State Of The City: Signs Of Hope

Laura Glesby Photo

Mayor Elicker: "This year, in 2023, I’m here to report the state of our city is bright and New Haven is on the move."

While low test scores and attendance rates speak to profound challenges in New Haven’s public schools, the daily perseverance of dedicated staff and a curriculum overhaul are just some of the reasons for hope.

Mayor Justin Elicker offered that message in his annual State of the City speech before the Board of Alders on Monday evening, during which he declared that New Haven’s status is bright.”

The annual executive-branch address was Elicker’s fourth since first taking office right before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

It also came at the start of what is shaping up to be a hotly contested mayoral election year, as Elicker seeks a third two-year term and as Democratic primary challengers criticize his administration on a host of fronts, with a focus on low reading levels and high absenteeism rates in the city’s schools and on continued online-only meetings of the Board of Education.

Attendees applaud Monday night's speech.

Alders and roughly 100 fellow attendees — who ranged from city department heads and public school administrators to community activists and neighborhood leaders — sat attentively as Elicker spoke and Anne Marie Cartagena interpreted in American Sign Language.

This has been a difficult couple of years for our students, families, and educators who have had to navigate the unprecedented challenges of a multi-year pandemic, interrupted instruction, learning loss and other hardships,” Elicker said. However, we must also acknowledge that, while the pandemic has exacerbated these challenges, most of our students were not meeting proficiency standards long before Covid-19 came around – and we must do better.”

He acknowledged that math and English language scores among New Haven students were alarmingly low.”

He said that, in English Language Arts, only 24 percent of New Haven third to eighth graders met or exceeded state proficiency standards compared to 49 percent statewide. And in math, only 11.5 percent of New Haven third to eighth graders met or exceeded state proficiency standards compared to 40 percent statewide.

Still, one of the best parts of my job is visiting our schools and spending time with our students and educators,” he said. There is truly amazing work happening in our classrooms every day that is to be celebrated and commended.”

Elicker touted a new literacy curriculum that centers phonics-based reading education, a method aligned with the latest science of reading that critics have called on public school administrators to adopt for several years. He also celebrated his administration’s proposed new citywide literacy and math tutoring initiative.

He noted the expansion of technical education and career training in schools and the 15-percent salary increase that a new teachers’ contract encodes. And he celebrated an array of out-of-school youth programming that the city is expanding, including the build-out of eight new and forthcoming community centers such as the Shack.

Anne Marie Cartagena interprets in ASL.

One of Elicker’s mayoral challengers, Tom Goldenberg, offered a more pessimistic take on the city’s school system in an email press release earlier on Monday. He wrote, Our school system, led by a Board on which the Mayor sits and appoints a majority of its members, sunk to a new low by performing worse than all 168 other cities and towns in Connecticut on chronic absenteeism, disproportionately affecting Black and Brown families — 84% of Black students and 87% of Hispanic/Latino third-grade students cannot read at grade level.”

Elicker, meanwhile, took a moment during Monday’s speech to honor Iline Tracey, the soon-to-retire superintendent of schools. Dr. Tracey has led our district through perhaps the most challenging time in its history and worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to support our students, parents, and teachers,” he said.

In addition to reflecting on the past year of education, Elicker praised successes in other areas, including:

• More revenue from both the state’s PILOT program and Yale University.

• Small business support, including the first annual Black Wall Street Festival, alongside a growing biotech sector and forthcoming neuroscience center.

• Affordable housing developments such as Beulah Land Development Corporation’s project at 340 Dixwell Ave.

• A new security deposit fund, among other supports for renters and homeowners.

• An 11.9 percent decline in violent crime compared to 2021.

• The rollout of the COMPASS crisis response team, which responds to certain 911 calls with social workers and peer advocates rather than police officers.

• And the adoption of a Safe Routes For All plan that would build out active transportation infrastructure across the city.

Absent from Elicker’s remarks was any mention of Tweed airport’s growth and expansion, which the mayor and the Board of Alders has supported.

That area could prove to be another point of contention in the coming Democratic mayoral primary contest.

Over a week ago, Shafiq Abdussabur, another one of Elicker’s challengers in the upcoming Democratic mayoral primary, issued a statement joining New Haven state lawmakers Martin Looney and Al Paolillo, Jr. and the environmental advocacy group Save the Sound, among others, in calling on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to produce an Environmental Impact Statement on the airport’s forthcoming expansion. He wrote in that email press release, These are real public health concerns caused by the negative environmental impact. … It’s time for leadership that will stop making decisions about neighborhoods without including the residents of the neighborhoods being affected.”

