The three-year contract, negotiated by the New Haven’s Board of Education and the New Haven Federation of Teachers, was ratified at Tuesday’s Board of Alders meeting after the Finance Committee requested that the BOA discharge the contract to a full vote. 

The updated contract includes a 5 percent pay raise for teachers, monthly meetings with the Department of Human Resources, expansion and clarification of parental leave policies for non-birthing parents, a $42 per hour pay for teachers covering classes during preparatory periods and the creation of a committee dedicated to combating the current shortage of roughly 80 teachers in New Haven Public Schools.

“We were able to land on a contract that I think both sides really thought was fair and addressed both the teacher retention issues and the working conditions,” Leslie Blatteau, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, told the News. 

Under the new contract, teachers will receive a five percent increase in their salaries every year for three years. The starting salary for New Haven teachers is $45,457, compared to starting teaching salaries of $45,591 in Bridgeport, $47,464 in Hartford and $48,209 in Meriden. The new contract will raise the starting salary to $51,421 by the 2025-2026 school year, while a teacher with 10 years’ experience and a master’s degree will by then earn $76,580.  Teachers earning the “top” salary under the new contract will make $97,356 by 2025-2026. 

On Tuesday, finance committee chair Adam Marchand told his colleagues that the ratification of the contract was in the “best interest” of the city since it would raise wages for teachers within the district. 

At last week’s Board of Alders Finance Committee meeting where the contract was discussed, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Keisha Hannans represented the Board of Education in support of the contract, saying that it will better equip the district to serve its students. She told Alders that the district and administration hope the agreement “will help close the educational opportunities gap.” 

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker has also spoken in favor of the new contract, saying that these improvements will be an important step forward to increase teacher retention in the district. 

Ward 14 Alder Sarah Miller told the News that while everyone involved in the ratification process wanted to include more benefits in the contract, the contract as it stands is “an important first step forward.” 

 “We have to start somewhere and this contract will actually allow for us to be competitive for teacher’s wages in the district compared to the rest of the state,” Miller said. 

Negotiations for the contract began in March of 2022 after Blatteau was elected in 2021 on a platform of dramatically updating the teachers’ contract to alleviate the staffing and educational crises that had begun to emerge in the district.

After taking office, Blatteau identified contract negotiations as one of her “foremost” priorities and worked throughout much of 2022 to put together a negotiations committee. 

Members of the teachers’ union were surveyed about contract priorities in the spring of last year. The negotiations team, largely composed of teachers, worked through the summer to prepare for August meetings with the Board of Education. 

The Board of Education left negotiations at one point due to disagreements, but they returned to the table for two additional meetings, during which they reached an agreement with the union. Going forward, the union plans to continue fighting for lessened workloads for special education teachers and the hiring of librarians for every school in the city. 

The new contract will be in effect for the next three years.

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According to a Sunday press release from the New Haven Police Department, the security guard, Tiquentes Graybrown, claimed to believe the child was armed when he discharged his personal weapon. The New Haven Police Department later confirmed that the child was not armed. Graybrown said that though he shot at the child, he missed and the child was unharmed. When police arrived at the scene, they found Graybrown in the process of detaining the child.

Graybrown has been charged with criminal attempt to commit assault in the 1st degree, unlawful discharge of a firearm, risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment in the 2nd degree. He is currently out on bail and has been reassigned to the central administrative office for New Haven Public Schools on Meadow St.

Dave John Cruz-Bustamante, a Board of Education student representative and junior at Wilbur Cross High School, told the News that Sunday’s incident is representative of deeper problems in the district.

“We’re in this culture of dysfunction within New Haven Public Schools and a culture marked by tension between teachers, administrators, adults and students,” Cruz-Bustamante said. “We need to demilitarize our schools and implement transformative and restorative justice. I think this can be seen through [Sunday’s] situation.”

NHPD officers responded to a report of gunfire on Hallock Ave on Sunday afternoon. Graybrown told officers that his neighbor alerted him of two children who had broken into his car. According to the NHPD police report, he pursued one of the children into a yard and told him to “stop running because he had nowhere to go.”

When the child reached into his pocket, Graybrown fired a shot and searched the student, finding a baby monitor taken from his car.

“Officers examined Graybrown’s vehicle and found the rear driver side window was broken and the steering column was damaged,” NHPD public information officer Captain Rose Dell told the News. “A records check indicated that Graybrown had a valid pistol permit.”

