January 26, Covenant Prep on Fox 61- Click Here To See Video.
December 21, 2008- Hartford Courant, Second Look: Covenant Preparatory School Offers Fresh Start for 21 Hartford Kids.
The unused portion of the YWCA building on Broad Street is dramatically different today than the space Patrick Moore entered last spring.
Once-empty rooms are filled with desks, books and white boards. Walls are splashed with artwork and reports. And the quiet energy of 21 middle-school boys flows through the space, now the home of Covenant Preparatory School.
After a year of planning, and a summer of preparation, Moore's private, tuition-free school for low-income students in Hartford opened this fall. The school houses fifth and sixth grades this year, and has plans to expand to include up to eighth grade.
In a city that often defines Connecticut's achievement gap, the small, all-boys school is trying to chip away at the disparities low-income students face.
The daily meditation during their morning assembly is "a time to settle yourself, and get in touch with some type of peace," said Sister Marge Fish, a retired teacher who volunteers as a mentor for the staff.
Most of the boys bow their heads and fold their hands. But a couple sit during the reflection time, chins up, smiling.
They also say short prayers. Covenant Prep is part of the Jesuit-based NativityMiguel network of schools, which is faith-based, but doesn't push any particular religion. There are about 60 other NativityMiguel middle schools across the country. Moore, 27, was a principal at one in New Bedford, Mass.
Downstairs from the assembly room, a wall covered with calendars illustrates the strict schedules and various volunteer tasks that define the school.
On one, parents' names are typed in for each weekend, when they have signed up to clean the school. With a budget of only about $360,000 — all donations — parents and teachers also play the role of custodian.
Another calendar lists coming tests. Another, the Saturday trip schedule.
Besides weekly field trips to museums, local farms or community service sites, most students are at school from about 7 a.m. until about 8 p.m. They get an hour-and-a-half break to go home for dinner, but then most return to the school for a two-hour study period. This period is optional, but many take advantage of it to have a quiet place to complete their homework or get extra help from teachers.
The class is the larger of the two grades, although two new students are expected in January. Moore said classes will peak at 15. For math, the work groups get even smaller: Each of the four full-time teachers works with a group of four or five students.
Math teacher Noah Ratzan said the students were still learning basic times tables at the beginning of the year. Now they're working on algebra.
"It's less crowded, so you can really think and get focused," said sixth-grader Antonio Benitez.
Staff members have an equally grueling schedule. The teachers are basketball coaches, take the students on their weekend field trips and host Friday-night fun nights for them.
"It's so small, and we're with the kids basically 12 hours a day," Weaver said. "And they see us in different settings. ... It's a community. We're like a family."
A Transition
Today, the students look visitors in the eyes, shake their hands and politely introduce themselves. But it was a rough start.Within the first month, Moore said, four students were dismissed for discipline problems or lack of parental involvement.
"The first week, I started to question," Moore said. "I didn't know if it was going to work out. These kids were screened and carefully selected, and their behavior was atrocious."
Weaver said students would literally cry in the middle of class because the expectations overwhelmed them.
"Most were not used to getting any homework at all," Weaver said.
They often got detention for failing to hand in work; they weren't used to taking textbooks home at night; and they lacked organization skills, Weaver said.
"I think they're really coming together. They seem to really have matured," said Maura Horan, one of the volunteers who schedules the students' weekend trips.
"They're strict when they have to be strict," said sixth-grader Tequile Walwyn. "But most of the time, it's fun."
Moore says the real measure of success will come down the road.
"We're in a good stride right now," Moore said. "The kids are learning. Everyone's working hard. But our success will be when the kids come back to Hartford, after they've gone to college, and give back."
December 16, 2008- NBC Channel 30 News, Inside a Free Private School for Hartford Boys By Stephanie Hoey
An education can dramatically alter the direction of a child's life. It's a lesson a group of fifth and sixth grade boys have learned first hand at Covenant Preparatory School in Hartford.
"It's amazing just the progress they've made since the beginning of the year. It really is amazing," said teacher Meara Weaver.
Covenant Prep opened its doors for fifth and sixth grade last fall. It will add seventh and eight grade classes next year.
"It's basically an elite school for students who want a private school education but just can not afford it," said Principal Patrick Moore.
The students attend for free and leave behind their public school education.
"A lot of times our kids are getting chewed up in the public schools. They're getting picked on and bullied because they want to learn,” Moore said.