For most of the 40-minute speech, Elicker read from pages of prepared words (published in full below.) He departed from those pages for a moment, however, while remembering the life of Dontae Myers, a soft-spoken 23-year-old who became the first homicide victim of the year. Myers’ brother, Dashown, was murdered two years prior. 

Elicker addressed their mother, LaQuvia Jones, who sat in the audience on Monday: I’m grateful that you’re here and I’m grateful for the support you’ve given to our community when you, of anyone, needs the most support.”

Mayor Justin Elicker's State of the City Address: February 6, 2023

Video of the speech from City Hall.

Good evening, President Walker-Myers, members of the New Haven Board of Alders, New Haven residents, and guests. It is a privilege to be with you to provide an update on the state of our city.

This is my fourth state of the city address, and I wanted to start by putting this moment into perspective. 

In 2020, as our city faced a daunting once-in-a-generation financial crisis, I reported to you that the state of our city was precarious. 

In 2021, as our city was journeying through a once-in-a-century public health crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic, I reported to you that, due to the resiliency of our residents, the state of our city was hopeful. 

In 2022, as we began to see the fruits of the tough decisions we made during those challenging times, I reported to you the state of the city was strengthening and we were beginning to hit our stride. 

This year, in 2023, I’m here to report the state of our city is bright and New Haven is on the move!

Thanks to our collective efforts – from the individuals in this chamber, from city employees, from residents and organizations across the Elm City – we have come so far on so many issues and across so many indicators. New Haven is making steady and significant progress and we are moving in the right direction.

From stabilizing our city’s finances, to driving local economic growth and opportunity, to providing more affordable housing, to reducing crime and enhancing our public safety, to strengthening our neighborhoods and quality of life, to providing more opportunities for our children, youth, seniors, and families – on all these issues, every one of them, we are making steady and significant progress. 

I, for one, am very proud of and grateful to the people in this chamber and to our residents for how we’ve come together and worked together through some of the most challenging years our city has ever seen – and I want to thank the Board of Alders for your partnership. 

Now, to be clear, on all these issues, as we all know, we still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go. But my commitment – and I know our collective commitment as public servants and as a people – is we’ll always be honest and straightforward about the problems we face, we’ll always tackle our challenges head on, we’ll always work together in partnership to find inclusive solutions, and we’ll always commit ourselves to an end goal of inclusive growth: a city where no one is left behind, a city where there is hope for all, and a city where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. 

I firmly believe that’s our recipe for success and that’s been our goal from day one: not a city where just the elite just thrive, or some can thrive, or even where most can thrive, but a city where all can thrive.

While that’s big goal, it’s also the right one. And it takes time and perseverance and hard work – and it is the work of many over many years – generations – but I am confident we will all do our part, right here, right now, in 2023 and beyond. 

Most importantly, though, this goal takes a shared commitment and a shared set of values. Thankfully, the residents of New Haven have all these in spades: New Haven is a welcoming, inclusive, caring, and compassionate city. Our people are strong, resilient, creative, and hopeful. And, because of our people, our values, and our collective commitment to each other, our city’s future is bright. 

ECONOMIC GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY

I’d like to start with jobs and our economy.

When it comes to our city’s economic growth, we are undoubtably steadily progressing in the right direction. In many ways, our growth in recent years has been extraordinary. 

New Haven is outperforming the state at large and every other major city according to the State of Connecticut’s annual economic scorecard, which analyzes employment, unemployment, wages, and business growth. We are helping to lead Connecticut’s recovery from the pandemic economic downturn – and we are just getting started!

To what can we attribute this growth? As I mentioned before, it’s New Haven’s recipe for success. We are honest and straightforward about the problems we face, we take challenges head on, we work in partnership to connect residents to opportunity with inclusive solutions and inclusive growth, and the character of our residents carries us forward.

As you’ll recall, if we rewind the clock back to March 2020, when we first proposed the FY 2021 – 22 budget, the City was on the financial brink. We were facing a deep financial crisis unlike we had seen in decades and we were staring down the barrel of a $66 million budget deficit. Absent a radical change in city revenues and a new approach to city budgeting, the consequences would have been disastrous for our residents and city – resulting in deep, painful cuts to essential city services. 

