Goeler’s Goodbye Call: Keep It Civil

Jody Goeler has a message for his successor as they pick up the unfinished work of desegregating Hamden’s schools: Have a strong set of beliefs — and learn how to listen to others.

Goeler announced his plan to retire Monday following eight years of service as the town’s superintendent of schools. On Tuesday, Hamden’s Board of Education accepted his resignation — but Goeler agreed to stay in his role through the end of the school year. The BOE will serve as a search committee for the purpose of identifying Goeler’s permanent replacement and determine again in June whether or not to keep Goeler in charge until the following December. 

Throughout a four-decade career defined by political twists and turns at the local, state and national levels, Goeler said, he has preserved school spirit — and personal sanity — by remembering: ​“Public education is at the frontline of saving our democracy.”

Goeler’s career began as a Long Island English teacher and included stops in New Milford, West Hartford, Avon, and, finally, Hamden school systems. He said the most important challenge within the field of public education is to avoid the political ​“pendulum” that ​“swings left, then right, then left again, then right again,” and to center on the community’s ​“north star.”

Unlike in other districts, Hamden’s ​“north star has been the same north star since I’ve gotten here,” Goeler said: desegregating students in a changing school system. 

Hamden has struggled for years with a question: How do you diversify classrooms when a town’s neighborhoods are deeply divided?

While the 2020 census revealed Hamden’s adult population to be 57 percent white, youth demographics show an increasingly diverse city. Kids under 18 are 33 percent white, 30 percent Black, 21 percent Latino, and 7 percent Asian.

Hamden’s elementary schools show widely different compositions of students, with most students of color and children of immigrants housed in schools located in Southern Hamden. Many disabled students are concentrated at Wintergreen, a separate facility in the northern end of town.

Figuring out how to provide a ​“wide array of services to a wide array of students” will remain the town’s top goal moving forward, with or without Goeler. That’s been made clear by a new mayor, Legislative Council, and group of Board of Education members who met Monday night to discuss the future of Hamden’s ​“3R” initiative. That ever-evolving plan involves potentially closing or selling schools to achieve something closer to racial balance across the district while better integrating disabled students into general education classrooms and offering more early child care — all, of course, without surpassing the limitations of the BOE’s budget.

The town’s north star may have stayed the same over time, but the solutions its leaders and community members are putting forward to reach it have shifted.

“Before the pandemic hit, the previous board looked at closing Church Street and Shepherd Glen,” Goeler said. That would have meant shutting down two of the town’s most diverse and beloved neighborhood schools.

“When the pandemic hit, people began to realize how important it is to have these schools,” Goeler argued. New task forces, like the Hamden Diversity Advisory Council, came together to compile fresh input and focus energy on more equitable answers to systemic problems. Former Mayor Curt Leng, who lost to new Mayor Lauren Garrett last November, negotiated a new deal to sell Wintergreen last summer in order to preserve Church Street and Shepherd Glen (though that sale has yet to be finalized). 

Goeler had hit 37.5 years in public education by March 2020, the point at which Connecticut schools staff no longer draw from teacher retirement. He put off retirement, he said, because he became busy with ​“setting up meal distribution sites, getting Chromebooks to kids, and figuring out remote learning.”

“The last thing I had to do at that point was say, ​‘Hey everybody, I’m retiring,’ ” Goeler said.

The past two years have brought unprecedented challenges — and opportunities — to Goeler and Hamden’s families.

The 2021 – 2022 school year, for example, has seen a surge in a new variant of Covid-19, televised conversations about growing behavioral issues, Snapchat-spread gun violence threats, staff shortages, school closures, and the implementation of metal detectors in Hamden High to screen students for weapons.

The community’s reliance and devotion to social media and big tech, he noted, have fueled anger, misinformation, and distrust. ​“I’m very easy access for people to blow off steam,” he said, laughing at a post he recently saw on Facebook that said, ​“Rather than giving people chapstick we should give them glue sticks.” The school supply pun hit home.

Despite Hamden’s incessant fighting by government officials, several wins have emerged between memes and zingers spread by Council and Board of Ed members. They’ve come about thanks to feedback and dialogue among kids, parents, staff, and community leaders.

Pandemic money, for instance, allowed Goeler and his administration to invest in robust summer programming and free breakfasts and lunches for all Hamden kids — without the previous ​“shaming involved in filling out free and reduced lunch forms.” 

“It’s helped this community recognize the value of our public schools and what public schools can and should provide,” Goeler said. It’s not just about ​“math and literacy,” he asserted. It’s about mental health support; child care; nourishment; creative expression.

In a recent interview with the New Haven Independent, Middle School Principal Michelle Coogan pointed to a sense of renewed autonomy on the part of teachers thanks, in part, to the restrictions forced upon schools by Covid. The district now prioritizes social emotional learning, teaching kids not just how to think about academics, but how to communicate their mental health; to meditate; to advocate for themselves.

It’s also about civics, Goeler said.

“When I was growing up we talked about being citizens. Nowadays we talk about being taxpayers,” he lamented. ​“Part of being a citizen is being a taxpayer, but there’s a whole lot more: Being engaged in your community, caring about your neighbors, listening to other points of view, not dismissing others because of their point of view, going to town meetings, knowing that the levers of government are.”

Mariam Khan represents the hope in Goeler’s words. Khan served as a non-voting student member of the BOE while a Hamden High student — then made it onto the Board last November as a Yale sophomore. She was part of the first Democratic Socialist slate to ever run in Connecticut, and has stated intent to bring participatory budgeting to Hamden students within the next two years.

In general, Goeler argued, raising more Khan-like kids means getting more support services to families.

Children socialize and learn about community in school. Adults participate in politics and local issues when they have the time outside of work and parenting to do so.

That’s why Goeler said he hopes to see the next superintendent follow through on 3Rs’ founding ideal: To institute universal Pre‑K. Hamden currently cares for 167 pre-schoolers across Hamden. The hope is to offer early education for all four-year-olds.

Though Goeler is slated to leave Jan. 28, he could potentially be hired back at 45 percent of his salary to serve as interim superintendent through June 30. On July 1, the BOE could once again vote to bring him back through December of 2022.

“I’m not packing my bags and moving to Florida,” Goeler said. ​“I live in Hamden, I’m expecting to continue living in Hamden.” He said that he will stay on temporarily if the Board requires his support. ​“I care deeply for this community and the work we’re doing,” Goeler stated.

“I don’t know at this point what my plans are… I never thought I was a retirement person” he said about what comes next. ​“But I have my health, I have my energy and I still have my passion.”