Leaders Decry Community School Cuts

by Laura Glesby

A teachers union lawsuit, a bid to the governor, and an impending appropriations fight are some of the ways that New Haven leaders are fighting for Fair Haven-based community school programs in the wake of the Trump administration’s abrupt rescission of funding.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Mayor Justin Elicker, Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, and a team of teachers and after-school program administrators provided that update in the auditorium of Fair Haven School Monday morning.

The federal Department of Education notified 19 recipients of federal Full-Service Community School (FSCS) grants in mid-December that they would no longer receive payments for those grants on Dec. 31, 2025.

Three of those grants funded after-school programming, mental health support, and resource coordination for families in New Haven, Hartford, and Waterbury. In New Haven, Clifford Beers Community Care Center lost the remaining $1.75 million of a $2.5 million grant, which was intended to last through December 2028.

Through that grant, Clifford Beers had embedded staff in Fair Haven School and Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration (FAME).

The organization worked one-on-one with families, connecting them to mental health services, housing and nutrition support, legal services, and more.

It also worked with nonprofit partners to keep the two schools humming with activity from 3 to 5 p.m.

Every afternoon, students would gather in the school cafeteria for a post-school snack. They could then choose to participate in an array of after-school programs, including math and soccer through New Haven Counts, arts and crafts through Eli Whitney, fencing through Three Judges Fencing, and performing arts and soccer through Arte Inc.

Funding for all of those services is now gone.

According to Clifford Beers Executive Director Ilaria Filippi, the Department of Education notified the agency that it decided to stop the grant funding due to language in Clifford Beers’ original application for the funding that noted a commitment to “advancing racial equity.”

According to Filippi, Clifford Beers has not had to lay off any staff members, but is no longer able to run the vast majority of the programming at either school.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is now suing the Trump administration to reinstate that funding.

In a legal complaint filed Dec. 29, AFT argued that the Department of Education’s “letters discontinuing these awards were unlawfully based on newly articulated priorities and policy preferences that were never promulgated through notice-and-comment rulemaking.”

Meanwhile, DeLauro vowed to advocate for funding for these programs as the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. She has already sent a letter denouncing the grant cancellations to the Department of Education.

New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau additionally called on Gov. Ned Lamont to allocate part of the state’s surplus funding toward keeping the community school programs alive.

In the 2024-25 school year, the first year that Clifford Beers operated the community school program, 310 students and their families received services at Fair Haven School and FAME.

DeLauro noted that out of the 91 awarded FSCS grants, the 19 that the Department of Education canceled were almost all based in heavily Democratic states.

“These kids don’t have a political party, but this administration is using them as political pawns,” she said.

DeLauro, who recalled her time working as a substitute teacher at Fair Haven School, lambasted the Trump administration for “another attempt at stealing funds that are helping our children,” and for employing “political targeting at the expense of our kids.”

“Our kids need more after-school programs” — more mental health services and nutrition support — “not less,” said Elicker.

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller pointed out the Clifford Beers programming in both schools served a neighborhood composed of many immigrants — and contended with new layers of community trauma as the Trump administration has accelerated immigration enforcement with tens of billions of dollars of funding.

“Since last January, we have some children and their parents taken from this school community,” she said. “We have seen families afraid to leave their homes, their schools, to access health care.”

“The cancellation of this grant gives us one more hurdle,” she said. “We are not giving up.”

Clifford Beers’ Cara Klaneski, Keishla Sanchez, and Nyrmin Veidro no longer work at Fair Haven School and FAME due to the grant cancellation.

Cara Klaneski, the community support and engagement director at Clifford Beers who spearheaded the community schools initiative, noted that when “families are scared to come out of their homes or school,” the community school program ensured that those families remained connected to support systems.

“That’s what makes the difference — being in the school,” echoed care coordinator Keishla Sanchez.

Sanchez recalled the first family she ever worked with through the community school program. She helped them obtain a green card for one of their school-aged children. “This program changed the family’s life,” she said.

Miller stressed the need to remain committed to “the broader project of knitting together our schools and our communities into a single integrated fabric of support.”

“No federal administration can take our commitment to each other from us — grant or no grant,” she said.