Union Assigns School Reform Homework

The city’s teachers union envisions a school system less reliant on test scores, more attuned to students’ emotional and cultural empowerment, and more pliable to input from every corner of the school community.

Over 20 teachers and allies gathered outside City Hall to call for the next superintendent to act on those values — and for a transparent, inclusive process for selecting the next top school administrator.

That rally took place on the front steps of 165 Church St. Monday afternoon.

Months after current NHPS Supt. Iline Tracey announced her plans to retire at the end of the current school year in June, the Board of Education is holding its first public meetings this week as part of the search for her replacement. 

The district has also now posted on its website a process timeline, meeting times, and the superintendent job posting, which will remain open until Feb. 23. (See more below for when and where this week’s superintendent-search public meetings will take place.)

At Monday’s City Hall rally, New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) union leaders announced a set of priorities envisioned for the forthcoming superintendent — a list that NHFT President Leslie Blatteau said arose from a series of input sessions with union members.

Those priorities include a reinvestment in the Comer School model, an education philosophy that originated in New Haven in the late 1960s.

Steve Staysniak, who has taught English and social studies at Metropolitan Business Academy for 12 years, articulated two tenets of that philosophy: ​“We know that our students are more than a score,” he said. And ​“teachers in New Haven are capable of designing our own curricula.”

Penned by the child psychiatrist James Comer, the Comer School model marked a shift away from test-driven learning, focusing not only on academic achievement, but also on the social and physical well-being of children. This ​“whole child” approach affects both classroom curricula and out-of-class events and social services that the school provides.

Crucially, the Comer School model also calls for a collaborative decision-making process within each school, enabling educators, other school staff members, parents, and students to serve on ​“management teams” and steer the direction of the school alongside administrators. 

“That means consensus building” among every school community member, including students, parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, facilities staff, food service workers, bus drivers, and every other person essential to keeping schools running, said Staysniak. ​“It takes all of us to make schools work and we all need a voice.”

While many New Haven schools retain components of the Comer School system, NHFT organizers and allies argued that the district needs to revitalize collaborative decision-making systems and refocus on students’ well-being outside of their test scores.

Union leaders said that educators’ sense of powerlessness over their working conditions and teaching methods is partly to blame for the outflux of teachers leaving New Haven’s school system for the suburbs.

“We are not a cookie cutter district, nor do we want to have to cut another superintendent for their lack of understanding who we really are,” said Jonathan Berryman, NHFT’s vice president of the elementary school division. ​“Most of us are tired of repeatedly trying to teach administrators and whole administrations about how to meet our needs. That’s really why teachers are throwing up deuces and saying, ​‘I’m out of here.’ ”

Alison Escobar, a senior at High School in the Community and a member of Unidad Latina en Accion, spoke of a dire need for more educators to teach her classes.

“Many times, we go to class and there is no teacher, only a substitute. Sometimes, there is no substitute at all,” Escobar said, describing the effects of a tide of teacher resignations.

She said she and her classmates don’t always feel physically safe or psychologically cared for at school.

“We have a right to go to a school that is free of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, and homophobia,” she said. ​“It is essential that the superintendent establish peace and safety in our schools.”

Search Committee Without Parents, Teachers?

Over the course of the rally, attendees criticized the superintendent search process thus far for minimizing parent and educator voices.

NHFT President Leslie Blatteau criticized the Board of Education for continuing to meet only online.

“The New Haven community cannot come together at Board of Education meetings” due to their remote format, she said. The Zoom format renders parents and educators ​“less able to organize and imagine possibilities” at meetings.

Blatteau also slammed the district for notifying parents of this week’s superintendent search public hearings (see below) only a handful of days before they take place.

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, who attended the rally, sent out an email the next morning critiquing the Board of Education for excluding current public school parents and teachers (with the exception of the mayor) in the formal search committee.

She wrote, ​“The Board has also appointed only themselves as the search committee and ignored repeated requests from different parts of our community for an expanded committee inclusive of those with the greatest stake in the outcome and most direct experience: current parents, guardians, and educators. The Mayor has also appointed no current parents or guardians to the Board, so that body now has only one current NHPS parent/guardian (himself). This means that current families and educators will have no direct voice in the ultimate Superintendent selection.”

