Unions demand free tests and masks

Leaders want N95s for all in K-12 schools as they cope with surge

As COVID-19 slammed school districts across Connecticut Monday, a coalition of the state’s largest labor unions called on state leaders for more resources and to enforce several rigorous safety protocols in K-12 schools, including free testing, temperature screening students before entry, and mandated use of N95 masks.

The coalition, comprised of the state’s largest labor unions representing over 60,000 public education employees in Connecticut, wants the state to provide, distribute and require N95 masks be worn by everyone in schools. Leaders are also calling for costfree access to testing at schools, and to end the “unsuccessful practice” of requiring teachers to instruct both in class and to students who are learning remotely.

Their demands come on a day when school districts wrestled with lean numbers among faculty and staff after the holiday break. Call-outs forced some schools to delay opening and others to cancel classes entirely.

“Up to 60% of my members don’t have access to [N95] masks, and more than 70% have reported not having access to testing,” said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association. “I think we can all agree that that’s not the work space we want to be in. That doesn’t feel safe, that doesn’t feel responsible.’’

On Monday, the Ansonia Public Schools announced that schools will be closed for the remainder of the week, with 25% of the district’s staff out with COVID-19.

Enfield Superintendent Christopher Drezek was prompted to close his schools on Monday after 20% of bus drivers reported they’d be absent. In Hartford more than 11% of employees (393 out of 3,380) were absent, while about

8% of teachers and about 12% of students missed school in Glastonbury.

“I anticipate that at any given moment, either one building or the entire district won’t make it,” said Enfield Superintendent Christopher Drezek. “We’re not immune to the things that happen around the country.”

With faculty and staff nervous over workplace safety amid record-high levels of COVID-19, the coalition wants all students to be screened for high body temperatures before entering the school.

Stacie Harris Byrdsong, president of AFSCME Local 3194, said the temperature

screening can help detect symptoms among nonverbal students, or students with disabilities who cannot wear masks.

The coalition also wants cost-free access to testing, N95 masks and vaccinations available on school grounds. While masks are required in schools, they aren’t always N95 masks. The N95 masks are viewed by public health experts to be more effective than single-layer cloth masks at preventing the transmission of the coronavirus.

Gov. Ned Lamont has insisted the state is “scouring the globe” for more testing kits for residents and for school districts, even after an agreement to obtain a shipment 500,000 test kits fell through amid a surge in demand. The state has delivered

3.2 million N35 masks to municipalities since last Friday.

“We remain committed to keeping schools open and safe for all students, faculty and staff,’’ said Max Reiss, spokesman for Lamont.

Glastonbury Public Schools is scheduled to pick

up 2,500 test kits on Tuesday, according to Dr. Alan B. Bookman, superintendent of schools. He hopes it’ll be enough to get through a difficult January.

“It sounds like we’re getting a great deal of tests, but when you have a school system of 6,000 kids, you can go through tests pretty quickly like that,” Brookman said.

The Hartford Public Schools received 5,000 of the masks from the state on Sunday, according to

a district spokesperson, and distributed them on Monday.

The union coalition wants these masks to be mandated within schools for students, faculty and staff who are able to wear them.

“We really don’t know our schools are safe unless we have testing and specific, strict safety protocols like masks in place,” said Mary Yordon, president of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers and a vice president with the American Federation of Teachers in Connecticut.

“If we don’t have masks, if we don’t have the elements in place, then we need to come up with another plan,” Yordon said.

Once in classes, educators also want to see changes to the way absences among

both students and faculty are handled.

They call for an end to “the unsuccessful practice” of dual teaching, or the practice where teachers instruct both in-person students and those participating virtually.

“[A teacher] cannot be present in multiple places at the same time,” Yordon said.

Coalition leaders said the updated school guidance from the state Department of Public Health, which reduced the quarantine period to five days, will help students and staff return to the classroom more quickly.

But staff absentees are still prevalent, and in some cases debilitating. Joseph Dibacco, superintendent of Ansonia Public Schools, wrote in a letter to families that exposure to COVID-19 had knocked out one quarter of the district’s staff.

The district attempted to open “with considerable staffing issues,” but Dibacco was prompted to close schools through Friday. The days will be made up at the end of the school year, he said, because Connecticut does not allow remote learning as an alternative to in-person.

Both Stratford and Stonington also closed schools Monday and Tuesday due to the COVID-19 surge. New Haven Public Schools scraped by with 18% of bus drivers calling out sick, with help from drivers in neighboring districts.