I made the New Haven Independent this week, described in a photo caption as a “Dwight dad,” and quoted in a story (by Allan Appel) about how Amistad Academy is acclimating itself to our neighborhood.
No kicks with the reporting, except that it overstates my desire to send my daughters to Amistad. Mabel and Sally didn’t even know we’d applied for them to go. They love the school they’re in more. We applied to Amistad in order to pursue all available options to us, because the school is just a block from our home, and largely because some of the politically active neighborhoods were strongly encouraging residents to apply, to demonstrate the number of children which a strong alliance between Amistad and the Dwight/Edgewood could serve.
Judging from the meeting of the Dwight Management Team where this came up, that particular tactic was unsuccessful (or at least unnoticed). The Amistad representative behaved as if this was an outreach attempt by the school, not a reaction to one from the neighborhood.
How I got in the story: I was one of the few at the meeting to speak up. My initial question was whether “neighborhood preference” was in effect for the current school year. It was a loaded question. Technically there was neighborhood preference at Amistad, yet if you’d gone to the usual listings where such things are mentioned, it wasn’t mentioned anywhere. If you didn’t talk directly to someone who worked there, it’s not information you’d know or could easily find. (It’s also not information you can take for granted. Many New Haven magnet and charter schools do not have neighborhood preference, or sibling preference for that matter.)
I was calling for clarification, and got it. Does this make me more likely to get into the lottery system and find a place for Mabel and Sally next school year? We’ve talked more about the possibility now, and for now they’re against it. They really do love the school they’re at now. They dislike schools with uniforms and overmuch discipline and longer days. They’re both getting good grades and already have college aspirations.
Amistad is a school we pass every day on the way to the schoolbus stop which brings the girls to their own school. We love its presence in the neighborhood, making the block safer and with a youthful energy. Having the school has gotten the community a nice new meeting room. As with so many institutions around here that we love and respect—Fellowship House, Rudy’s Bar, the Laundromat next to Stop & Shop, any number of churches and barber shops—we don’t have to join it to appreciate what its done for the area where we live.