an unfamiliar school building, now that her old school Wexler-Grant has merged with Lincoln-Bassett.
Jai’ana’s mom, Kiana McCoy, had been nervous about the merger. It helped to see her daughter’s confidence on Thursday morning. “She’s OK, so I feel OK,” McCoy said.
Jai’ana was one of over 200 students who used to attend Wexler-Grant School in Dixwell before New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) administration decided in March to merge that school with Lincoln-Bassett Community School amid under-enrollment and budgetary pressures.
As of March, the combined PreK‑8 school at Lincoln-Bassett was expected to have roughly 470 students this year.
NHPS Supt. Madeline Negrón, Mayor Justin Elicker, and a host of school officials and community volunteers kicked off the first year of the newly merged school by cheering on students at the door and checking in with them during classroom visits.
Jai’ana: Ready to read.
“This is a big change,” observed McCoy as Jai’ana prepared to walk inside the Lincoln-Bassett building on Bassett Street in Newhallville after years at Wexler-Grant.
At first, McCoy said, she felt apprehensive on behalf of her daughter. “I feel like the parents didn’t get a say,” she said of the school merger. Over time, though, she spoke with parents who had already been sending their kids to Lincoln-Bassett. “I heard it’s a really, really great school,” that the educators care and have no tolerance for bullying, she said.
“One of my teachers in third grade said this school hasn’t been in a fight in 15 years,” said Jai’ana.
Even though her mom had worried, Jai’ana said she’s excited about the new school year, especially about reading. She waved hello to her Wexler-Grant friends as she headed to the school’s front doors.
Siblings Jeremiah and Naveah.
Some students were new to Lincoln-Bassett not because they had come from Wexler-Grant, but because they were starting elementary school for the first time — like incoming kindergartener Naveah.
Naveah said she felt excited for school, along with her older brother, new fifth-grader Jeremiah. Asked what advice he has for his sister as she starts school, Jeremiah turned to her with a grin and said, “to behave.”
Meanwhile, alongside the parents and caregivers who were new to Lincoln-Bassett stood parents and caregivers who have generational ties to the school.
As Kayan Fairweather dropped off her niece, Sabrina, for the first day of second grade on Thursday morning, she recalled her own experience attending the elementary school. “I know the teachers have changed, but to me, it was an amazing school,” Fairweather said. “The teachers are caring and dedicated.”
Sabrina started at Lincoln-Bassett last year, in first grade, after moving to New Haven from Jamaica. Fairweather recalled how Sabrina’s teacher, Ms. Walden, became a source of support and consistency through a challenging transition. Fairweather said she’s grateful that Sabrina has Ms. Walden again this year for second grade.
Jai’ana, Naveah, Jeremiah, Sabrina, and hundreds of their schoolmates were greeted by a team of school community members, city officials, and volunteers at the door.
“Happy first day of school!” Negrón and Elicker said to student after student, while members of Yale’s Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter cheered the kids on.
Brittaney Luchini: Even teachers get nervous!
Soon, Elicker and Negrón popped by classrooms throughout the building to say hello.
Students in Hailey Young’s second grade classroom and Brittaney Luchini’s first grade classroom all started off the day reflecting on their own emotions about the start of the new school year.
Luchini read a book called First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg, which follow’s one protagonist’s worries about the first day of school, before revealing (spoiler alert) that the worried protagonist isn’t a student but a teacher!
“It’s OK to be nervous,” Luchini told the classroom. “Some of us, this is our new school.”
Meanwhile down the hall, Young’s second graders kicked off the morning by coloring in faces on a worksheet about different human emotions, including “happy,” “sad,” “calm,” and “frustrating.” Most drew with expressionistic bursts of color: around the classroom, “happy” faces sprouted rainbow-striped hair while “sad” faces turned bright red or blue.
Second grader Cruz showed Elicker the happy, sad, and calm faces on his worksheet. “I was a little nervous, but now I’m happy,” he explained.
“That’s the first day of school,” replied Elicker with a nod.
Minneapolis Shooting On The Mind
Dr. Negrón hears about one student's happiness for the new school year.
Aside from the merger, one source of anxiety for some parents and caregivers was a recent spate of violence in the city — along with the school shooting a day prior at a Minneapolis Catholic school, in which the perpetrator killed two children and injured 14 other kids along with three adults.
“I need to make sure when I drop her off today, I can pick her up at the end of the day,” Fairweather said of her niece.
“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. It’s my worst nightmare,” Elicker said of the Minneapolis shooting at a press conference outside Lincoln-Bassett on Thursday morning.
“Every one of our police officers gets active shooting training in a school,” Elicker said. “We have done inspections of all of our schools” for safety — ensuring, for instance, that doors close and that cameras are on. (Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on NBC’s Today Show that the shooter’s inability to open the church doors “likely saved countless lives.”)
Meanwhile, according to Negrón, school employees are trained to ensure “that everyone who is in the building is supposed to be in the building.”
Sgt. Jarrell Lowery said that police patrol the area around the school while employing a School Resource Officer within the school in collaboration with security.
Elicker said that there’s a limit to what city governments and school districts can do to protect kids given the ease of acquiring mass shooting weaponry across the country. He noted that the shooter appears to have legally purchased the multiple firearms she used in the shooting.
Both Elicker and Negrón called for more gun control in the country.
“Arms should not be so accessible,” said Negrón
Still, “as much as we could possibly prepare for the situation, we are prepared for the situation,” Elicker said.