Correction on the New Haven Register article on NHFT “Partnership” on All Boys School

The New Haven Register incorrectly referenced a “partnership” between the city of New Haven and the NHFT. The reporter was contacted and he has since corrected the on-line version of the article.
The NHFT Executive Board agreed on the following  as a prerequisite to our collaborating on any alternate  school:

• We could not support another charter school, local or otherwise. Instead, we could potentially support an alternate school written with an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the city and the school operator. This guarantees that the school will operate under the same conditions as all of the other 50 schools in the NHPS.
• The school must not “cream off” the highest performing students, send back the discipline problems to our neighborhood schools, close their doors to new students on October 1st (or any other date), but continue to accept students throughout the year. Our mantra has been “Schools must do what we do: take all the kids and keep all the kids”.
• If the school becomes a reality, the NHFT would have “a seat at the table” to provide our expertise as to student selection, professional development for teachers, creation of wrap-around services for students, etc.
• The full NHFT Executive Board met with this coalition representing the all-boys school in December, and then had follow-up meetings with smaller groups of Executive Board members more recently.
• Most importantly, this coalition amended its proposal for an all-boys school and asked that the BoE merely collect information from multiple sources to determine if an all-boys school would be appropriate. Furthermore, the proposal rescinded the request to become a local charter school and instead create an MOU, as we suggested.
• Under these conditions (no charter schools, no “cherry-picking students”, accepting and keeping all students, etc.), we determined it was appropriate for the coalition to now gather information so the BoE could make an “informed decision”.