New Haven public schools explore options

FILE PHOTO Yale students often participate in programs at New Haven-area schools such as the Timothy Dwight School.

While alternatives to traditional education in New Haven have recently moved forward, the city's recent charter school movement suffered a setback last week when one of the city's three charter schools was shut down.

New Haven has been experimenting with a recent national trend in education: charter schools. The results have been somewhat controversial, however. On Wed., Sept. 8, officials closed Village Academy, one of the city's three charter schools. Students arrived for their first day of school on Mon., Sept. 6, only to be relocated to a new location: the site of an abandoned shopping mall. The owner of the original school site was unable to pay the mortgage on the property, precipitating foreclosure on the property and the change of location. This new location, chosen by the school's executive director, Robin Barnes, had not been inspected and approved by the New Haven Fire Marshal. Adding insult to injury for school supporters was the fact that Barnes was also the owner of the original property, and is now under investigation for getting involved in a potential conflict of interest when he leased the property to the school while also serving as its executive director.

Village Academy is only one of 18 charter schools in the state, and one of three in the New Haven area. Claudia Merson of Yale's office of New Haven Affairs described two of the charter schools, Common Ground and Amistad Academy, as successful experiments. She emphasized that Village Academy's problems should be attributed to bad administration, not to the educational curriculum or to content of the school itself.

The controversy over charter schools is essentially a response to an attempt by educators to create a public school environment that is open to creativity and experimentation. They are largely independent of both regulatory and funding restrictions. New Haven's charter schools exist outside of any municipal public school system and receive funding directly from the state. Their special rights include the ability to disregard certain state-mandated criteria that other public schools must follow.

Many of the city's most innovative school programs receive help from Yale and its students. The University currently is donating rent-free space on 210 Prospect Street to the Amistad charter school. Yale students continue a long tradition of involvement in the city's public schools as well. Students at the Hill Regional Career High taking human anatomy classes are paired with Yale School of Medicine students, and spend much of their school time at the Medical School assisting in experiments and learning from University researchers. Students interested in nursing are involved in a similar program at the Yale School of Nursing, where they have the option to earn their nursing assistant certification while in high school. Those students focusing on music at Coop High School, a fine arts magnet school, are tutored privately by students at the Yale School of Music. In addition, students not content to remain in high school classes can enroll in courses at Yale. Merson described that particular program as "highly successful."

Dwight Hall volunteer groups are also important for the area's public school system. Susanna Greenberg, SY '01, coordinator of the Dwight Hall Education Network, estimated that out of the approximate 2,500 students affiliated with Dwight Hall, two-thirds play some role in the New Haven schools. These activities range from formal one-on-one tutoring programs, such as Tutoring in Elementary Schools (TIES), to group activities such as Peace Games, in which a group of Yalies teach area students how to resolve conflicts peacefully. Chris Pierce, BK '01, head of the Katherine Brennan mentoring program—a program that pairs New Havenites with Yalie"Big Brothers" and "Big Sisters"—explained his commitment to contributing to the city's public schools.

"The reason it's important [to be involved] is that most people at Yale had a good high school education and access to important resources. These kids in New Haven may not have access to the same resources that we did. It's important that we try to give them that opportunity."

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