Cedarhurst School is a therapeutic middle and senior high school in Hamden that has been affiliated with the Yale Department of Psychiatry for 60 years. It provides special education and transitional services for adolescents and young adults with mental health and behavioral conditions.
On July 1, Kitty Clemens became the new director of the school. A graduate of Barnard College and the Smith College School of Social Work, she completed a Postgraduate Fellowship at the Yale Psychiatric Institute and then joined the staff of Cedarhurst in 2003. Prior to becoming director, she served as the school’s clinical services supervisor, associate director, and Post-MSW Fellowship director.
In appointing Clemens as director, Michael Hoge, PhD, who serves as Superintendent of Cedarhurst School, noted her many previous contributions.
“She has been instrumental in strengthening clinical services, developing the transitional program for young adults, and implementing school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which have reshaped the Cedarhurst culture," he said. "With her gifted interpersonal skills, our department is fortunate to have someone as experienced and talented as Kitty to assume responsibility for the future of this important program.”
With her gifted interpersonal skills, our department is fortunate to have someone as experienced and talented as Kitty to assume responsibility for the future of this important program.
Michael Hoge, PhD, Superintendent, Cedarhurst School
Clemens replaces Betsy Donovan, who recently stepped down after a 20-year tenure as the school’s director. As part of a phased-retirement plan, she will continue at the school until the end of 2021.
A special education teacher and administrator, Donovan has spent 37 years at Cedarhurst, first as a teacher and then as the Head Teacher. In noting her accomplishments, Hoge commended her for “exceptional leadership, major expansion of Cedarhurst programs, significant enhancements to educational quality, and commitment to preservation of the 100-year-old historic building in which the school is housed.”
He also noted her critical leadership during the pandemic, developing a remote education program that was a model for special education in the state, and then reopening and operating the school for the past year with zero in-school transmission of COVID-19.