Black and Brown, or low-income students have faced unbearable financial situations in some cases due to the pandemic. Things are starting to look up though as one school’s graduation rates go up.
Medina was hyped about attending his graduation in person on June 24. He said his parents were equally excited even though they didn’t fully understand everything that’s going on because of the language barrier. Both of his parents are from the Dominican Republic. His father is a cab driver and his mom is a nail tech, he said.
“We believe in public schools,” said Executive Director of CLOTH Yvonne Stennett. “That if you resource them well, if you provide both teachers, administration and students with the right type of learning environment, that it succeeds. And if you attach it strongly to the community and the community is responsible to the school and [vice versa] you will get good results.”
“In a time when students were disconnected from school,” said CHAH Principal David Falciani, “our school did a tremendous job. A lot of credit goes to the outreach and attendance teams for keepingFalciani said that the community school had one of the highest Google Classroom engagement rates during quarantine. He considers his students and families “incredibly resilient” throughout the pandemic and the last two difficult school years.