Together, we charted a different way forward. Led by Senator Looney and other members of our state delegation, we fought hard to secure additional funding from the state, doubling our annual PILOT (Payment In-Lieu of Taxes) funding from $41 million to $91 million annually. And, building off decades of grassroots organizing by UNITE HERE and others, we nearly doubled Yale University’s annual voluntary contribution from $13 million to $23 million, for a net total annual increase of approximately $60 million to the City’s budget. 

These increased revenues along with other positive revenue streams in FY 2021 – 22 from a growing local economy resulted in the past year’s surplus of $16.9 million and our bond rating being upgraded to BBB+. This has also positioned us well for the new FY 2022 – 23 budget that I will propose on March 1st.

Like other municipalities across the country, we also received an infusion of federal aid through the American Rescue Plan that has helped us weather the financial and public health storms caused by COVID-19 and also allowed us to make strategic once-in-a-generation investments – like our new Office of Climate and Sustainability – so that have we can be Build Back Better, stronger, smarter, greener, and more resilient than before. 

With our city now on sounder financial footing and a path set for continued stability and growth, more residents, entrepreneurs, and investors are betting on New Haven and its future – and the results speak for themselves.

Hardly a week goes by without a ribbon-cutting for a new business or a groundbreaking for a new project. 

Last year, in 2022, 58 new storefront businesses opened their doors in the Elm City. 58! Since 2020, 163 new businesses have opened their doors.

As a city, through our Small Business Resource Center and DNA of the Entrepreneur program, we are working hard to support our resident entrepreneurs as they work even harder to pursue their dreams of starting their own businesses or scaling existing ones.

This past summer, in an important and symbolic step towards the City’s commitment to inclusive growth, we hosted our first Black Wall Street Festival in Temple Plaza. The festival showcased over 25 Black-owned businesses and artists selling a wide variety of products and services, and also underscored our commitment to our city’s Cultural Equity Plan – the first plan of its kind in the state, by the way – to support and celebrate the economic and cultural aspirations and contributions of all New Haven residents. Based on the success of the festival, we are committed to making it annual event and have set out a goal of doubling the number of participants next year. 

Tonight, we are privileged to have with us in the aldermanic chambers one of our homegrown entrepreneurs and small business owners – and Hillhouse High School graduate, LaDrea Moss, owner of Mindless Thoughts Clothing in Cedar Hill. Drea sells urban apparel and an inspiring message to New Haveners and celebrities across the country as well. Thank you, Drea, for making it happen in your hometown of New Haven! 

As we support our small businesses, we’re also working to ensure our city remains a leading hub for cutting-edge research, industries, and innovation so that we continue to secure the jobs of the future.

This past year, the Elm City Bioscience Center opened its doors on Church Street and the Yale New Haven Health Neuroscience Center also broke ground on the St. Raphael Campus in the Dwight neighborhood – a 505,000 square foot and $838 million facility. It is a transformational investment for the community that will help ensure access to the very best, state-of-the-art medical care for New Haven residents, strengthen the City as an ever-growing hub for advancements and innovation in medicine and science, and create hundreds of new construction jobs and additional permanent jobs as well. President Walker-Myers and all the alders from Dwight to West River have been involved in this project for many years, and I look forward to seeing it through with you as we expand opportunity for our residents.

Looking ahead to this year, we are excited to open 101 College Street, starting construction at Square 10 (the former Coliseum site), and advancing a transformational plan for Long Wharf aided by the nearly $200 million in resiliency funding we’ve secured – a historic investment that will protect and enhance our shoreline and transit assets for decades to come. 

New Haven is a place where more and more businesses want to be and this growth is providing more of our residents with good-paying jobs that allow them to support themselves and their families and to build wealth.

But we also know we have much more work to do. Some of our residents are still out of work while others are underemployed. One in four residents still live in poverty. And because we are committed to an inclusive economy where no New Havener is left behind, we will keep marching forward.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

In addition to a good paying job that provides meaningful work, every resident also wants and deserves an affordable place to live that they and their family can call home. 

When it comes to affordable housing, once again, we are making steady and significant progress in the right direction – and we also have a lot more work to do because we are committed to inclusive city where no New Havener is left behind.

