Saturday Schools Ready To Go

We are kidding ourselves if we think this is going to be effective. How sad that Jason & Gemma are making decisions about education, please inform me of how they could be qualified???

Really! People need to stop Hating on the people.like Jason and Gemma cause they are working hard w/ curriculum leadets, directors, and real community leaders. Jason and gemma have helped many troubled youth! Ask yourself what have you done for our youth! Before you start HATING!

I officially am requesting Mayor Harp appoint me as her education liaison.

I'll shake things up.

And, I'll get results.

@Worried Teacher What are you doing to improve education for our youth other than complaining? I have seen both Gemma and Jason in action and have also had the privilege to work alongside them and I can tell you that they are tireless in their efforts to improve the educational system for our children. You speak of qualifications, you are obviously unaware of the YouthStat Initiative and the great successes it has seen under the leadership of Bartlett and Joseph-Lumpkin. The lives of hundreds of youngsters have been positively impacted by YouthStat and the program continues to grow and help more kids every week. Saturday Academy is another brilliant idea that is destined for success. As a youth advocate for more than 20 years the only qualification that stands out to me is whether you care about kids or not. It's clear to me through their hard work and dedication, that we are very lucky to have Gemma Joseph-Lumpkin and Jason Bartlett standing in the corner of New Haven's youth.

I am begging the taxpayers of New Haven to question everything about this program. Specifically, the cost and what company or companies are making a profit from Saturday School. Ask for specifics- what "gaming" program is being used, what "energizing" activities will happen. AND then question where the technology is coming from when the majority of schools are dealing with broken laptop carts and no working computers in computer labs. My heart is broken for the students of NHPS.

@frendente with all due respect my direct experience with Youth Stat has been horrific! I have been a teacher for 24 years in NH and I have never seen our district in a more troublesome place than now. Youth stat is a publicity stint. Jason & Gemma make up the rules as they go and change them when there first plan doesn't work. Students who need a form of consequence are being rewarded even given gift cards for skipping school!! Because it was asked I do a lot every day I teach 27 students!!

Do not drink the Kool-Aid.Jason Bartlett is no friend to the public schools.He was down with CT Parents Union Founder Gwen Samuel.Jason Bartlett and Gwen Samuel try to push the right wing Parent Trigger Proposal who funders were American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Heartland Institute.

2010, Samuel worked with state Rep. Jason Bartlett to pass a "Parent Trigger" law that would have allowed a simple majority of parents to overhaul a failing public school – either by replacing most of the staff or by turning it over to a charter school operator. It was patterned after California's Parent Trigger law.

Jason Bartlett was also down with the right wing group BAEO The Black Alliance for Educational Options.Another group who get there money from wealthy right-wing foundations.So drink the kool-aid if you want to. Also this program is nothing more then Saturday Day Care.

My bad. Academies are code word for Charter School Takeover. Solution Parents need to step up to the plate and work with their children.

I am not going to get into "Hating on the people" however, we need to address the reasons we are in need of a program like this in the first place. I am not going to knock anyone here, I believe in my heart, most people involved have the best intentions.

When teachers in urban districts are expected to raise student performance with limited resources and support, and the powers that be won't acknowledge this, it'll never get better. I'm afraid that New Haven is now in the "Defunding of Public Schools" mode. Our district seems to now be officially posturing for a Corporate Charter takeover.

Wrapping my head around statements like this as well "Superintendent Garth Harries said the academies will prepare students for parts of their academic lives and careers that require technology, including the Smarter Balanced Assessment ( More teaching to the test? Sounds very" Charteresk".), SATs and college applications."If teachers (students as well) and schools were given the resources, tools, and professional respect, would Saturday Academies be necessary? Why aren't all of our students able to prepare from Monday through Friday?

"Lumpkin stressed that the academies would not be solely academic but would also strengthen students' social-emotional support through "energizing" activities that "strengthen the relationship between teachers and students."" Shouldn't this be emphasized Monday through Friday?

I love my job and feel fortunate to work with kids that inspire me on a daily basis. My only hope is that so-called adults don't ruin it for teachers who truly care about kids and the profession.

You people really dont get it while you sit at home and post comments on your computer wat have you done to help our children learn have you been to a home of a kid that is not doing anything in school try try to work out a plan for them? Let me answer for you hell no! So please until you ready to strap up your boots and do the work jason and gemma are doing do me a favor and continue to do nothing because we dont need comment thugs we need people who's willing to work!

