Overview
When Meriden Public Schools’ neighboring school district, Cheshire Public Schools, identified a need for teachers to support in-person learning, Meriden discovered they could provide support while also solving a problem they were facing — the need for remote teachers. The two districts chose to do a teacher swap to ensure that their schools had their staffing needs met without having to hire and onboard new teachers in the middle of the school year. This resource-sharing across the districts also paved the way for additional exchanges of support for students and teams.
"One of our neighbors, Cheshire Public Schools, needed a teacher there to support in-person learning, so they needed a couple. We sent them an in-person teacher and received distance learning teachers back in return. [...] We also opened up some of our AP classes that were offered outside of school hours to their students. We also agreed because we had an equity team, that we would give them some equity training from our team." - Mark Benigni, Superintendent
Approach
To complete this teacher exchange, the two districts looked within their teacher pools to find teachers who would be willing to participate in the exchange. Meriden found one teacher willing to support in-person learning at Cheshire, and Cheshire sent two teachers to Meriden to support remote learning. During the exchange, teachers were still contracted by their original school district, so no money was exchanged. Teacher willingness to participate and strong union relationships allowed for the exchange to take place.
In addition to this teacher exchange, Meriden also supported its neighboring district by providing it with diversity, equity, and inclusion training as this was something Cheshire was interested in but didn’t have a team devoted to yet. Meriden also offered certain after school AP classes to Cheshire high school students that wanted to earn those credits.
This strategy is a part of TLA's Hop, Skip, Leapfrog release, which explores the concrete ways in which schools and systems pursued student-centered innovation during COVID-19. Explore the full guide to find additional strategies, insights, and resources.
Meriden provides an education to 8,600 students across twelve schools and alternative educational programs. Teachers, administrators and students have received awards and recognition from community, state and national organizations.