Graybrown has been employed as a security officer at Conde West Hills Magnet School since 2019. According to New Haven Public Schools spokesperson Justin Harmon, he had a clean record prior to Sunday’s incident.

Graybrown is not an armed school resource officer, who are NHPD officers assigned to NHPS, but rather a city employee who works at NHPS. As a security guard, Graybrown is not an armed government official and has no police powers, including the ability to make probable cause searches. Unlike with school resource officers, there is no standardized training for NHPS security guards. Instead, security guards are trained on-site according to school-specific requirements.

According to Harmon, Graybrown and other security guards are responsible for managing security at bus lines and searching bags upon entry at the beginning of the school day.

Harmon added that the district has a specific procedure when an incident like this occurs outside of school hours and off of NHPS property. 

“The employee was arrested and released on bond and is currently assigned to the district office away from students,” Harmon told the News. “He spoke with NHPS Human Resources today and the district must wait for the criminal process to finish before we make a determination on his employment.” 

BOE Member Darnell Goldson told the News that Graybrown deserves “due process” before a determination is made.

Monday afternoon, New Haven Board of Education president Yesenia Rivera said that the BOE had made no plans for addressing the incident at Monday night’s meeting since there was not enough information on the situation.

Rivera said that the BOE may decide to have a board meeting to discuss the incident once more information becomes public.

If Graybrown is convicted, NHPS and City Hall’s human resources department will decide together whether he will continue to be employed by the city.

Conde West Hills Magnet School is located at 511 Chapel St.

Correction, Jan. 27: A previous version of this article labeled Dave John Cruz-Bustamante as a sophomore at Wilbur Cross High School. Cruz-Bustamante is actually a junior. The article has been updated to reflect this.

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Bechdel delivered a talk that focused on generational differences through her work using 20th-century poet Adrienne Rich as a touchstone. While on campus, she also participated in a seminar where she spoke about the evolution of her art, the complexities of writing a coming out story and the transmission of cultural history through literature.

“There’s sort of a retrospective understanding that my story has become a node of transmission of a certain branch of queer history, which is kind of cool,” Bechdel told the News. “But you know, that makes me a little nervous. Like, did I get it right? What’s my responsibility here? But I guess anyone writing anything has to grapple with that.”

Professors Ellen Handler Spitz and R. Howard Bloch, who co-teach the Humanities seminar “Love, Marriage, Family: A Psychological Study Through the Arts” — the seminar Bechdel visited — invited Bechdel to campus. The Yale Humanities Program; English department; women’s, gender and sexuality studies program; the History of Art department and the Whitney Humanities Center co-sponsored the event. 

Bechdel rose to prominence with the publication of her 2006 graphic-memoir, “Fun Home.” The book centers around Bechdel’s relationship with her father, the events leading up to his death and Bechdel reconciling her own queerness with her father’s closeted sexuality. “Fun Home” was later adapted into a Tony-winning musical.

Maia Decker ’24 — who, like Bechdel, is a queer writer — attended the event with friends from her creative writing class. She was most excited to hear about Bechdel’s writing process and relationship to her work.

“I was inspired by the manner in which Bechdel transverses the academic and popular world — a task especially difficult for writers,” Decker wrote to the News. “I’m so grateful that we were all able to learn from such a talented writer and a queer elder, the latter of which is not to be taken for granted.” 

Bechdel was introduced by Kathryn Lofton, who will serve as acting dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences beginning in January. Lofton spoke about the current censorship of queer literature and Bechdel’s profound influence on queer writers — and also joked about Bechdel’s rejection from Yale.

Lofton detailed a recent personal encounter with the cultural weight of Bechdel’s work. After speaking at Colorado College, she traveled with members of the college’s LGBTQ+ alliance to Club Q, the LGBTQ+ nightclub where a shooter killed 5 people and injured 17 others in November. 

On the drive back from the club, one of the students revealed that she was in the process of storyboarding a graphic novel. When Lofton asked whether the student liked Bechdel, the student responded, “Yes, she is everything.” Everyone in the car, including their previously-silent driver, nodded reverently in agreement. 

“For us, the work is never to forget how powerful a thing it is to speak truth at the highest level of its expression,” Lofton said. “How truly dangerous it is to speak that truth. When it is done, it can break open the world.”