Did the BOE approve this? How can they start on Jan. 9th with no approval and no funding? Is the Board of Alderman aware of this? Is anyone aware of this? It certainly hasn't come before the TIF council for funding. Nor has it come before the CEPC of NHFT Local 933. These simplistic ideas created in the minds of non-educators are offensive to real educators--is Bartlett the Superintendent and Gemma the Asst. Superintendent--just say no to the Saturday Academy--say no to the online learning embarrassment proposed for Homebound students and say no to the extra two hours a day Academies at certain schools--what a waste of time and money--but it sure looks good in a political sense--these three initiatives were created by non-educators--educators in New Haven had no input ---what a joke--what happened to our real reform movement? This is a sad moment in time for education in New Haven. We miss you Dr. Mayo, more than you know--

posted by: Thechosenone on December 12, 2015 6:21pm

You people really dont get it while you sit at home and post comments on your computer wat have you done to help our children learn have you been to a home of a kid that is not doing anything in school try try to work out a plan for them? Let me answer for you hell no!

Do you have proof that because some people post comments on there computer it means that they are not doing anything to help out You made comments on your computer, What have you done to help out? I do first-hand research. I look into the back ground of Gemma Joseph Lumpkin.

Lumpkin, the schools' director of leadership development, had been spearheading programs to recruit and retain talented educators, including a pioneering partnership with Achievement First charter network on a principal training program. Her new job carries a $2,300 raise to $117,869.

Notice Achievement First charter network ? If you take a deep breath you can smell the Charter school Mackreal..


Again here is my Solutions

1.Get rid of Garth Harries

2.Replace Garth Harries with some one with the back ground of a man call JOHN DOW JR. As I was doing my first-hand research. the people told me this guy JOHN DOW JR who ran New Haven schools In 1984 did not play around.

CONNECTICUT Q & A: JOHN DOW JR.; 'You Have to Believe in the Students'
By SHARON L. BASS
Published: October 9, 1988

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/09/nyregion/connecticut-q-a-john-dow-jr-you-have-to-believe-in-the-students.html?pagewanted=all

As usual, threefifths is spot on. You can see from the charter-plant commenters how they despise transparency. Shed light on their three card monte riff and that means you don't care about kids? These non-educator Broad-trained business people have been dispatched to New Haven to scuttle unions and collect big money for their hedge fund benefactors. And don't forget that Ms. Lumpkin also sits on the board of directors of this fine "independent" news service. Teachers are the lifeblood of this district not the suits whose endless and expensive nostrums continue to cripple real progress.

Someone needs Xanax.

The issue that I see is that the school district continues to pump money into this suburban-resident teachers at an alarming rate and with neither accountability nor results.

Saturday Academy is not a new idea in New Haven. NHPS had a Saturday Academy in 2000-2001. I know this because I taught in it at Beecher School. Was there any data analysis to determine if this was effective in the past? What was the process for selecting effective teachers? Not knocking--just curious.

Burnsie: The last statement in your comment is curious. Why, exactly, do you miss Mayo? He served as the Superintendent of schools are 2 decades, an African-American educator in an urban district, who hired and promoted a bevy of African-American teachers and administrators, but the poor Black kids in the district are the worst of almost any in the state. How, exactly, does that happen?

If nothing else, the previous Superintendent should have spent his time revealing the social problems that accompany the poor performance of many students and helped to start a conversation here, and perhaps around the country, on how we should approach these extra-curricular issues, realizing that the schools or the teachers are simply not equip to do all that needs to be done to bring children up to par, who don't have the requisite resources (or will) in their homes.

Using such important positions to undergird the political fortunes of the mayor by hiring and then silencing virtually any opposition in African-American community clearly did little to change the educational prospects for students who, through no fault of their own, where born into situations where the help outside of school simply did not exist for them.

We are well aware of the differences between students who grow up in poverty and those who don't. The conversation, if we are REALLY interested in closing the so-called "achievement gap", which is really a resource gap, needs to be about helping the parents who wish to help their children with school but are ill-equipped to do so, and about punitive measure for those parents who are simply unwilling to help or to get help to help.

Failing our children who don't have adequate resources is just as much child-abuse as failing to adequately feed or clothe them. If these kind of measures are not tackled, we are merely spinning our wheels and wasting our children's time...AND THEIR LIVES.

The Rev. Mr. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

Pump your brakes people.

If nothing else, these kids will not be on the city streets while in class on Saturday, that's for sure.

Additionally, I am sick and tired of all these negative critics, attacking everything Mr. Bartlett does that pertains to children. The man is over the Youth Services Department. In essence, this is his area of interest. Will this ambitious effort work? I don't know. But there is one thing I do know, and that is, I applaud Mr. Bartlett and Mrs. Lumpkin for their efforting in trying to improve what everyone agrees are grave concerns, test scores, truancy, dropout rate and negative behaviors.