Now, part of the challenge is New Haven is a place where people want to be! New Haven has so much to offer that makes it an attractive place to live, work, and raise a family: it’s walkable, bikeable, livable with an incredible diversity and richness in the arts, culture, cuisine, history, and natural beauty from West Rock to East Rock to Lighthouse Point Park, along with so many parks and public spaces in between. And, of course, our city’s greatest source of beauty and strength are our residents – the people, family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues who live here, enrich our lives, and strengthen our communities. 

New Haven is the Cultural Capital of Connecticut, we are the Culinary Capital of Connecticut, and more and more and more people are taking notice. Just last month, The New York Times recognized New Haven as a premier destination in the world – I repeat, in the world – to visit and to experience the arts, culture, food, distinctive neighborhoods, and so much more. 

And people don’t just want to visit, they want to live here as well. Our population, now over 135,000 strong, is on a solid upward trend, back to levels not seen since the mid-1970’s.

Of course, with more people, we need more housing – and, especially, more affordable housing. We need new homes, new apartments, new accessory dwelling units – new housing of all kinds that reflect the diverse needs, wants, and budgets of our residents. Importantly, we also need to ensure that our long-term residents are able to remain in their homes and in their neighborhoods where they have put down roots, built a life, created community, and provided the foundation upon which our current growth has happened. 

This means we need to create and provide access to more new affordable housing units and it also means we need to continue to maintain and improve the affordability of our existing housing stock as well – and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

New Haven has led the state in housing permits issued every year since 2020, issuing 2,225 permits – the most by a wide margin. 

Since 2020, we have built or renovated over 500 affordable housing units, and we have over 1,600 more in the pipeline. 

Significant new projects are underway in nearly every neighborhood of the city – and projects that have languished for years, if not decades, are now in forward motion. Projects are being green lighted, shovels are in the ground, and cranes are in the sky. 

In Dixwell, new affordable housing units are under construction at 340 Dixwell Avenue by the Beulah Land Development Corporation and at 201 Munson Street at the former Winchester-Olin site – and just last week, ConnCORP closed on the acquisition of Dixwell Plaza. 

In Fair Haven, a developer has been selected for the former Horace H. Strong School, which will be converted to a mixed-used space with affordable housing and a community arts and culture space. 

As part of our historic Downtown Crossing initiative that’s reconnecting the Hill and Downtown neighborhoods – correcting the misguided urban renewal” efforts of years past that uprooted residents and businesses and destroyed and divided communities – construction is under way at the former site of the New Haven Coliseum, a site that has been a parking lot for years. In addition to residential units, 20 percent of them affordable, it will have other public amenities and a medical lab office building as well.

The list of projects goes on and on.

Importantly, with our inclusionary zoning ordinance now firmly in-place, we are ensuring that there will be affordable housing units incorporated into every new major housing project moving forward. 

As we continue to build new housing, we are also working to ensure our existing our housing stock remains affordable, safe, and high-quality for our residents.

With our I’m Home program, for renters, we’re providing security deposit and utility assistance of up to $5,000 to low-to-middle residents to help get folks over that steep financial hurdle of getting into a new apartment. Similarly, for first-time homebuyers, we’re helping to build equity and long-term wealth by providing up to $27,500 in down payment assistance. 

Through our Healthy Homes initiative, we’re helping homeowners and renters alike remediate their residences from the dangers of radon and lead – and doing so with the strictest blood-level lead safety standards in the state so that our children and families are protected from these toxins.

We’re also holding our mega landlords accountable by ensuring inspections and consistent enforcement from the Livable City Initiative, increasing the number of cases handled by our Fair Rent Commission, implementing our natural persons ordinance so that no one can hide behind an anonymous LLC, and by being the first municipality in the state to recognize and empower tenants to form tenants unions so that they can collectively organize against potential unfair rent increases and ensure safer and healthier living conditions at their residences.

A member of the Blake Street Tenants Union, the city’s first recognized tenants union, had planned on being with us tonight. Unfortunately, they are filling ill and are unable to attend, but can you still join me in applauding them for their advocacy, organizing, and hard work?

Now, with a vacancy rate of 1.3 percent in the Greater New Haven area two things are clear: first, we have more work to do – and we’re committed to this work. Second, New Haven can’t do this alone. 

We need to see suburban communities welcome, not fight, new affordable housing. To this end, let me be clear: we will continue to be one of the strongest voices at the State Capitol for legislation promoting and, if necessary, requiring the creation of regional affordable housing. It’s the right thing to do for New Haven and our state.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Of course, in addition to our homes being affordable, we also want our homes to be on a block and in a neighborhood that is safe.

