Principal Promotes Perks Of Remote Schooling

Every day can be pajama day, Metropolitan Business Academy Principal Mike Crocco told his students over a YouTube video released on Tuesday.

As New Haven schools have closed to slow the spread of Covid-19, students have had to adjust to spending an entire school day at home. At the same time, some New Haven families are dealing with job loss and illness.

Crocco said that he wanted his students to know they can reach out to him and his staff for help during the public health crisis.

“So don’t get yourself overwhelmed. Just do what you can do, and if you do your best, we can make it through this together,” Crocco said.

If students start feeling anxious and overwhelmed, they can counter those feelings with some of the positives of their situation, he said.

They never have to put away their cell phones or worry about missing their buses. They can practice dances from TikTok whenever they like (Crocco’s moves pictured above). And no one else tells them when to finish their lunch.

“If you need a teacher, you don’t have to worry about running all over the school to find them. You know exactly where they are — home, just like you,” he said.

They can spend time with family, Crocco said, as one of his own family members knocked over a Jenga tower.

Then the camera zoomed out to reveal shorts beneath the principal’s suit jacket.

“This isn’t a corona-cation. It’s just a chance to do things a little bit differently,” he said.