Cuts Claim Miracle Woodshop

Georges Clermont looks for the beauty in what’s damaged — whether the material is wood, or a young person who failed to thrive in other New Haven schools.

He has been turning beat-up wood into violins and neglected kids into craftsmen in a shop inside an alternative high school, but budget cuts have now cut his experiment short.

For the last four years, Clermont has directed the Pallet Project, which teaches students at Riverside Opportunity High School how to salvage wood from industrial shipping platforms, chop it up and build their own projects. The class works together on a line of products that can be sold throughout the city, like benches or planters, and students tinker individually on their own project. In some cases, the work transforms their lives as well.

Within the building, Clermont’s shop is seen as an attraction that keeps kids coming to school. It’s an outlet for physical activity, and it’s a separate room to talk. Clermont tells students they can’t come in if they misbehave in their other classes.

“If you don’t handle your business out there, you’re not coming in here,” he says.

In fact, the shop might even be too much of a draw. Some faculty grumble to Clermont that students are skipping class just to get an extra half-hour with him. But Clermont thinks that’s all right: at least they’re in school, he reasons.

In a way, the Pallet Project grooves with what’s happening in the students’ own lives.

Riverside is the destination for New Haven’s most troubled children. Pushed out of other high schools, they’ve been told this is their last chance to get it right.

In Clermont’s wood shop, they learn that discarded material isn’t worthless. With some repairs — chopping off the weakened cracks, removing rusted nails, smoothing down the edges — almost any piece can be transformed into something of value.

Friday will be his last day at Riverside.

Consolidation

Budget cuts straining the entire school district led to the end of the Pallet Project.

Part-time staff across New Haven’s schools received termination notices over the summer. A significant portion haven’t been called back. Given a budget crunch, all new hires and contracts are being reviewed at central office. Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks said that the district has to focus on ​“core school and student needs and education responsibilities.” Administrators are asking schools to make do without or find an alternative way to pay for what they want. Some exceptions can be made if a principal can justify a program that fits with student needs.

“Additional review of staffing, part-time budgets and programs; analysis of all expenditures being linked to core activities; as well as review of all potential revenue streams and grant opportunities remain a focal point of our efforts,” Birks said in a statement, ​“as we continue to work to balance the current budget and project to future balanced budgets.”

After the consolidation, Riverside’s budget for part-time staff and supplies doubled from $10,360 to $24,570, while its population is projected to increase from 80 students to about 130 students. It’s up to Principal Larry Conaway to decide how to allocate that pot of money.

“The consolidation [of the alternative schools] has resulted in a redistribution of part-time and supply line budgets, which have increased the amount available at the Riverside program from years past,” Birks added in her statement. ​“As with all expenditures, however, review of program dollars and purchasing is scrutinized in order to insure the core elements of the program are met. Leveraging available resources to support effective programming remains a critical focus, as is scrutinizing and adjusting expenditures that may need to be re-designated and reduced based on sustainability, effectiveness and the fiscal realities we are facing.”

With the need for extra supplies for the additional students, Riverside is still down five part-timers, including a teaching aide, a music instructor, and a woodworking instructor.

Clermont wanted to stay on, and Conaway tried to make it work. So far this school year, Clermont worked without a district paycheck, hoping to sell off enough finished work from the shop to make ends meet.

But his family’s bills finally caught up with him. Later this month, he’ll be taking a full-time job as an architect for a small firm.

Popping In

Clermont did what he could to ready Riverside students for construction jobs, while also providing them with a sense of beauty and accomplishment.

“These kids are coming from schools that have just been renovated. They have whiteboards and big windows,” Clermont said last week. He was standing by the school’s back door, looking out onto the West River marshes. It’s where he does most of his work, because inside, the shop is technically just a big storage room without the right ventilation. ​“Now, OK,” he continued, ​“this is their last chance.”

During the day’s first period change, Rich peeked into the shop, as students often do when looking for someone to vent. Clermont noticed a cast on his arm. ​“What happened to your wrist?” he asked.

