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Diversity Has an Impact at Bridgeport Academy

Several years ago, the leadership of New Beginnings Family Academy placed a high priority on building a diverse staff.

The initiative has borne fruit as 53 percent of those who work directly with students are persons of color. This includes teachers, full-time teaching assistants, nurses and social workers.

What’s more, 57 percent of the school’s leaders are persons of color, including the director and the principals of the elementary and middle schools.

The charter school in Bridgeport serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students. Ninety-five percent of the students are children of color, and most come from low-income families.

Ronelle Swagerty, director and CEO

“We set out to hire qualified adults who look like the children we serve and whose cultural competency ensures deep, meaningful relationships,” says Ronelle Swagerty, director and CEO.

Emotionally Responsive Model

“Our educational model emphasizes emotional responsiveness, and it helps to have those cultural competencies in the classroom so children feel connected,” she says. “Relationships are key. I’m not saying relationships can’t be developed by others, but it’s nice for children to see so many adults in school who look like them.”

How did the leadership achieve such a diverse staff? They took a multi-layered approach that included word-of-mouth and advertising. The Human Resources office has a full-time manager and a part-time recruiter who attend every minority-teacher recruitment fair in the state and some beyond the state.

“Research has shown that children fare far better in an environment with adults who look like them,” Ms. Swagerty says. And teachers of color have an impact on families as well. Some members of the staff are immigrants who can communicate with parents in their own languages.

Diversity of Gender and Ethnicity

Valore Turner, principal of the middle school, says that diversity of gender is just as important as diversity of ethnicity. Currently, the middle-school teaching staff is 50 percent male and female. Before the push for diversity, there were only a few male teachers on the entire staff from Pre-K through eighth grade.

Valore Turner, middle school principal

“It’s important to have male teachers,” she says. “It’s beautiful to see my boys fall in love with reading for the first time simply because their language arts teacher is a man who loves and advocates for pleasure reading.

“Diversity has an impact not only on academics, but also on children’s emotional development,” Ms. Turner says.

“A boys group, led by a male social worker, met once a week last year,” she says. “This group came about after it was observed that the boys had burning questions and were freely spreading incorrect information among one another. Under the guidance of a licensed social worker, a boys’ group was created to help prevent the spread of misinformation. Anonymously, male students put their questions into a jar and the social worker addressed them during the weekly meetings.”

Says Ms. Turner, “It’s important for children to have positive role models of all races and sexes, and we want to ensure that faculty fulfills this need.”

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An Inspiring Teacher Transforms a Life

William T. Saunders II’s life was transformed at an early age by a teacher who introduced him to the arts, specifically dance.

“I met Earl Mosley when I was in the seventh grade through his independent dance program,” he says. “He was the first Black male teacher I had. He encouraged me to follow whatever dream I had, even if it wasn’t in the performing arts. He taught me that the discipline I learned in dance class would serve me in any career.”

William T. Saunders II

Mr. Saunders, who grew up in Waterbury, has been selected as the Alma Exley Scholar for 2021. He is pursuing his master’s degree in a two-year program at Relay Graduate School of Education.

A Life-Changing Challenge

“I auditioned for the dance program in seventh grade because a friend told me I was too fat,” Mr. Saunders recalls. “She told me, ‘No one wants to see your big belly jiggling on stage.’ I still laugh about it until this day. That was the best challenge I ever got. It changed my life.”

Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance was a perfect fit for the young William Saunders. The program provided an environment where students from diverse ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds were encouraged to achieve excellence.

Positive Influence of a Black Male Teacher

“Mr. Mosley, my first Black male teacher, helped me come to terms with who I wanted to be,” Mr. Saunders says. “He welcomed me into a non-competitive environment. He helped me to connect with my own art and individuality in a place where I felt safe to learn and grow.

“I soon knew I wanted to be an educator. I knew I wanted to help young Black students appreciate and love every part of themselves. I wanted to be someone’s Mr. Mosley.”

After the initial summer program ended, Mr. Mosley founded an annual summer dance program, Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts, hosted at the Marvelwood School in Kent, Conn. “I worked with Mr. Mosley from the seventh grade through high school, college, and into my mid-twenties. These were some of the best times in my life,” Mr. Saunders says.

“I talk about Mr. Mosley being the teacher who inspired me the most because he embraced having an education. He didn’t just focus on the dance. He would always push his students to be well versed in everything. He valued conversation, order, and balance. He wanted his students to have the ability to hold their own in any situation. Additionally, he never stifled my voice. He taught me the importance of speaking up and having an opinion.”

Encouraged by his dance teacher, Mr. Saunders attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia to pursue his interest in ballet. After earning his BFA, he performed with small dance companies in Philadelphia and New York City.

Beginning as a Paraprofessional

He returned to the classroom when Achievement First Hartford High School recruited him as a paraprofessional. When a teacher left mid-year, he was promoted to lead teacher and passed the Praxis examination which is necessary for certification.

