School Library Named For Local Legend

A mother, grandmother, sister, and advocate for thousands of young New Haveners — and for the broader public school community — will live on, through the newly dedicated Hazel B. Pappas Media Center at Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy.

On Friday, friends and family members and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) leaders gathered at 360 Columbus Ave. to celebrate the late Hazel B. Pappas, a beloved New Haven education advocate and longtime community activist who passed away in December 2022 at the age of 86.

Pappas’s family traveled from as far away as Georgia and Chicago to help dedicate the Clemente library to Pappas for her decades of work holding the New Haven Board of Education accountable and providing constant reminders to put children at the forefront.

City Community Services Administrator Eliza Halsey presented Pappas’s family with a city proclamation honoring her commitment to showing up to countless school board meetings, and organizing parents across the district. ​“We could not have the schools we have without those staunch advocates,” Halsey said.

Family members like her daughter, Cassandra Pappas, spoke about her mother’s tireless work helping to lead city, state, and national advocacy efforts pushing for better public schools. She also worked in Clemente’s media center and was a regular attendee and participant at Board of Education meetings.

Pappas’s legacy of kindness, passion, and respect continues to come up in conversations to this day at Board of Education meetings.

NHPS Supt. Madeline Negrón thanked Board of Education Secretary Edward Joyner for leading the district’s work on dedicating the space to Pappas alongside Clemente Principal Adela Jorge. Joyner said the district still must fundraise to seek out funding to get signage for Clemente’s library dedication.

Negrón emphasized Pappas’s consistent kindness even while addressing very difficult concerns and issues. Negrón first learned of Pappas when she was a classroom teacher, and then a principal, in the district. She described Pappas as a ​“force of energy” who could also calm a room down. ​“Today as I sit in this role, I wish there were more Mrs. Pappas in the crowd,” she concluded.

Cassandra Pappas thanked her siblings, aunts, and sister- and brother-in-laws for joining the Friday celebration.

As songs, poetry, and testimonials were shared about Pappas, family and friends were surrounded by the library’s biographies of icons like Wilma Rudolph, Venus Williams, Ida B Wells, Sojourner Truth, and Phillis Wheatley.

Joyner described Pappas as having ​“a life of meaning and purpose.” He spoke about her upbringing in Mississippi amidst virulent anti-Black racism, and how she still developed the superpowers of ​“kindness, courage, and stamina.”

Pappas’s sister, Clara Houston, flew in from Chicago for the dedication.

Houston, 92, recalled growing up in Mississippi with Pappas in their family’s log cabin on a 40-acre farm. She and her sister walked two and a half miles to and from school every day. ​“We had no way to get there other than walking and there was no way you’d stay in the house and not go to school,” Houston recalled.

Sometimes Houston and Pappas would have to walk through a swamp of water when the road would flood ​“but we went to school everyday.”

Pappas’s love for education was inspired by their mother, Houston said.

Another family member found along the way of Pappas’s life was her close friend and ​“twin” Florence Caldwell, who Pappas met in 1982 at a Board of Education meeting. While holding back tears, Caldwell told a story of the duo arriving to the meeting separately to testify before the board and by the end leaving as inseparable sisters.

Caldwell, who worked with Pappas to host the district’s annual Florence Caldwell Title l Academic Achievement Award Ceremony, said the two instantly clicked because of their agreed understanding that ​“every child doesn’t have a person to speak up for them, so every child in the NHPS system became our children.”

They made a promise to each other that ​“we’re gonna be a force to be reckoned with.”

The two raised their children together and went to nearly all community and school board meetings together. Their goal was to always let the board know its right and wrongs but in a dignified and respectful way.

The duo talked on the phone every night and hosted local voter registration drives which resulted in more than 5,000 registrations over the years, Caldwell recalled.

Now, Caldwell still holds true to the duo’s promise: ​“As long as we got breath in our bodies, we’re going to do what we need to do to help New Haven Public Schools.”

At the conclusion of Friday’s celebration Caldwell offered advice to New Haven parents, who she encouraged to remain active and fighting for children’s educations. She advised to ​“never go into a situation angry. Remain calm. And always go in open-minded and not with pre-drawn conclusions. Respect commands respect. Once you enter a situation hostile, that’s what you get back.”

The morning’s celebration ended with attendees joining together to sing one of Pappas’s favorite songs, ​“Amazing Grace.”