Rosales: "It feels like a family" at Hillhouse. Jaqualine Rosales is no stranger to moving. After leaving her family in El Salvador, she lived for a time in Texas, and then in South Carolina. Now in New Haven, the 18-year-old Hillhouse High School student lives by herself. She doesn’t feel alone, though. “I’ve been to a lot of schools and I’ve seen a lot of education [in] different ways,” Rosales said on Thursday at a press conference calling for deeper state investments to help young people who might otherwise fall through the cracks. ​“But New Haven has something special because this school feels like [a] second home to me…it feels like family.”Rosales credited her teachers in helping her adjust to New Haven, being there to listen to her, support her in her language learning journey and academics. Looking to the future, she wants to attend University of Connecticut, and eventually, law school.But not all students in her position are so lucky.Local elected officials and education leaders gathered in Hillhouse’s library on Thursday morning to call for increased state education funding to support disconnected youth. All called the state to adopt policy proposals included in the 119K Commission​’s Young People First plan — a bipartisan list of action items and proposed costs to reduce the state’s number of disconnected youth over the next ten years from 119,000 to 60,000.Such funding detailed in the plan would account for a variety of student services — from increasing the amount of social workers in school districts to language learning programs, such as the ESL program Rosales is participating in. Career starting pathway programs, technical support for instructors, and diversionary programs with community-based accountability, alongside over twenty more action items are also listed in the plan.The press conference was held in Hillhouse High School’s library in the middle of the school day. As speakers spoke, the school bell rang periodically.Mayor Justin Elicker said that the state ​“as a whole,” is not doing enough to support kids in public schools. He urged the state to change the Education Cost Sharing formula, which has not been changed since 2013. The recommended package in the report is $545 million of state funding to be poured back into municipalities, with New Haven receiving around a $42 million increase.“The reality is that the problem is not inefficiency,” Elicker said. ​“It’s inequality.”Elicker stressed that, on average, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spends $20,451 per pupil, which, according to the mayor, still sits below the state average. He emphasized the imbalance of students and faculty, staff, and social workers, which the increased budget could help alleviate. In particular, Elicker noted that there are currently 53 social workers for 19,000 students in the district, putting around 358 cases per social worker. There are also only 26 librarians for 41 schools.“You think about all that money on the table,” Elicker said, in reference to the state surpluses. ​“And we’ve got to tell our kids that we can’t pay for a library in their school.”NHPS Supt. Madeline Negrón highlighted that one in five individuals aged 14 to 26 in Connecticut are ​“disengaged.” To Negrón, there is a serious economic hit should such youth not be reengaged. According to the Youth First Plan — the bi-partisan plan put forth by 14 local elected officials — the state is potentially losing $750 million, should the crisis continue, with $350 million in lost tax revenue and $400 million in government spending on services.Negrón urged state leaders to recognize the limitations of the ECS formula, with the current version not including enough resources for multilingual learners and low-income students, as well as not including any weight for special education.Of the current job, Negrón described what seemed like an uphill battle: ​“We must address the escalating needs of our students while navigating an Educational Cost Sharing formula that does not adequately reflect the varying levels of need across our districts.”New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau also highlighted the efforts of instructors in the classrooms, many of whom have ​“reached a breaking point that is directly related to decades of underfunding.” She criticized the state for letting tax burdens fall on working class residents.“This vision is possible,” Blatteau said of the plan. ​“We are in one of the richest states in the richest country in the world, and we know we can get there.”Connecticut Conference of Municipalities CEO Joe DeLong furthered Blatteau’s criticisms, emphasizing that just 36 percent of education funding comes from the state. He also accused the state of not providing much tax relief at all.“What I want to offer today is a simple ask,” DeLong said. ​“It’s just an ask to this session: let’s please just have an honest debate about this.”Watching the press conference was Hillhouse librarian Pamela Campbell. After the press conference, Campbell pointed out the various problems in the room itself — the lack of power outlets, the broken projector screen, the exposed wires on the ceiling, the lack of tables for students to do work at, and the temperature. Campbell often uses a personal heater under her desk to keep herself warm during the room’s worst temperatures.Campbell graduated from Hillhouse in 1979 and observed that the building itself has barely changed since then. Working at the school now, she said that the problems working in the district is like having a ​“list that keeps growing,” a list that extra money could help out with.“We’ve got districts that are supporting these big, old buildings…we’re trying to build current technology into a building that’s over twenty, thirty, forty years old,” Campbell said. ​“And we need more staffing all the way around…It is overwhelming.”In a statement provided to the Independent for this article, Julia Bergman, a spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, said, ​“The governor appreciates the work of the 119k Commission and its efforts to engage many voices and communities across the state to look at an issue we all care deeply about: making sure our youth are connected to educational and career opportunities that will set them up for success throughout their lives.”Bergman continued: ​“The governor’s priority is investing in what’s working for our youth including historic funding for early childhood and K‑12 education, but also investing in their families, which we know is key to ensuring that our young people stay engaged and connected. Many of the report’s recommendations include actions our stage agencies are already undertaking to ensure positive outcomes for our youth, but the governor always welcomes conversations about what we can do better to ensure our investments are making an impact.”Another Lamont spokesperson added that ECS funding has grown by $345 million over the course of the Lamont administration, even as K‑12 enrollment statewide has decreased. ​“Governor Lamont supports the acceleration of the phase-in of the ECS formula,” that spokesperson wrote. ​“As the administration develops the next biennial budget, we will continue to look for ways to ensure appropriate levels of funding to support our K‑12 students.”Mayor Elicker at Thursday's presser. Hillhouse librarian Pamela Campbell: "It's overwhelming."