Bechdel’s talk spanned across her 40-year career, using her ongoing connection to 20th-century poet and feminist theorist Adrienne Rich as a touchstone throughout. She described Rich, whose “radical lesbian poetry” shaped Bechdel’s political perspective and aesthetic mission, as one of her greatest influences.

The audience collectively gasped when Bechdel described a personalized rejection letter she got from Rich after submitting a short memoir piece to a lesbian, feminist journal early in her career. Though discouraged, Bechdel continued to write, calling Rich’s letter a “gift.”

Projecting photos of her cartoons onto the auditorium screen, Bechdel recounted her first forays into professional cartooning. She first described her dissatisfaction with the 1980s representation of queer women, which she strived to correct with her comic strip, “Dykes to Watch Out For.” The strip ran for 25 years.

Bechdel then spoke about her graphic memoirs “Fun Home” and “Are You My Mother?,” which focus on her father and mother, respectively. She said she continued to take inspiration from Rich as she used writing to process her life story and understand her parents in a historical context.

“Sometimes the only way to really untie this complicated, traumatic knot would be to not just feel it but to to think it through,” Bechdel said. “When I was younger, I pretty much wrote my parents off as being hopelessly damaged from the repressive era they had grown up in, but as I wrote about them, I began to gain an appreciation for the extent to which they managed to keep themselves intact in spite of those forces.”

When Bechdel began writing her latest book, “The Secret to Superhuman Strength,” she drew inspiration from a quote, “To study Buddhism is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, to forget the self is to be with others.” 

Bechdel claimed that her connection to Adrienne Rich had lapsed by this time. However, during a period of writer’s block, she suddenly thought of the phrase “Transcendental Etude” — the title of a poem by rich. The poem’s title was eventually included in the final chapter of “The Secret to Superhuman Strength.”

“The poem brought me back to the days of my youth, of my political and sexual awakening and the clarity of that vision of the world, which did not get muddied by experience,” Bechdel said.

At the event’s conclusion, students were given the opportunity to ask questions and get their books signed.

Bechdel was hesitant to give advice to future generations of writers, but she eventually turned to Rich once more.

“I just think I hate giving advice to people because I don’t like getting advice,” she told the News. “But it makes me think of my rejection letter from Adrienne Rich. It said, ‘Writing is a very long, demanding training. More hard work than luck.’ I think that’s really awesome advice.”

“The Secret to Superhuman Strength” was published in 2021.

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On Nov. 2, the city revealed their developer selection, which followed the recommendation of a committee composed of community members and representatives from New Haven’s city planning, economic development and housing divisions. 

“The City of New Haven is excited to begin this redevelopment and renovation project with Pennrose to deliver more affordable housing to the Fair Haven community,” said Mayor Justin Elicker in a press release. “The project’s added focus on creating community arts spaces will also help highlight the artistic contributions of residents and the cultural vibrancy that truly defines Fair Haven.”

Pennrose, a development firm known for LGBTQ-friendly and affordable housing, will transform the former Horace H. Strong School into 58 multifamily housing units and a community arts and culture space. 

Pennrose aims to ensure accessibility in the space through collaboration with the New Haven Pride Center, which provides educational and social support to members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

“When we say it’s LGBTQ friendly, we’re saying that everyone who lives here should be friendly,” said Karmen Cheung ’13, Pennrose developer and Strong School project manager. 

“And if you’re not, then it might not be the place for you.”

For all 58 new units, rents will be set at prices that are affordable for households making between 30 and 80 percent of the area’s median income. According to the press release, all but 10 of these units will be “deeply affordable,” and targeted towards those making between 30 and 60 percent of the area’s median income. 

The estimated total cost of the project is $25 million, which will be funded in part through the Low Income Housing Tax Credits program, a federal subsidy managed by the state that allows developers to sell federal tax credits to private investors. Additional funding sources include historic tax credits and private financing, according to Cheung. 

Built in 1908, the former Strong School building held the first centralized public school in New Haven, according to Ward 14 alder Sarah Miller ’03, who represents Fair Haven. It has since undergone four major renovations but ultimately remained an educational institution until 2010. 

Pennrose has a record of transforming historic schools into affordable housing. Most recently, the company renovated two schools in Massachusetts with similar importance and was awarded the 2022 Affordable Housing Finance Magazine Reader’s Choice Award for their work.

Charlie Adams, Vice President of Pennrose Development, sees history as a key aspect of the refurbishment process.

