Bronx charter school a haven for students

A Harvard-trained administrator thought she had heard it all as a gatekeeper in a city office responsible for supporting charter schools when Bill Baccaglini walked enthusiastically through the door with one more idea.

"I thought, 'Here we go, another big idea,' " recalled Jessica Nauiokas. But she found herself liking his plans so much that she offered to be the Bronx school's principal.

And that was how Nauiokas became principal at Mott Haven Academy Charter School, where a third of students are in foster care. Another third are in families receiving preventive services to diminish the need for foster care. The rest are from the Mott Haven community, which is in a congressional district where a soaring poverty rate keeps a third of residents on public assistance.

Many schools cater to disadvantaged children, but Mott Haven Academy is unique because it houses hundreds of counselors in the same building. It was impossible to find a blueprint for the school, Baccaglini said.

The counselors work in the Bronx Community Services offices of the school's sponsor, the New York Foundling, a 142-year-old citywide private child-welfare agency. Baccaglini is the agency's executive director.

The school features a small student-teacher ratio, an extended school day, many tutoring options and special training to keep teachers consistent in the language they use and their responses to problems, Nauiokas said.

The school opened in 2008 with 90 students in kindergarten and first grade. Last year, the student population swelled to 175 as grade three was added and a newly renovated $32.5-million building was opened. Private donations are sought for two-thirds of the costs. The rest was publicly financed.

Next school year, 40 to 50 new students will arrive as the fourth grade is added.

The charter school hopes to close the achievement gap between students from stable backgrounds and children from troubled families, said Baccaglini.

"Even though their world outside of school is falling apart, we want to keep their educational experience as consistent as possible," he said.

It's a comfortable environment for children, said 9-year-old Arthur Dash, who's entering the fourth grade.

"They're not going to keep pushing and pushing you," he said. "If there's a problem, there's a solution too, Arthur added, referring to the counselors.

The school's staff played a pivotal role in identifying Arthur's emotional outbursts as an emerging problem and suggesting where he could get treatment, said his mother, Nicole Zenon.

"In a public school, they would have just labeled him a disruptive child and let him go," she said.

No students have been kicked out for behavioral problems, Baccaglini said.

Ingrid Bonds, a music teacher who came from Philadelphia where she had worked at a new charter school years ago, said she noticed differences right away.

She said teachers at Mott Haven are taught to speak to children as if they are little adults, offering positive and logical consequences to disruptive students rather than yelling or ordering them from the room.

The school has three full-time employees who focus solely on the social and emotional needs of the students. On any day, five to 10 Foundling counselors may be enlisted for student visits lasting from 30 minutes to a full day.

The school was formed mindful that the only way students will progress academically "is to address the social stuff," said Gwendy Fuentes, who coordinates support services between the school staff and child welfare workers.

Fuentes said it is not uncommon for counselors to help children who have been removed from their parents or have moved, sometimes multiple times a year.

"They're very sad," she said. "They cry. They act out. They don't have anybody to talk to, so we make sure we provide that here."