by Maya McFadden The New Haven independent
Principal Daniley hands out gift cards Thursday.
Teachers, parents, and students gathered at Brennan-Rogers School Thursday to say a final bittersweet farewell to a school that the city’s public school district has decided to close — and that school “family” members described as a safe, calming, community-oriented space that will be missed.
During the event, the Brennan-Rogers team filled shelves with clothing, board games, and books for families to take for free so that the like-new items weren’t left behind. Book bags filled with school supplies and food from Lucky’s Star Bus Cafe were also available to help the community celebrate the school that was.
Ex-Brennan-Rogers educators like Charlene Neal-Palmer gave long hugs to dozens of former students at Thursday’s gathering at the now-closed K‑8 school in the West Rock neighborhood.
Neal-Palmer was one of more than 50 Brennan-Rogers “family members” who joined an official send-off for the school community, which they weren’t given before the district followed through with the superintendent’s recommendation to shutter the school to help close a budget deficit and avoid district-wide teacher layoffs.
Brennan-Rogers Principal Kimberly Daniley arranged the two-hour gathering for educators and families to say their good-byes and learn where they will all be displaced to next school year.
“We didn’t get a chance at the end of year to have a sense of closure,” Daniley said. “So we’re here to send everyone off with love.”
While several educators and students knew their placements Thursday, Daniley said she hasn’t yet been informed of her assignment for the new school year.
Neal-Palmer is next headed to Davis Street School, which she taught at for seven years before transferring to Brennan-Rogers four years ago. She hopes the transition — which she described as “going home” — will be smooth. She said the transfer process had a quick turnaround soon after the board voted last month to close Brennan-Rogers.
Because several Brennan-Rogers educators noted that the moving process was difficult and even cost some money out of their own pockets, many materials were left behind at the school Thursday.
As educators spotted their students from across the room, they shared hugs and “I love you”’s. Many of the families and educators used Thursday as an opportunity to share where they will be placed for the new academic year in hopes they could ease their nerves by confirming they’d see a familiar face.
While at Thursday’s gathering, Neal-Palmer ran into Michelle Wilson, a mother of two Brennan-Rogers students. Neal-Palmer also taught two of Wilson’s older children years ago when they were at Lincoln-Bassett.
When she told Wilson’s daughters Kasey and Corrine she’d be going to Davis, Corrine told her she would next head to Worthington Hooker. “I’m going to miss you so much,” Corrine told Neal-Palmer. “I hope there’s good teachers like you there.”
Wilson said attending the Thursday gathering was nice for her girls to say their farewells to friends and staff. She said the district’s special lottery for Brennan-Rogers students was easy. The families were asked to pick their top three school choices from a selection of schools with vacancies. Worthington-Hooker was her top pick for her daughter Corrine.
Before picking out a few books for her daughters to bring home, Wilson said she is sad to see Brennan-Rogers go and for the “community to lose something.”
Neal-Palmer said for a five-day moving process in a 90-degree building, educators were compensated by the district for just three hours of their time. Her payout totaled to about $96, she said. She and other teachers had to move out of their classrooms by Aug. 1 and find the time to do it while supporting the district’s summer programming.
Some staff told the Independent Thursday the district promised to provide the Brennan staff with a moving team to help them vacate the building by Aug. 1. One teacher said they had to pay out of pocket for movers. Another rented a U‑Haul truck to help clear out their classroom, as well as a storage unit to keep their materials temporarily stored.
Special education teacher Latrice Peterson, who will next head to Davis Street School, said between summer programing, advocacy to keep Brennan-Rogers open, and moving out of the school, it felt as if Brennan-Rogers educators didn’t have much of a summer break.
Brennan-Rogers “volunteer grandparent” Elizabeth Yarborough will next head to King/Robinson School. She said she’s nervous but grateful she was able to transfer to the same location as the classroom teacher she has supported for the past seven years.
She’s worried, however, about the new track she will have to take to get to work now that she no longer can walk or take the bus from Westville Manor. She said now she will have to take the bus to Dixwell Avenue then walk the rest of the way to the school on the days she can’t catch a ride with a colleague.
Another parent, Jacqueline Mathemy, brought her son General Giles to pick up a crewneck that read “Brennan-Rogers” for a last memory of the school that “calmed him down” and offered one-on-one support for him.
General previously attended Achievement First Elm City College Preparatory Elementary School, where Mathemy said his kindergarten class had 30 students and no personal supports for him. “He would run out of class because of the chaos of 30 kids with not enough help,” she said. She had to spend her time going to the school to sit in class and watch after him.
General said Thursday about Brennan-Rogers, “I like this school. It was fun.”
Mathemy said General made significant improvements when he arrived at Brennan-Rogers for first grade. She said over the past year she didn’t have to sit in his classroom or get daily calls about his behavior. She added that the lottery process wasn’t hard, as she went down to Meadow Street’s school choice office and put in her top three picks for General. She had hoped he would get accepted to BOMUS, where her grandson goes, but instead he was placed at Edgewood School.
Kenicha Lopez, a mom of rising fourth grader Aleana Brown, described every staffer at Brennan-Rogers as family. She made sure to attend Thursday’s gathering to get contacts for Aleana’s friends and teachers to stay in touch. “She’s losing classmates she grew up with. I’m really hoping there will be familiar faces there because she’ll need that,” she said.
Aleana will next attend Mauro-Sheridan School, which was Lopez’s first choice for her. She said she also hopes the school will have a school-based clinic like Brennan-Rogers did to support her daughter’s ADHD needs. “It was so much easier having her medical and school in one place,” she said.
Lopez took dozens of photos of Aleana with friends and teachers to later make her a scrapbook of memories. They also found one Brennan-Rogers teacher that will also be headed to Mauro-Sheridan.
Daniley held a lottery Thursday for students to win Barnes and Nobles gift cards, then also provided the eighth graders with Brennan-Rogers bracelets.
“We love you and congrats to your new schools,” she told each of them. “We hope that there will be something productive for this building that will be a resource for the community.”
Reached for comment Friday, district spokesperson Justin Harmon said he has not heard of any district plans for the Katherine Brennan and Clarence Rogers buildings for next school year.
Neal-Palmer found three students that will head to Davis with her this coming school year. “I’ll bring some comfort to them,” Neal-Palmer said, “and they’ll bring some comfort to me.”
Jacqueline Mathemy with son General, who only was able to spend one year at Brennan-Rogers, and with her daughter, who graduated from Brennan-Rogers in the ’90s.
At Thursday’s Brennan-Rogers send-off.
Neal-Palmer takes selfies with students who hug her goodbye.
Students ask teachers where they’re headed next, in hopes they’ll see familiar faces during the school year.
Brennan families and staff, aka CREW.