“It’s really about historic preservation of the building and making sure that the asset remains as a historic asset for the neighborhood for the next hundred years,” Adams said.

Cheung echoed this sentiment, noting that these historic buildings often hold personal significance to community members.

“We have people saying, ‘I used to go to school here,’ or ‘I used to teach here,’” she said. “From a sustainability standpoint, it’s a waste to knock down an old building. It’s also sad from a cultural, neighborhood-asset perspective, to knock down something that had served the community for one hundred years.”

This project comes 12 years after the initial closure of the Strong School in 2010. Although the school was relocated to Southern Connecticut State University in 2016, the original building on 69 Grand Ave. in Fair Haven was left vacant. Over the years, it has served as an overflow school for New Haven Public Schools and a COVID-19 drive-through testing site. 

Residents of Fair Haven have pushed to repurpose the building as a communal gathering place since its closure, according to Miller. The project aims to accomplish this through its open-concept architecture and shared artistic spaces.

“I think we want to show that it’s possible for neighborhoods to drive their own development and do it in a way that meets the needs of people who already lived there,” said Miller. “We want to bring in new people, but not in a way that pushes out the people who are there now.”

Pennrose aims to begin construction in one year with a projected completion date of 2025. The company will provide quarterly updates to the neighborhood during Fair Haven Community Management Team meetings, which began on Thursday, Nov. 3.

The original Strong School burned down on Jan. 27, 1914 in a forenoon flame, prompting the construction of the building that stands today.

Correction, Nov. 14: A previous version of this article said that Pennrose Management Company was chosen for this project. In fact, Pennrose Management is the affiliated property manager of Pennrose, not a development company. The article has been updated to reflect this.

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Eric Andrewsen has hosted the haunted house for seven years at his home in the Spring Glen neighborhood of Hamden. He organizes the event with the help of his husband, Alfred Lee MED ’04, a professor of hematology at the Yale School of Medicine, and his friend, Tyler Shamaly. Volunteers from the greater New Haven community also work on the project.

Anne Harris, a resident of North Haven by day and a haunted house horror-actress by night, emphasized Andrewsen’s commitment to creating healthy work conditions.

“Eric has a lot of experience in this,” Harris said. “He treats his volunteers with top-notch respect. Everyone has a fun time; it’s a great, safe environment.”

Andrewson plans each haunted house for over a year, each boasting a different theme. This year, he transformed his home into a cursed carnival, complete with bloody clowns, a ringmaster on stilts and a fog machine that cloaked the street in an ominous mist.

The house typically welcomes between 600 and 800 trick-or-treaters. Last night’s line extended two blocks down Whitney Avenue. Still, the guests maintained a lively energy throughout the queue.

“People come from all over New Haven County, and they’re obviously willing to stand here for a long time to see all the wonderful effort that has gone into this,” Harris said.

The haunted house has always been free of charge; This year, visitors were invited to make donations at the entrance. All proceeds went toward the nonprofit organization Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut, a one-on-one youth mentorship program.

Hallow’s Eve

In the week preceding Halloween, families and residents of the greater New Haven community attended a variety of events hosted by local organizations.

One celebration was hosted by New Haven-based youth enrichment program LEAP. Their Oct. 28 Halloween festival was held at the Dixwell Community House —the “Q-House” — which provides resources and a gathering place for residents of New Haven’s Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods.

At the three-hour-long event, children were invited to make crafts, watch movies, donate books and watch performances from community groups.The pinnacle of the night was the festival’s “Spooky Trail Trick-or-Treating.” Volunteers elaborately decorated tables in the gymnasium with thousands of candies for children and families to choose from. Upon entering the building, one child shouted that it was the “best day ever.”

“We’ve had a great turnout,” said Charles Collier, a LEAP volunteer who works with students in a weekly literacy program. “It’s a real, safe opportunity for kids to enjoy the holiday.”

Collier sat at a pumpkin-themed table with Linda Jackson, director of the Yale School of Medicine Office of Diversity, Inclusion, Community Engagement and Equity. Donning fun masks and jewelry, they insisted that every child say “trick-or-treat” before getting candy.

As a first-time LEAP volunteer, Jackson noted that events like these are a great way to get involved in the New Haven community.

Although a tradition, the LEAP Halloween festival had not occurred for the past two years in the midst of COVID-19. 