And, when it comes to public safety, while again we still have a ways to go, we are making steady and significant progress – and we have an ironclad commitment that we will leave no New Havener and no neighborhood behind.

In July, we swore in our new police chief, Karl Jacobson. He and his command staff assumed leadership at a challenging moment for our police department and city. But they have risen to the occasion and are leading the NHPD with great passion, clear purpose, and sound principles. And our police officers are doing extraordinary work under very challenging circumstances to keep our residents, streets, and city safe and to get illegal guns off the streets. We will continue to support our officers and, when necessary, hold them accountable.

Violent Crime, in 2022, is down by 11.9% compared to 2021, and down 24.1% overall since 2020. 

Property Crime, in 2022, is down 7.3% compared to 2021, and down 19.5% overall since 2020.

Other Crime, in 2022, is down 17.7% compared to 2021, and down 27.6% overall since 2020.

Now, these are statistics, but we know they are not just statistics, they represent real people – family, friends, neighbors. And, in the words of LaQuvia Jones, who lost both her sons, Dontae and Dashawn, to gun violence, including our city’s first homicide of the year, When you pull the trigger, you don’t pull it on a target. You pull it on a community. You pull it on anyone who loves that person.” 

Tonight, LaQuvia, is here with us in the chamber. LaQuvia, we grieve with you, we stand with you, and we admire you as you have so bravely turned unimaginable pain into unstoppable purpose and urged all of us to do more to end gun violence. We commit to you this night, once again, that we will. 

Including Dontae, this year we’ve already lost five members of our community to gun violence, and their tragic and senseless deaths have deepened our resolve and commitment to a holistic and multi-pronged approach to reducing gun violence. It’s an approach that incorporates strategic law enforcement through a framework of community-based policing as well as strong collaboration with our state and federal partners through our Shooting Taskforce and other measures. It’s an approach that incorporates new technology that enables us to respond quickly to violent crime and then bring the perpetrators of those crimes to justice. This includes the expansion of ShotSpotter, new cameras and license plate readers, rapid DNA testing, fast access to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, and soon a Real Time Crime Center that will act as a nerve center for the police department to quickly review and then act on the intel from all this technology when a crime occurs. 

But, while good community policing and technology is essential, that alone is not going to end gun violence. Also critical to our work are violence prevention and interruption initiatives and social service programs that support our residents who are most likely to be involved with firearms. This work is being done through the Re-Entry Welcome Center and with a new program that we started this past year called PRESS: the Program for Reintegration, Engagement, Safety, and Support. It’s also being done with our young people through our Youth Connect program, among other initiatives, and with our Office of Violence Prevention helping to advance all these supports, programs, and initiatives in a coordinated and effective manner that leverages best practices. 

This past November, we also launched our new community crisis response team, Elm City COMPASS, which stands for Compassionate Allies Serving Our Streets.” The COMPASS response team and pilot program is designed to complement and support the work of police, fire, and emergency medical personnel by responding to 9 – 1‑1 calls where New Haven residents are experiencing mental health, drug, alcohol, or housing crises. 

The COMPASS response team includes a Licensed Social Worker and a Peer Recovery Specialist who are able to provide crisis intervention and counseling, harm reduction supports, information and referrals, transportation, and connect them with social services and supports. 

In sum, Elm City COMPASS is about ensuring that the right person with the right skills is there at the right time to come and help you out.

So far, the early pilot results have been incredibly promising. Since its launch in November, Elm City COMPASS has responded to over 250 incidents. 

Here with us tonight are a few members of our Elm City COMPASS team: Jennifer, Sarah, and Yichu. Thank you for your service and for supporting our residents with compassion and care. 

STRENGTHENING OUR QUALITY OF LIFE

Now, a safe neighborhood is one that’s safe from crime, and it’s also one that’s safe to walk, bike, and commute in. 

As I mentioned earlier, one of our city’s great assets is being a walkable, bikeable, and drivable city – and here too we are making steady and significant progress through infrastructure improvements, engineering, education, and enforcement. Yet, we know, there is more we can and must do to make our streets safe for our residents

This year, we collectively took a huge step forward with the adoption our comprehensive Safe Routes for All plan. It’s the City’s first active transportation plan and a bold initiative to reorient New Haven’s transportation system away from an outdated car-centric model to one that is more inclusive of walking, biking, riding public transportation, and other active modes of transportation, resulting in safer, healthier, greener, and more equitable options for residents. 