“I got tackled,” said Rich. (As with other students in this article, his name has been changed to protect his privacy.)

“How did you get tackled?”

“I was out of bounds.”

“Oh, you were playing football,” Clermont suggested, even though he knew it wasn’t true.

Rich said he’d been taken down by the staff at the group home where he lived. He fidgeted with the waistband of his sweatpants. ​“I was out of bounds,” Rich repeated, and he headed off to his next class.

A second student, Luis, walked in and paced around. He put his hands on everything in the room. Luis picked up a thin piece of wood and whipped the air. He placed a wider board between two beams in the ceiling and, like a gymnast, pulled down to test its give. He felt the edge of a blade, and he drilled a hole in a plank.

Luis had been in alternative schools almost all his life. While at Domus Academy, an alternative middle school that used to be next door, he and his buddies used to steal Clermont’s pallets to climb onto the roof. He said he likes Riverside better, because the adults there care about whether students are learning, not just whether they’re following the rules.

Now Luis hangs out in the shop whenever he can, sometimes skipping out of classes. What would he do without Clermont there? ​“Hide in the hallways,” he said.

Clermont has tried to get Luis to focus on completing projects. The teen finished a working skateboard last year, but a big set of dominoes sat unmarked. Last week, Luis held palets at an angle while Clermont tore through the nails that held it together with a Sawzall.

More students showed up later to trim the pieces down to size.

One of the boys, Jose, asked if Clermont knew of any construction jobs after school. He said his dad had sent him a letter from prison. Jose didn’t know when he’d be coming home, but he wanted to start saving up.

Knowing his way around the machines in the shop, he took on the most dangerous task of shaving down the pieces on a table saw, where molten nails fly off a churning blade like air-gun pellets. Jose sniffed a pair of goggles, strapped them on, and replaced his baseball cap on his head. Then, he donned a long white coat over his tank top.

Most of the pieces went through smoothly, but a few curved planks caught the saw’s teeth, sending the machine lurching forward. Jose carefully turned it off and pulled those pieces out.

Clermont ran his hands along a few of the freshly cut planks; he even smelled one. ​“These pieces are oak,” he said. ​“See how it’s giving you a lot of fight?”

By the time he neared the bottom of the pile, Jose was sweating. His goggles had fogged over, and his shirt was covered in sawdust. The room smelled like stale popcorn.

As the final bell neared, Clermont called out, ​“Last cut.”

“I’m going to miss this,” Jose said, as he packed up.

Gateway Opportunities

Superintendent Birks has said that New Haven needs to rethink its approach to alternative education. Amid a $19.4 million budget deficit, Birks argued that not enough students were attending class nor earning diplomas to keep multiple alternative schools open. Following her recommendation, the Board of Education unanimously voted to consolidate three alternative high schools into one building, saying they would save $1.3 million in the process.

Riverside takes in students who’ve struggled in the traditional high school setting, often because of behavioral challenges, parenting demands, special education needs, or other life circumstances. In smaller classrooms, Riverside students get a more personalized learning experience as well as heavy support from psychiatrists, social workers, and mentors.

“We’re doing a lot of initiatives. We’re all about trying to take students to the next level. We’re focusing on social-emotional learning, jobs and internships and student experiences,” Conaway said. ​“I want the students to be better off when they leave Riverside than when they came in.”

Under the new setup, Birks said the alternative high school would place an emphasis on vocational training. This year, 17 students started taking classes at Gateway Community College, where they can gain certifications in seven fields. And soon, 10 students will begin paid internships across the city, funded by a Department of Labor grant for students with disabilities.

A Final Facade

There are still a few pieces left for the class to finish. Someone had commissioned an entertainment studio for a television and speakers that’s nearly ready to ship off. But the bigger project is a massive facade for a Congress Avenue storefront.

The landlord, Denise Keyes, hired the class to design and erect the wood panels. She said she knew that the students would be learning on the job and that there might he delays. But Keyes said she wanted to work with Riverside students to send them a message from the wider community, ​“to let them know that people do care, to show them that we’ll work with you.”