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Mayor John DeStefano outlined his plans for the city of New Haven in his “State of the City” address Monday night. WNPR’s Neena Satija reports that DeStefano placed special emphasis on public education.
Mayor DeStefano took the stage Monday night in his 19th year as New Haven mayor under extraordinary circumstances. He’d just won a bitter fight for re-election last fall, during which a slew of city-hall backed aldermanic candidates were defeated. So as he faced the 19 new members of the aldermanic board and about 150 others in the audience, he chose to focus on an aspect of his tenure that has garnered significant praise.
DESTEFANO: “There’s one area, more than any other, that – I’ll say it any way that you want to take it – that I urge, that I plead -- and I don’t plead often -- that I expect for all of us to work together on, and that is to support and grow New Haven school change.”
The school reform campaign the mayor undertook beginning in 2009 has received national attention and support. Still, just weeks ago the president of the local teacher’s union asked that the process of overhauling so-called “turnaround schools” be put on hold until more data become available. So the mayor was stern when he called on the new board of aldermen to support New Haven’s stated plan for school reform in the coming years.
DESTEFANO: “Everything else we do will be meaningless. 21,000 kids, each and every day. All of us, all of us, when we look back at the blessing of time we’ve had in elective office – none of it will matter if we don’t do for these kids.”
The mayor also spoke about a return to community policing under the leadership of a new police chief.
He talked about job opportunities for New Haven residents, and strengthening the city’s finances. For WNPR, I’m Neena Satija.