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Abdellah Aly: "I'll be honest. I've seen it. It gets boring in class."
Abdellah Aly, a rising junior at Hill Regional Career High School, is on a mission to introduce more peer-to-peer tutoring to help make high school more academically rigorous for New Haven public school students — as he steps into the role of the newest student representative on the Board of Education.
Aly spoke about that goal Monday night after being sworn in during the latest full Board of Education meeting, which took place in person at John C. Daniels School and online via Zoom.
Aly ran unopposed for the seat recently vacated by Wilbur Cross grad John Carlos Serana Musser, who encouraged Aly to run for the role. Aly now joins High School in the Community student Jonaily Colón in a student-rep position that has a two-year term, but no voting powers, on the school board.
Over the past year, Aly said he has observed Colón and Serana Musser as they’ve led the district’s citywide student council and participated in advocacy efforts at the state for increased public education funding, all as school buildings have been at the center of a district-wide fight around maintenance and conditions.
Aly said he heard time and again during his sophomore year from students who are concerned about how the public school district spends its budget, about “broken buildings that have not been fixed,” and about unfulfilled promises to address students’ needs.
One of those needs, Aly said, is a more academically rigorous education for students.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve seen it. It gets boring in class. We are still just watching teachers write on a board and they tell us to copy it down and that’s supposed to be learning,” he said.
To address the issue, Aly hopes in his new role as student rep to get support from his colleagues to introduce a tutoring initiative that will focus not just on helping students catch up on learning, but also help them get ahead.
He sees such an academic-support initiative being student led. It would also have a focus on helping with standardized testing sessions to better prepare high schoolers for the SATs and ACTs.
Another goal Aly has is to work with the district’s leadership to encourage more offerings for college and career readiness that go beyond the current healthcare and trades focuses.
He hopes to see more opportunities for students interested in business that would allow them to intern or be introduced to careers, like that of a certified public accountant. He noted that these offerings could be done through investments and partnerships with Gateway Community College, which offers business courses.
He did express concern Monday about the large commitment it is to serve as student rep. “It feels great to be here, but then also the hours are kind of crazy. It’s almost 9 o’clock right now and I should be going to bed soon,” he said.
To remain connected with as many New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) students as possible, Aly hopes to distribute flyers to all school principals that provide a QR code for students to scan to sign up for tutoring and/or express personal concerns they have in their buildings. Aly hopes to create a ticket-like system for students to enter when they request academic support. He also sees such tutoring being offered in-person and online, depending on students’ preferences.
“I want to make sure this is a permanent thing before I leave high school. I have a two-year limit,” he said.