It’s a block-by-block, intersection-by-intersection, and street-by-street plan. From designing safer crosswalks and sidewalks, to installing more speed humps and traffic calming measures, to upgrading and expanding our existing bicycle network and infrastructure from its current 47 total miles to our eventual goal of 128 total miles of bikeways – every day we’re making is safer, easier, and more accessible to get around New Haven. This work is happening from one end of town to the other: from the new roundabout that’s nearly done at Chapel Street and Yale Avenue in Westville to the first raised crosswalk on a state road in front of the Nathan Hale School in the East Shore. In addition, through our Major Corridors projects, we’re focusing on eight of our busiest thoroughfares in the City. 

And, together, let’s continue to advocate for the state to continue its fair-free bus service on CT Transit!

EDUCATION

Ultimately, we know our city’s future is only as bright as our children’s future and only as strong as our city’s schools and the education our kids receive in them every day.

Now, one of the best parts of my job is visiting our schools and spending time with our students and educators – and there is truly amazing work happening in our classrooms every day that is to be celebrated and commended. I see it all the time – and First Lady Jill Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona saw it when they came to New Haven during their Summer Learning Tour” to highlight this good work as well.

Yet, we all know we still have a lot more of work to do. 

On the state’s most recent annual assessments for math and English language arts, average student performance, like many in our peer cities across the state and country, was alarmingly low. 

In English Language Arts, only 24 percent of our third to eight graders met or exceeded state proficiency standards compared to 49 percent statewide. 

In Math, only 11.5 percent of our third to eight graders met or exceeded state proficiency standards compared to 40 percent statewide.

While test scores are only one measure of overall student success, they do confirm what we know to be true in New Haven and across the country, which is the pandemic has had a very real and significant impact on student learning. 

This has been difficult couple of years for our students, families, and educators who have had to navigate the unprecedented challenges of a multi-year pandemic, interrupted instruction, learning loss and other hardships. However, we must also acknowledge that, while the pandemic has exacerbated these challenges, most of our students were not meeting proficiency standards long before COVID-19 came around – and we must do better. 

Now, to be clear, this is not about blaming or shaming. Everyone is working hard – harder than we ever have before – and, to all our teachers giving it their all every day on behalf of our students, we say thank you. As a former teacher myself, I know how challenging this work is. 

What this it is about is us clearly naming the challenge and coming together and working together to create an action plan to address it – and we’re doing exactly that.

First, as Superintendent Tracey has so rightly said again and again, you cannot teach an empty seat. And when we saw an alarming rate of chronic absenteeism, we took action. 

New Haven Public Schools has increased staffing, expanded training, and implemented targeted strategies and an evidence-based relational outreach approach to engage students, families, and partners to better understand what their needs are and how we can respond to those needs. And these efforts are paying off. Since June of 2022 until now, we’ve seen a decline in chronic absenteeism by 20 percentage points. Now let’s be clear, we have a long way to go, and NHPS will be expanding outreach with many of our non-profit partners to further this work.

Second, when it comes literacy and math, NHPS is piloting new early literacy curriculum that embraces the Science of Reading and is aligned with the requirements of the state’s new Right to Read legislation. The pilot is currently underway at 12 schools, and the early feedback from our teachers in encouraging. Our first cohort of teachers and literacy coaches are being trained now and we will launch the program in all schools by September 2023. 

NHPS is also piloting new math and science curriculum in grades 6 to 8 to provide more hands-on and engaging lessons that align to state and national standards.

NHPS has implemented a Saturday Success Academy and expanded the number of after school programs to provide extra supports in literacy and math and enrichment opportunities for students.

And while New Haven Public Schools will also be the centerstage for learning, we’ve also proposed a new Citywide Literacy and Math Initiative that will leverage trained staff and volunteers to provide additional weekly tutoring to our most struggling students in grades 1 to 5. If approved, this program will be designed to work in concert with the teaching and learning happening in NHPS to help combat the loss of time-on-task, lack of classroom time, and the social-academic isolation caused by the pandemic. We will also involve parents and families by planning and hosting Family Literacy Nights that provide coaching for families around literacy strategies, how to practice with their kids, and fun relationship-building activities.

Third, for our high school students, we’re expanding access to and enrollment in early college courses at our local colleges and universities, we’re expanding work-based learning experiences, and we’re expanding school-to-career pathways by increasing the number of students with access to industry certifications at the good-paying jobs of today and tomorrow. 