Moreover, volunteers are always needed to assist in building the lives of these kids, are you critics willing to volunteer? If not, then shut €£%}^^}£> up. Those who know me, know that I don't use profanity. So use your imagination and fill in the area with what u please.

The majority of teachers and administrators are not minority and live in the suburbs. Their children do not attend NHPS. Their most prized possessions never step foot into our city. Yet, they want me and the other parents in the NHPSs to believe that the resistance we see around the Saturday Academies and the extended day is genuine. I don't buy it.
Gemma Joseph Lumpkin has been involved with the NHPS long before Jason Bartlette arrived and Toni Harp became mayor. She has been the developer of curriculum for low performing schools for years, turning around schools all over the state...FOR YEARS! She is the Hail Mary the NHPS needs to help the dismal literacy numbers we have been seeing. Let her do what she knows how to do. If you've ever spoken to her, her passion is literacy and academic success for all children, especially little black children!! I have 2 little black children of my own and I am glad her expertise is in the building!
I see Union angst, which many times has nothing to do with the children and all to do with contracts. New Haven leadership, outside of the Mayor and Jason Bartlett, trusts Gemma's leadership and welcomes her guidance for our children. I don't see many Union members (teachers/administrators) children in our schools! Take a few seats please!
Gemma is a proven leader who gets results. Her focus has always been the academic achievement of New Haven;s youngest citizens, including my 2!
I see teachers and administrators running for the hills because Gemma's plan would start to chip away at the issues being propagated M-F in our most socioeconomically challenged areas. If the schools were doing all they needed to do during the regular school day, we wouldn't need Gemma's plan, now would we......

I would dare to say and even hope that some of the underlying issues that largely contribute to an inner city child's capacity to excel will be uncovered in the informal environment of the Saturday academies. Children may feel more comfortable in talking about some of the factors in the home that influence their development but are dared not spoken about. Factors such as developmental trauma, chronic unemployment, domestic violence, substance use, hunger and mental illness. Locating a specific point of reference is much better than making assumptions about why any child is failing academically.

Threefifths, John Dow has some history with the prior incarnation of the Independent. He sued for defamation. Dow v. New Haven Independent, Inc., 41 Conn.Sup. 31 (1987).
"The superintendent of schools in New Haven, John Dow, was the subject of an editorial written by our client, the NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT (THE INDEPENDENT). The editorial focused on Dow's insensitivity on a couple of issues. First, Dow told the NEW HAVEN REGISTER (THE REGISTER) that if it wanted to go through his personal correspondence, THE REGISTER would have to post a bond of $25,000 with his office. Also, Dow threatened to ban children who tested positive for the HIV virus from New Haven schools, apparently because he thought it was a good idea. This statement was made without consulting any medical experts. THE INDEPENDENT'S editorial said, in essence, that Dow's attitude toward AIDS children was ignorant and stupid and that Superintendent Dow deserves a remedial high school course in civics. Dow interpreted that opinion as a racial slur and sought a legal remedy."
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/prebuilt/pdf/SchoolLaw/LawReviewLibrary/38_12UBridgeportLRev985(1991-1992).pdf

[Editor's note: The judge threw out Dow's complaint pre-trial. Dow subsequently apologized for both the complaint and his comments.]

@Mister Jones So what about how he ran the school system.Again what I was told Mr Dow ran a tight ship.He made people go get there PHD before they would move up.I also heard Knee grows stab him in the back and help get rid of him.From the people I talk with they had noting but good things to say about him.

@ Mister Jones,

After having read your comments in totality, I'm left perplexed.

When the AIDS epidemic saturated this country, very few doctors knew what to do. In fact, doctors were scrambling for answers and precautions i.e. don't shake hands, wear a face mask, don't sit on public toilets and don't share utensils. These were some of the response to the hysteria. Moreover, the National Basketball Association extremely concerned with its brand back then. Especially since one of it's greatest stars Magic Johnson was either coaxed, or retired early because he had announced that he was HIV positive. So what's your point here?

To further try (however unsuccessfully) and wrap my head around the understanding of your invisible point, how about these words from Dr. Dow, "Dow subsequently apologized for both the complaint and his comments." Did those words resonate with you at all?

It is relatively easy to sit behind a computer screen and take pot - shots at two people that are trying to support the lives of young childen in OUR community. This is an excellent opportunity to give students that might not (and most likely do not) have the means to further develop academic and social skills outside of school hours.

Many of the children in our community need more than their immediate families can provide - bridging the academic and social gaps by creating a Saturday Academy is a fantastic direction - especially one that involves access to technology!

I can assure you that many of their suburban counterparts have ongoing access to technology that places them at an advantage - that is a fact of the world we live in. Ms Lumpkin, Mr. Bartlett don't give up! Keep going our children need you!