However, in order to remain at the school the boys must work hard. Their day begins at 7am cleaning the school. Classes are held from 8am to 3pm and from 3 to 5pm they participate in sports. The students leave at 5, but return from 6:30 to 8:30pm for study group.
"At first he used to cry because so much homework. He wasn't used to it. So now he's really adjusted. He loves it now," saidAudrey Maxwell of Hartford. Her 10-year-old son, Shamar, is a fifth grade student at the school.
"I just feel proud. I feel proud of my boy. Hopefully, he's going to keep on working hard and this is what I believe hard work will bring you somewhere," she said.
The school is funded solely by donations. It sets high expectations for students. When they finish here they are expected to go on to a private high school and then to college. But they are asked to return home.
"It's instilled in them to come back to Hartford after they've gone on to college and either teach here at the school or do something for the community," Moore said.
Teachers at the school do give a lot. They work 70 hours a week. In return they are compensated with room and board and a monthly stipend of only $325.
Meara Weaver was recruited for the job last year while a senior at Holy Cross.
"You don't think about material things and having to buy things. You just live simply and just focus on school and working with the kids."
It is clear what is important at this school- giving students a chance at a new life.
"It's all about getting your son to go to the right place to head on the right path," said Maxwell. "Because if you get that opportunity i believe you should stand behind it."
December 4, 2008- Covenant Prep Students Visit Loomis-Chaffee to hear Sudanese Lost Boy Speak.
“In 1987, when I was 13 years old, my village was attacked. The sounds of guns and the whistling of bullets woke us in the middle of the night.” John Dau’s words depicting the plight of his country and its people fell on the captivated ears of his audience.
The Hubbard Speakers Series guest is one of the “Lost Boys of the Sudan.” He spoke of the 16 years of attacks he endured from the northern Sudanese military, wild hyenas and lions, and his survival through starvation, extreme fatigue, disease and dehydration.
Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has struggled with war on and off since its independence in 1955. John’s experience stems from the country’s second civil war in 1983 between the northern and southern Sudanese. Primarily Muslims of Arab decent, the northern Sudanese’s ruling government, under Arab president Gaafar Muhammad Nimeiri, declared that Sudan would become a Muslim state and that the country would follow the Islamist “shari’a” law. The religious edict drew a clear line between the northern Sudanese and the southern Sudanese who were mostly Black Africans of Christian or traditional African religions.
“We were attacked everywhere we went,” John recalled of the first few years on the run. “It took us 3 months to get to Ethiopia on bare foot … we chewed grass like animals because that’s what we had to do and there was no water to drink,” he said. The enormity of his despair was surely unfathomable to many students in the audience. “I drank human urine myself … and ate mud so that I could stay alive.”
Upon arrival in Ethiopia, John was selected to lead a group of 50 other “Lost Boys,” which quickly grew to more than 1200 with the arrival of more and more refugees. The total number of refugees topped 27,000. Disease and starvation over the next four years cut the numbers sharply, however. “Boys were dying all around me … at night hyenas would come and eat the bodies,” John said of the corpses he buried in shallow graves.
After four years in Ethiopia the Lost Boys had to abandon the camp. Rebels overthrew the Ethiopian government and pushed out the refugees, including John and his group. Their expulsion from the region was bloodied by rebel fire on the retreating refugees and the disastrous crossing of the crocodile-infested Gilo River.
Dau and his group, with little adult supervision, fled to Kenya. Their ordeal continued with 6 months of travel on bare feet that was accompanied by bombings, gunfire and starvation. Eventually John and only 800 others arrived at the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya where he spent the next 10 years of his life. “At 17 I started to learn A-B-C and 1-2-3,” he reflected on his time in Kenya. “Education substituted our mothers and fathers … we think that protection comes from our father and if you are educated, you are protected,” he said. At the age of 20, John was at the 3rd grade level of education. In 2001, through a U.S. government refugee program, John moved to Syracuse, New York.
Currently John is completing a bachelor’s degree at Syracuse University. He married a “Lost Girl of Sudan,” and has two children. After reconnecting with his mother, sister and brother, John arranged for their safe arrival to America. He is the founder of three nonprofit organizations including the John Dau Sudan Foundation, which built and provides for health care clinics in southern Sudan. “I am very happy because I can help my people in Africa,” he said. His account of being a “Lost Boy of Sudan” was penned in his book God Grew Tired of Us and is the subject of the National Geographic Documentary under the same title.