Fourth, we’re committed to attracting and retaining the very best talent – and we recently negotiated a ground-breaking teachers’ contract that will increase salaries by 15 percent over the next three years, making our salaries more competitive with other districts. Thank you to New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau for your partnership in this work. 

Fifth, we must continue to advocate for increased and equitable funding for our students because it’s just not right that cities like New Haven, where 70 percent of our students are low-income, spend $17,500 per student while more affluent towns like New Canaan, where zero percent of their students are low-income, spend nearly $23,000 per student. It should be the opposite! And it’s why we’re working hard with our state delegation to advocate for increased funding to schools across the state who serve students with high needs. 

Finally, with our superintendent’s forthcoming retirement, we also must find the right next leader for New Haven Public Schools. Dr. Tracey has led our district through perhaps the most challenging time in its history and worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to support our students, parents, and teachers. She was the right person at the right time, and we thank her for her nearly 40 years of dedicated service to the children and families of New Haven. 

To be clear, the situation we find ourselves didn’t happen overnight and it won’t be solved overnight either, but as Mayor, as a Board of Education member, and as a New Haven Public School parent, I am committed to doing everything in my power to help ensure our students and teachers are successful – and I know our entire city stands ready to do so as well. New Haven’s children and educators deserve nothing less. 

In addition, we also know so much goodness can happen outside the classroom as well, which is why we’re especially focused on providing more programming for our children, youth, and families. 

Our children and youth deserve every opportunity to thrive, to engage with their peers and the community, and to be productive.

It’s why we’re making a historic investment in a new Wilbur Cross Athletic Center, which will be a facility that reflects the value we place on our young people.

Also, building on the vision and incredible work of New Havener of the Year, Alder Honda Smith, with The Shack in the West Hills neighborhood, this past year we announced our plan for eight new Youth and Community Centers across the Elm City. 

Formerly abandoned or underutilized city buildings are now being revitalized and reactivated as community hubs by offering free space to New Haven-based non-profit organizations in exchange for them offering high-quality, free or low-cost programming for our residents. 

In November, we cut the ribbon at The Trowbridge Environmental Center in East Rock Park, where residents are now participating in programming seven days a week through the Exploring Nature program or the Monk Youth Jazz and STEAM Collective. With us tonight are Marcella Monk Flake, her husband Dudley, and two program participants: 9‑year old Laila and her mom Angelina. Thank you, Monk Youth Jazz, for inspiring our young people with music, song, and so much more! 

Programming has also begun at Coogan Pavilion in Edgewood Park and at Barnard Nature Center in West River Memorial Park. This summer, we’ll open the doors at the Goffe Street Park Community Building at DeGale Field and at Salperto in East Shore Park. After that, the West Rock Nature Center, the expanded use of the Atwater Senior Center, and construction will also begin in the spring at the old Barbell Club on Trowbridge Square in the Hill.

Also, through our Youth @ Work program, this summer we’ll once again be providing jobs to our youth so they can learn important skills, earn some money, and use their time productively. And, if you’re not on the Youth and Recreation Department’s email list, you should be, because there is so much happening all the time for our children, youth, and families. 

CONCLUSION

As I finish, I’d like to step back to underscore just how far we’ve come. 

Two years ago, I gave my state of the city address alone in this chamber, with all of you watching on Zoom. We were in the midst of a global pandemic, had lost hundreds of residents to COVID-19, and our path through the pandemic was still uncertain. We were on a financial precipice, facing massive cuts in the very services our residents need and deserve. In just two years, think of how far we’ve come. 

Now we’re on more stable financial footing, we’re investing more than ever in our traditionally underserved communities, we’re rapidly growing in ways that uplift all in our city.

New Haven is truly on the move. 

Look, we have a long way to go. You in this chamber know this more than most. And you also know that we can only do this together.

There will always be ups and downs and challenges along the way. But when we stick to New Haven’s recipe for success – honesty about the problems we face, courage to tackle our challenges head on, respect for each other no matter what one’s background, compassion for those who struggle the most, commitment to working in partnership towards inclusive solutions, and an end goal of inclusive growth and opportunity for all – if we do that, I know we will reach our goal where everyone in New Haven has the opportunity to thrive. 

Thank you for your partnership and let’s keep New Haven moving forward!

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