Henry Fernandez, the executive director of LEAP, underscored the importance of community events in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“There’s a lot of things that kids have lost during COVID,” Fernandez said. “This is an opportunity for them to come together, wear costumes, be kids and have fun.”

Other New Haven Halloween events included the Shubert Theater’s annual trick-or-treat theater tour, which kicked off the theater’s holiday food and toy drive, Best Video’s “Not-So-Spooky” Halloween party, Connecticut Violence Intervention Program’s trunk or treat and the second annual Wooster Square Park “Halloween Howl” dog parade.

Trick-or-treating has existed since medieval times, originating as Irish “guising” where children donned costumes and went door-to-door performing songs and poems in exchange for food or money.

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The “Cookies with Cops” program was launched in early September as part of the New Haven Police Department’s broader community policing efforts. Chief Karl Jacobson said he hopes the program will help children trust officers more and encourage NHPD recruitment in the long term.

Upon request from school administration, school resource officers — sworn police officers stationed in schools with the ability to arrest — have been visiting elementary schools across the city, where they pass out stickers and toys, give a talk about basic safety rules and answer questions from the students.

“We hear a lot about the negatives of SRO’s, saying, ‘Oh, that’s just the school to prison pipeline,’” NHPD Chief Karl Jacobson said. “Well, New Haven doesn’t want to be that. We want to be the school to police officer pipeline.”

The program is not universally loved — at least one parent raised concerns with the effort at a recent Board of Education meeting. 

“Our children should not be the targets of public relations campaigns by our local PD,” Camile Scott, a parent to a third grader, testified to the board. “This is clearly a recruitment tool for the police department.”

The program hosted its first event at Mauro Sheridan Magnet School on Tuesday, Oct. 4. Students in Mrs. Bitterman’s 4th grade class were introduced to SROs who spoke to the class about extracurricular and summer programs run through the police department. 

Mayor Justin Elicker and Assistant Superintendent Viviana Conner also attended the event.

“One of our goals is to build relationships with family and communities,” Conner said. “And the police are part of our community. They are one of the entities that help our families, not just when there’s a crime.”

Jacobson agreed, describing the overall goal of the program as being part of his push for more “community policing” through NHPD outreach. Both he and Sergeant Ron Ferrante — head of the NHPD’s Youth Services Department and the head of the SRO program — emphasized that another focus was to encourage students to trust and interact with police in their neighborhoods and schools.

Approximately a dozen New Haven schools have participated in the Cookies with Cops program so far.

Jacobson told the News that the SRO program has brought more than 20 new cops to the NHPD.

“I think it just promotes the ability for officers to have better interactions [with students] when something bad is happening. But also, it’s almost like a recruitment tool,” Jacobson said. 

Community feedback 

Doubts about the program have also risen among local community activists. Jahnice Cajigas, director of community organizing for local youth activism group Citywide Youth Coalition, argued that SROs should not be promoted as resources in classrooms.

“I think it’s harmful to continue to push our students into spaces with police officers knowing the violence that many of our students witness in their communities,” she said. 

Cajigas instead advocated for the redistribution of resources from NHPD into city-wide mental health initiatives and education funding, on the grounds that those programs would better serve New Haven students. 

Justin Harmon, director of communications for the New Haven Public Schools Office of the Superintendent, noted that the Cookies with Cops program attempts to counteract these concerns.

“There’s research that indicates that any contact with police can be traumatizing or difficult for young children,” Harmon said. “The premise of the program is to try and destress and normalize those contacts so that they’re not afraid to go to the police for help.”

Ferrante described the events as universally positive, saying that the visits were about having fun with kids more than anything else. 

Origins and future of Cookies with Cops

For Ferrante, the idea of running police department programming in city schools came out of his experiences growing up. He cited an officer who would play kickball with his class as an inspiration for him to become a police officer.

NHPD has had a long-standing “Coffee with Cops” program in New Haven, where community members can discuss local issues with police over a cup of joe. Ferrante wanted to bring a similar level of police-community interaction to elementary schools, but replaced coffee with  cookies as a child-friendly alternative.

Conner said she felt enthusiastic about the idea after being approached by Ferrante. While the idea was initially to introduce the program in one or two schools, teacher and administrator interest in the program was high. 

Visits have been booked through the end of the year, and Ferrante estimates that by the end of the month, the SROs will have met with over 1400 students, with many more to come.

Among the programs being promoted in the classroom visits is the New Haven Police Activity League, a nonprofit run by volunteer police officers that conducts programming during both the summer and after school for New Haven youth.