Adilene Rodriguez, a Hillhouse student who spoke at the rally on behalf of her mother Adrianna, called on the city to conduct public hearings in English, Spanish, and Pashto to reflect New Haven’s linguistic diversity and fully include a majority of parents. 

She read her remarks in Spanish as Megan Fountain translated: ​“Como padres, queremos participar en las escuelas…” As parents, we want to participate in schools, she said, but many schools do not open their doors to speakers of non-English languages.

On Monday, the Board of Education announced three upcoming public meetings about the superintendent search:

• Wednesday, February 15, 6:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. — Barack Obama Magnet University School

• Thursday, February 16, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. — Barack Obama Magnet University School

• Friday, February 17, 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. — Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School Parish House

Meanwhile, at Monday’s latest regular Board of Education meeting which was held online via Zoom, Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera drew attention to how the district’s website has been updated with information about the superintendent search process. 

She added that community members that can’t attend the stakeholder or focus meetings will be able to provide input in an online survey that will be open Feb. 15 to Feb. 22. 

“We want to make sure that we hear from everyone that would like to participate,” she said.
On Feb. 27 a search process summary from McPherson & Jacobson will be presented to the Board for public viewing. The time for that meeting has not yet be determined. 

Rivera also reported that the school board plans on hosting hybrid in-person and online meetings. She said the board is currently looking into finding as space to host hybrid meetings, perhaps in a school building or central office.

“The challenge has been that we currently don’t have an AV (audio-visual) contractor, however we may have the option of using a room at city hall,” Rivera said. 

Maya McFadden contributed to this report.

NHFT's "Vision For The Next Superintendent Of Schools"

Below is a full writeup released by the New Haven Federation of Teachers about the union’s hopes for the next superintendent.

The next Superintendent of NHPS should cultivate democratic schools where educators, students, and families have a real voice in the decisions that impact our classrooms.

The next Superintendent of NHPS should fully staff our schools. All of our students deserve smaller class sizes; fully-staffed schools; highly qualified teachers who are given the resources and support they need; and access to full-time library media specialists, TESOL/ELL teachers, social workers, counselors, nurses, paraprofessionals, and special education staff in every school, for every child, every day.

In this time of increased stress due to understaffing, the next Superintendent should not only focus on recruiting the next generation of NHPS educators, but they also should focus on retaining the NHPS educators who currently work here. Our collective experience and knowledge of the New Haven community is an asset. Educators have creative solutions to many of the challenges that the district faces.

The next Superintendent of NHPS should empower teams of teachers in every school to design curriculum, assessments, and Professional Development plans that match the instructional goals of our students and build off of students’ strengths. Instead of a narrow focus on high-stakes testing, the curriculum should be developmentally appropriate and meet the needs of the whole child, following Comer School Principles. 

Every student deserves access to a diverse and varied curriculum, but the over-emphasis on high-stakes testing has narrowed our curriculum. In addition to literacy and math, every student should have daily access to science, world history, and world languages; library and research skills; creative arts and music; vocational education, apprenticeships, and experiential learning; and recess, play-based learning, full and varied athletic programs, and outdoor learning.

The next superintendent of NHPS should secure funding, resources, and staff positions to foster authentic parent and family involvement in every school. They should also secure funding to transform schools into Community Schools, where facilities are open at night and on weekends so that families and neighborhoods can engage in learning, recreation, and cultural activities.

The next Superintendent should foster safety and stability in our schools, by placing a full-time staff person in each school to carry out restorative justice practices and safety plans that foster real accountability, healing, and emotional wellbeing throughout the school community. In addition, teachers should have time allocated in our work day — as well as tools and training — to build meaningful relationships with students and families and meet the social-emotional needs of our students. Finally, school safety and stability will improve when NHPS cares for the wellbeing of teachers and staff, so that highly qualified educators are not compelled to leave the district, leaving students with unstaffed classrooms and limited curricular offerings. 

The next Superintendent should advocate for funding for our under-resourced public schools. The funding disparity among Connecticut school districts is nearly the worst in the nation. The Superintendent also should foster equity in NHPS. Equity for NHPS means a system where all schools are choice-worthy, instead of a system where families compete for the ​“choice” to get their children into the most desirable schools.