New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘Open schools, our lives depend on it’
Branford parents, students say April reopening plan is not soon enough
BRANFORD — After pressuring the school district to present a plan to get students back into schools in-person full time, a large contingent of town parents are rejecting the district’s tentative plan for April 19, saying they want it to happen sooner, if not immediately. Their voices were joined by students who said the current system is harming their mental health.
“This is unacceptable,” Karen Lopez, parent of a Branford High School senior, said toward the end of a blistering, five-hour session with the school board Wednesday. “Our kids need
to be in school.”
Lopez called it ironic that Branford’s reopening framework was presented on the same day U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, the state’s former education commissioner, was in Meriden with first lady Jill Biden stressing the need for schools across the nation to reopen for fulltime, in-person learning as soon as possible.
With vaccinating teachers against COVID-19 now a national priority, Cardona urged all schools to fully reopen by the end of April.
In a letter to parents this week, Branford Superintendent of Schools Hamlet M. Hernandez defended the district’s hybrid learning model for most students as something that has helped schools remain open since September without having to switch fully remote learning.
Under a hybrid model, groups of students — or cohorts— alternate two days of in-person learning with 3 days of remote learning.
While cases of COVID-19 are falling, Branford’s rate remains consistently higher than the state average, local officials insist. As of last week, the state’s positivity rate was said to be at 2.3 percent while Branford’s was at 4.3 percent.
That, Hernandez said, doesn’t even take into account 22 more positive cases reported over the weekend.
Last week, a growing group of parents who started a Facebook page and a petition that garnered more than 500 signatures appealed to the district to produce a reopening plan.
The response was a framework that will slowly increase in-person learning.
Under the current model, Wednesdays are a remote learning day for all students. The plan presented Wednesday would have the district’s two cohorts of elementary students add three hours of in-person learning on alternating Wednesdays. By returning only three hours per day on Wednesdays, teachers still would have time for one-onone interaction with the fully remote students, officials said.
As of March 1, 471 students in the district were fully remote.
The framework has the intermediate school’s two cohorts alternating full-day Wednesdays beginning March 24. On March 31, high school cohorts would start alternating full-day Wednesdays.
The plan is for all students to return to in-person learning full time following April break, except those choosing to remain fully remote.
Board of Education member Tim Raynor said he expected a more robust plan and one that would focus on the social-emotional needs of students who been without full-time instruction for a year.
“I am very concerned about elementary schoolchildren and their wellbeing.,” Raynor said, adding that if the plan were up for a vote, it would not have his approval.
Parent Jennifer Orlando said district statistics don’t reflect how much parents and students are struggling.
“My inbox is flooded with pictures of kids crying on couches,” said Orlando, her voice trembling. “There needs to be solid days going back. Not choppy days.”
“They need to get back now, ” added parent Becky Gilman.
Of more than 30 speakers during the meeting, one, Walsh PTA President Cheryl Andresen, said she was OK with the phased-in time frame.
“I am thankful my kids have had consistency and stayed healthy,” she said.
By phasing in the return, Hernandez said, staff can determine the impact on COVID-19 positivity rates. Were he to go strictly by the community’s pandemic positivity measures, Hernandez said the reopening would not even be starting.
That was not what Branford students listening in to the meeting wanted to hear.
A letter from a Branford High freshman read into the record said the strain and stress of complete online assignments was taking a toll on her mental health.
“Anxiety is through the roof,” the student wrote. “Open schools, our lives depend on it.”
Branford High senior Melissa Juliano called in and said she hit her breaking point with the hybrid model about a month ago. She said she finds herself crying all the time and sometimes is unable to walk into the school on the two days she does attend in person.
Instead of enjoying senior year, she said, she can’t wait for it to be over.
“I am literally begging you to get us back to school as soon as possible like tomorrow,” Juliano said.
Hernandez acknowledged the issue was not easy.
“I hear this evening students are socially and emotionally struggling. Another group telling me their students are fine,” he said. “My job is not to make a hasty decision without consulting with administrators.”
There will be another meeting to update the plan, as well as a possible parent survey.