“We have a jiu jitsu program which could emulate stars like that Transgender MMA Fighter, we have Taekwondo, we’re setting up a chess club,” Ferante said. “We’re trying to find activities and events just to give kids [non-sports] options.” 

As for the future of Cookies with Cops, Jacobson expressed his hopes about the potential for expansion. He also noted that the department only has five SRO’s, which is down from over a dozen before COVID-19. 

“As I get more officers on the job. I’m going to expand [the program],” Jacobson predicted.

NHPS has 31 Pre-K-8, Elementary and Middle Schools.

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Tamulevich has been teaching at Conte West Hills Magnet School in New Haven since 2016. She has had to drastically adjust her teaching practices to adapt to parent expectations and staffing shortages, and she said that she is navigating these changes largely unsupported.

“I felt like I was drowning,” she said. “Teachers were not taught how to cope with this.”

These experiences are not unique to Tamulevich’s classroom. New Haven public schools currently face a shortage of 81 teachers across the 44 campuses, placing additional stress and responsibilities on the teachers that remain in the district. Earlier this month, Wilbur Cross High School Principal John Tarka, announced his resignation just five weeks into the academic year.

At an Oct. 11 school board meeting, teachers and staff shared their experiences of the teacher shortage during the public comment period. They cited the higher wages, special education caseload cap, and other protections offered by surrounding districts as common reasons that teachers transfer out of New Haven. Many also pointed to a nationwide lack of respect for the teaching profession as a source of discouragement.

“An exhausted teacher cannot happy-face their way out of exhaustion,” said Rebecca Mickelson, who teaches early childhood art. “Our human limits are being stretched to points of snapping.”

Darnell Goldson, former president and current member of the New Haven Board of Education, shared that the district’s teacher shortage is causing schools to make difficult decisions on where staff is placed. 

Some teachers, he said, have been told in the weeks before the school year began that they would be uprooted from their previous, long-term classroom locations. Others have been mandated to teach entirely different grades with vastly different curricula; one teacher was moved from kindergarten to sixth grade, forcing them to abandon all former lesson plans.

Some classes, particularly those in the Advanced Placement curriculum, have been eliminated entirely from schools due to a lack of certified staff. Goldson said this removal causes an increase in class size and limits the variety of subjects available to students.

“This has been happening for the last couple of years,” Goldson said. “The district has been playing this game of musical chairs because of shortages. At this point, there’s no real incentive for teachers to stay.”

These staffing issues are at the forefront of current contract negotiations between the Board of Education and the New Haven Federation of Teachers, the local teachers’ union. After conducting a survey of its members and establishing working groups, the union drafted proposals fighting for certified instructors in every classroom, adequate support staff, robust raises for teachers and affordable health insurance. 

New Haven Public Schools President Yesenia Rivera wrote in an email to the News that the district has been “recruiting teachers aggressively” and offering a retention bonus for current staff. 

Rivera added that they are advocating for the state to provide more funding to urban school districts like New Haven to support competitive wages for teachers. The next negotiations meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 18.

Alongside her commitment to improving working conditions through these negotiations, New Haven Federation of Teachers president Leslie Blatteau said she strives to recognize and highlight the many positive features of New Haven schools. She pointed the News to new outdoor education programs, cultural celebrations and increased college and career mentorships as examples of success.

“There are beautiful things going on in our schools. There are innovative things,” Blatteau said. “And when you hold that up alongside the staff shortages, it’s even more extraordinary.”

51 percent of funding for New Haven Public Schools comes from state and federal grants.

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The four-page resolution urges the Board of Education to declare a climate emergency, improve climate education and support mobilization efforts in New Haven Public Schools. The proposal was introduced by the New Haven Climate Movement, an intergenerational organization that pushes for grassroots, climate-focused action in New Haven. 

“There are a lot of goals here, but we’re not tying the hands of the administration,”  Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox said at the Tuesday board meeting. “It’s really a call for us to be doing something concrete. We want to have a real attempt to see what can be done in six months and figure out what the problem areas are.”

Wilcox provided guidance to students in the drafting process. He said the campaign language is deliberately open-ended to ensure that the Board can pursue climate-related goals without the pressure of a deadline. The Board will meet in April to discuss their progress and future objectives pertaining to the resolution.

