Our Monthly News & Updates |
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Hello, New Haven Public Schools Learning Community:
The “pandemic” school year of 2020-2021 is coming to an end.
Despite numerous challenges, the spring sports season took place
and was quite successful, thanks to the efforts of athletes, coaches, trainers,
and also “behind the scenes” workers. In this issue, we introduce two of them.
What else is in this issue? Our director provides
more details about the sports season. There is an article about LGBTQ issues in health education as well.
We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter much more now since
we changed its format: from now on, all content will be full-length
(published on the district website). The actual newsletter in your inbox
will only have teasers and links pointing to the articles.
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ERIK PATCHKOFSKY,
Physical Education, Health, and Athletics Department Director
SPRING 2021:
We Run Full Schedules for All Sports
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As we move into the middle of the spring season, I am pleased to report that all sports are up and running at this time. The spring sports include lacrosse, track, softball, baseball, golf, and tennis. Spring marks the first season that we have been able to run full schedules for all sports. |
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The work involved in organizing sports in a pandemic has been extremely challenging, but at the same time rewarding.
The challenges this year were many. We had to learn all the mitigating procedures and apply them to our programs. We changed all activities from different schools into one centralized location, and modified facilities to allow for social distancing, defining entrances and exits. We also had to rethink sitting in the school buses, etc.
Coaches have been tasked with doing health screenings and speaking to athletes on a daily basis about protecting themselves while in school and in their community.
Athletic operations were also challenging, as the department had to look at all our facilities and decide how to set up and run athletics while using safety measures to keep the virus at bay.
We changed the layout for basketball sideline chairs and the scorekeeper’s table with social distancing precautions; the officials’ tables were also set up six feet apart from each other. We allowed less people to be present during the games than usual.
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Marina Dubrovsky:
As a Trainer
I Wear Many Hats
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Meet Marina Dubrovsky, athletic trainer at Career High school. She loved athletics and was interested in medicine as a teenager. Later, at the university, she found out she could combine both interests, and that’s how she became an athletic trainer. Before joining New Haven Public schools in 2014, she worked in a physical therapy setting.
Marina, do you think you found your vocation?
I am happy with my job and with what I do. I probably would have been bored if I continued doing physical therapy. In a physical therapy setting, everything is very uniform and quite repetitive versus in athletics, where every few months, there's a change of seasons, scenery, sports, athletes, change of injuries. I'm not stuck in the office. I like to have different experiences and to work with many different athletes. I get to know my athletes, who they are and what they like, and as a result, I can help them better, and not always on a physical level, but on a psychological level as well.
When working with student-athletes it really helps to know where they are coming from, what their worries are.
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Is that a family matter? Do they have a family to begin with? How are they doing in school? Are they worried about their school? If they are stressed about something that's going in their life, there is a greater chance they're going to get hurt on the field because they're not fully involved.
Some kids would not open up and tell you about their injuries because they don't trust adults - they remind them of parents whom they don't trust. So being trustworthy and honest to these kids is important. Kids can see through you if you are lying to them.
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Robert Rafferty:
More Urgency To Enjoy What We Have
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Meet Robert Rafferty, Floyd Little Athletic Center Facility Director. He started at FLAC in 2002. Before that, he worked for the New Haven Ravens baseball team for 10 years, then at Harbor Yard Arena in Bridgeport, and the New Haven Coliseum.
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Bob, you have been involved with FLAC almost since it opened. You saw various stages of development of this facility. What do you recall as remarkable?
The original idea of the facility was different from what it ended up being. 19 years ago, I was told it was a track and field facility, a place for basketball games, practices, and some city events. At that time, no one could foresee that the field house could become a moneymaker and host a circus or a trade show. And it did, in addition to hosting a variety of sports events like a wrestling championship with 700 participants, a cheerleading championship, and Special Olympic events.
Pre-pandemic, we used to have between 50-55 sports meets for local youth every year.
We used to be the rain location for various events, including graduations. We had them here for 14 years.
Among non-sports events, I recall a dental clinic in 2006. It was organized and run by the State of CT for the uninsured population. People were getting their root canals, extractions, and cleanings here. The clinic booths were set up right in the arena with generators and extra power. About 4000 people received dental services at that time.
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LGBTQ Community:
We Need Updated Health Curriculum
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“LGBTQ adolescents face well-documented health disparities in suicide risk, substance use, and sexual health. These disparities are known to stem, in part, from stigma directed toward LGBTQ youth in the form of minority stressors such as violence, discrimination, and harassment.
Given the proportion of time that LGBTQ students spend in school, schools provide a critical context within which protective factors may be developed and leveraged to improve the health and wellbeing of these populations.”
US National Library of Medicine:
National Institutes of Health
It was about two years ago when the itinerant health teachers Naa Lomoley Sahin and Hannah Malcolm saw the first signs that LGBTQ issues needed to become part of the health curriculum they teach.
There were students who emailed Sahin asking her to call them in a certain way; some students were making suggestions to the lessons that would imply that they were interested in more gender inclusivity.
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Both teachers had already been including LGBTQ related topics into their lessons to various degrees. Malcolm used Advocates for Youth “Three R” curriculum materials when teaching social-emotional units. N. Sahin would try to open up a discussion of the lesson topic to include gender identity issues any time it was appropriate. They both knew that a more comprehensive approach was needed.
And that approach started emerging during the discussions held this January at the PE, Health, and Athletics Department. They were initiated by teachers Erin Michaud (L. W. Beecher Museum Magnet School of Arts and Sciences) and David Weinreb (Elm City Montessori School, pictured above), the representatives of the City of New Haven LGBTQ+ Youth Task Force.
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Interested in collaboration?
Have ideas and suggestions?
Drop us a line!
Liliya Garipova
Phone: 475-220-1107
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