It was a lively, energetic environment as Calling All Brothers welcomed Hartford students back into the classroom at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.
Tuesday was the first day of school for thousands of students in the city.
Students were greeted with cheering, music, and high-fives as they entered the building.
“It's a place that's just electrifying with community people and people who care,” said Rev. AJ Johnson, with Calling All Brothers.
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Johnson said for nine years now, Calling All Brothers has focused on Hartford because as a community the children face different challenges.
“Any point in time in any one of our children's lives, they'll have to come to school with an uncle or a friend being shot by gun violence. They have to come to school living in a public housing unit that's deplorable, that has things that no other student has to contend with, but are still expected to show up and compete and to learn. So this is just allowing our children to know that they're not by themselves in these environments,” said Johnson.
Children are starting a new school year at a time when the Hartford Public School District dealt with a difficult budget year.
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Hartford Public Schools received additional funding from the state and city, which allowed the district to call back 80 certified staff members who initially received layoff notices, according to the superintendent, Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez.
But, the district is still short special education teachers and speech and language therapy teachers as well as science and math teachers. The district is relying on substitute teachers to fill those gaps like it did in previous years, according to Torres-Rodriguez.
Torres-Rodriguez also said they are still working to reduce their chronic absenteeism numbers and finding ways to discipline students if needed, but keep them in school.