When drafting the resolution, NHCM’s Climate Education Team prioritized garnering student support. NHCM members publicized their petition at New Haven high schools, calling the Board of Education to take action against the climate crisis. The petition received over 600 signatures, which was imperative in demonstrating student support to the Board of Education.

“It was really empowering to see that youth can bring attention to climate change,” said Young In Kim, a senior at Wilbur Cross High School and a member of the NHCM education team. “We were lucky to have board members that were willing to listen to youth voices.”

The resolution, which includes plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency and teach emergency preparedness, was widely supported by students and board members alike. 

However, Board member and former president Darnell Goldson thought the resolution was missing a key component. During deliberations at the school board meeting, Goldson proposed an additional item to the resolution, stipulating a plan for the recycling of glass, plastic and paper products. 

“I was shocked to learn that we have all these recycling bins in the schools, but we don’t recycle anything,” Goldson told the News. “We actually mix it with the garbage.” 

According to Connecticut State law, all schools are required to recycle. 

The motion, with the added amendment, passed unanimously. Chief Operating Officer of NHCM Thomas Lamb said at the Tuesday board meeting that he will look into the costs of a recycling program on a six-month timeline. 

Despite voting in favor, Goldson acknowledged that passing this resolution is not enough. He urged students to continue taking actions to hold officials accountable.

“Resolutions get passed all the time and then get forgotten,” he said. “So stay on top of this. Don’t let it go. Don’t get comfortable.” 

The Board of Education’s Climate Emergency Resolution follows the City Climate Emergency Resolution, which the Board of Alders unanimously passed in 2019.

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The New Haven Federation of Teachers received $75,000 from its nationwide parent organization, part of a total $1.5 million granted to 27 chapters around the country. 

The new grant program aims to support teachers’ unions and community engagement in grassroots work. In New Haven, the funding will primarily be used to boost advocacy surrounding progressive revenue, equitable school funding and expanded resources for community schools at the state level.

“Our students’ learning conditions are our working conditions, and our students’ living conditions are their learning conditions,” said NHFT President Leslie Blatteau, who traveled to Washington, D.C. to accept the award. “Everybody — teachers, students, family members — is feeling the impact of decades of underfunding in urban districts like New Haven.”

The grants are part of the American Federation of Teacher’s Powerful Partnership Initiative, which provides direct assistance to AFT affiliates, community organizations and parent groups looking to engage in education-based advocacy.

Public schools in New Haven currently face chronic underfunding and teacher shortages in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. At last week’s NHPS board meeting, Superintendent Iline Tracy announced a district-wide shortage of 81 teachers. The district currently employs approximately 1900 teachers across its 44 schools.

Blatteau said her organization plans to use the grant to hire an organizer that will meet with stakeholder groups and compile their concerns, as well as help lobby state lawmakers to boost school funding in urban districts.

“Ultimately, we want to improve teacher retention and educational experiences for our students, and a lot of those problems are rooted in economic issues,” Blatteau said.

The New Haven Federation of Teachers intends to collaborate with community partners Recovery for All Connecticut and Students for Educational Justice on this project. 

Alex Kolokotronis, an organizer at Recovery for All, emphasized the partnership’s common goal of eliminating existing discrepancies in school funding. 

“Urban school districts need to receive a greater share of money in order to provide an equitable education,” Kolokotronis said. “Connecticut schools are mainly funded through property taxes, so [students at] urban schools receive an education that is not up to par with what wealthier schools can provide.”

This is not the first time these organizations have joined forces to combat educational inequities. Earlier this year, Recovery For All organized a rally for school staff, parents, students and union members to advocate for increased funding for New Haven Public Schools. 

“When this opportunity came up to do a more in-depth partnership, we went for it,” said Norma Martinez, organizing director at Recovery for All. “The students and the teachers are on the frontlines of this disinvestment. We want to build a strong coalition in New Haven to advocate for life-changing policies and legislation for the people that need it the most.”

The New Haven Federation of Teachers aims to capitalize on this continued partnership to ensure the most effective possible use of the Powerful Partnership Initiative funding, Blatteau said. For these organizations, this work is more crucial than ever.

“We have shared experiences and shared values,” Blatteau said. “But now, we need to have shared action. We are losing our teachers, and too many of our high school students don’t have teachers in the subject areas they need to graduate high school. We have reached a tipping point, and we’re ready to organize and fight.”

The American Federation of Teachers was founded in 1916.

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