In its letter, the committee made a list of eight demands to the school board to be carried out within 30 days and six additional demands to be addressed within 60 days. The letter requested an update on the school district’s progress on its demands at its Oct. 28 meeting.
The aldermanic committee said in its letter it established its list of actions following a nearly five hours of testimony from teachers, students and families who spoke of their concerns with HVAC systems, leaks, mold, pests, bathrooms and more. Officials from the health, fire and emergency management departments also shared concerns about safety at that public hearing after conducting inspections.
In an emailed statement, Superintendent of Schools Madeline Negrón said everyone across the city agrees that students and teachers deserve facilities “that fully support the work of teaching and learning” and the Board of Education has “reported extensively about the challenges we face with our school facilities and about the steps we are taking to establish in-house expertise to help frame our plan to address them.”
“We also reported that we require substantial operating and capital resources to ensure the proper maintenance and repairs of these facilities,” she said. “We will review the Education Committee’s new recommendations thoroughly and consult with the Board of Education about the best course of action. We must all accept our collective responsibility to address the result of decades of underfunding of our school facilities.”
Among the committee’s most urgent items was a demand that the school district create a school facilities dashboard identifying issues building by building with updates on the status of repairs and corrections, the responsible departments and a timetable for completion. The committee also requested the district establish a 12-month fundraising plan to pursue grants and other financial resources to address capital needs such as roof replacements and HVAC system upgrades. The committee requested plans for removing moisture and humidity to address mold, pests and to address outstanding repairs on doors, windows and electrical outlets.
The committee’s final 30-day request waded into an ongoing dispute between the Board of Education and the New Haven Federation of Teachers, requesting that union president Jenny Graves, who was returned to the classroom by the district against the union’s wishes, be released from teaching duties to assist with solutions for the city’s facilities problems.
The committee’s demands for a 60-day time period were to install portable air filters in buildings and a continuous air quality monitoring system and to clarify and strengthen long-term facilities planning and organizational accountability. The committee also requested the school district begin “a restorative process to acknowledge the harm school communities have experienced and rebuild trust.”
A city spokesman referred a request for comment to the Board of Education, but noted Mayor Justin Elicker said in a statement on Sept. 30 there is “widespread agreement” that city schools “have been underfunded for decades and that underinvestment has created real challenges” to providing the “safe, healthy, high-quality school buildings and classroom environments that support teaching and learning and help our school communities thrive.”
“Like any large residential or commercial property, maintaining school buildings requires adequate staffing, materials and systems to ensure facilities and maintenance issues are promptly and properly addressed – and, right now, that simply doesn’t exist at New Haven Public Schools,” Elicker said in his statement, adding that the city has supported Negrón in developing a new operations plan and that New Haven state legislators have advocated for more education funding from the state.
“The Education Committee remains committed to supporting New Haven students, families, educators, and schools and to keeping the community informed about matters affecting public education,” the committee said in a statement.