Mr. Saunders’s great-grandmother, Rilla Moore, raised him and his two sisters in Waterbury. “She never went past fourth grade, but she instilled in us the importance of education,” he says. “She made us sit down at the kitchen table and do our homework as soon as we got home from school. And we all had to individually read three chapters of the Bible out-loud every day to work on our reading skills.”

Their great-grandmother’s emphasis on education took hold. Mr. Saunders’ sister Darry is a science teacher at Keynor Tech in Waterbury. His sister Erica is a math education major at Central Connecticut State University.

Coach Saunders, in the back row with his cheerleading squad.

A Vital Lesson From a Student

Mr. Saunders describes his introduction to teaching this way:

“When I first started teaching, I was scared. The first couple of weeks were rough. My classes were filled with disruptions, a nervous Mr. Saunders, and kids who wanted to learn but enjoyed a little fun time.”

“One day a student asked me why I wanted to teach. I gave the typical answer, ‘I love education.’ She then told me, ‘That’s why no one is listening to you.’ She explained that students don’t want someone who loves education. They want someone who is interested in them and loves to be with them.

“From that moment, I started to approach teaching from the perspective of caring for the whole person,” he says.  “It wasn’t enough to just care about teaching.

“I noticed that my class culture started to shift. I noticed that the students started to enjoy being in the room with me. Scholars started coming to office hours. Interruption stopped. The room was filled with so much joy.

“This experience has helped me understand that all children need a whole person to show up, not someone that can recall facts. Scholars were able to meet the real Mr. Saunders. This not only helped them grow academically, but it also helped them learn how to navigate relationships with adults.”

Cheerleading Coach William Saunders with his sister Erica Thomas, his assistant coach.

Coaching Competitive Cheerleading

Since he was a cheerleader at Crosby High School, he welcomed the opportunity to coach the cheerleading squad at Achievement First. He is proud of building an inclusive team that has entered competitions with other schools. The team got a confidence boost when they placed third in their first competition. And they won the Spirit Award in their second meet.

Mr. Saunders is dedicated to encouraging all of his students to develop their potential to the fullest. “I try to show students that you can be whatever you want to be,” he says. “Embrace what makes you different. Your voice matters. Learn to find your voice.”

Cherokee Teacher Gains National Notice as Novelist

Annette Bird Saunooke Clapsaddle’s novel came out in September, and it’s already in its second printing.

Her book, Even as We Breathe, has received rave reviews. Publishers Weekly called it “a lush debut, and “an astonishing addition to World War II and Native American literature.”

Since her novel came out, she has been doing virtual readings – at least three a week — at bookstores in New York and across the country. And she was interviewed recently by National Public Radio correspondent Neda Ulaby at her home in the mountains of western North Carolina. Click here to listen to the interview.

Annette Bird Saunooke Clapsaddle

Honored While at Yale

We honored Ms. Clapsaddle with a scholarship in 2003 when she was an undergraduate at Yale. She earned a master’s degree at William & Mary and then returned to her hometown to work for her tribe, first as assistant to the principal chief and later as executive director of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. She has taught English and Cherokee Studies for 10 years at Swain County High School, whose student population is 30 percent Native American.

She lives in Cherokee, N.C., the main town within the Qualla Boundary, home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, to which she belongs. The Eastern Band was formed by the Cherokees who escaped being displaced by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. When the federal government forced the Cherokees off their land and drove them west in what became known as the Trail of Tears, some hid in the mountains and remained. Later they reclaimed some of their land and reconstituted themselves as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

“My Cherokee ancestors have been here, we would say, since the beginning of time,” she told NPR. “Other people would say over ten thousand years.”

A World War II Mystery

The novel is a mystery set at an upscale resort in nearby Asheville during World War II. The resort served as an internment camp for valuable prisoners of war, such as diplomats and their families. The main character is a teenage boy named Cowney, a Cherokee who is accused in the disappearance of a diplomat’s daughter. While Cowney tries to prove his innocence, he also attempts to unravel his complicated family history.

You can order the book here.

The Impact on Her Students

In writing her novel, Ms. Clapsaddle was determined to create characters her students might know in real life.

“For me, that’s what I set out to do, is give my students a story,” she told NPR. One of her students reported he never thought he’d see so much of himself in a character as he did with Cowney. She was deeply moved when he sent her text saying, “People just don’t write about people like us.”

That review is her favorite.

But here’s one of my own. Having just finished the book, I would say that it is more of a love story than a mystery. It’s a compelling love story that ends with an intense emotional impact. The story touched me in a personal way. I think this was not only because of the compelling characters and their fate, but also because of the author’s deeply felt connection with the locale of the story in the ancestral homeland of the Cherokees.

Hearty congratulations, Annette.

  • Woody Exley