New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Trepidation, excitement as high schools reopen in city
NEW HAVEN — Kiana Flores cannot wait to get the band back together — at least partially.
Flores, a senior at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, is a clarinetist at the arts-themed magnet school on College Street. For more than a year now, she has been unable to play live music with other band students as the coronavirus pandemic led to citywide school closures.
“It’s definitely been difficult in the virtual setting, especially as a senior preparing my capstone project,” she said. “We’ve missed out on live performance opportunities.”
New Haven school officials have slowly reopened buildings in 2021 by starting
with the youngest grades, using a phased-in approach beginning with youths who, based on some research since the start of the pandemic, are believed to pose the lowest risk for virus transmission.
But on April 5, students in high schools will have the opportunity to be in school two days a week — either Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday — although students have the option to remain in the remote, online model. Some are pleased by the chance to return to classrooms, others will remain in a remote learning model.
Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey told an audience of about 300 people on a webinar for parents this month that she believes the gradual reopening of schools has helped the district in making plans to give all students an option for inperson instruction.
“Our children have been cooped up. It’s not good for the psyche for people who are gregarious by nature,” she said.
Flores said the entire band at her high school will not be able to gather because of the way the student population is split between remote and inperson, with the in-person group being split into two smaller groups attending on different days. Additionally, there will be protocols in place for the reduced number of band students who are able to play together. For her woodwind instrument, Flores cannot wear a mask.
“We have special material we put on the bell of the clarinet, the bottom, to stop the air particles from traveling,” she said. “I don’t know what they will do with other instruments. But from what we’ve seen, the class will be small.”
A lot of social activities also will be limited, with only two students at a lunch table seated diagonally. Students said they are unsure whether they can expect to have usual
activities, such as senior prom. Yet Flores believes that whatever level of socialization students are able to get will be to their great benefit.
“What I enjoy about being in school or certain classes is the connection you have with your peers. In AP (Statistics) last year it was hard material, but really fun to joke with friends when we got the same answer wrong or have moments between classes to talk to each other,” she said. “It’s helpful being able to talk through your answers with your peers. We did that a lot last year in some of my classes, being able to be in a group and talk about the material.”
Anthony Fiore, a junior at High School in the Community and a student member of the Board of Education, said he believes the return to schools “had to be done.”
“We have been one of the most careful districts in (Connecticut) and because of that we feel safe and confident to go back,” he said.
At the start of the fall return to school, New Haven was unique among school districts in the state for keeping all instruction remote. It had been the initiative of the state’s then-Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona for all school districts to provide an option for inperson learning for all students, but a majority of New Haven’s school board stood against it, worrying that an urban school district
like New Haven with large class sizes and more school buildings would present a higher risk for community transmission.
One crucial difference from then is that, by April 5, all teachers who opt into receiving a vaccine for the virus should have received at least a first dose of a two-dose vaccine. Many will have received a second dose by then as well, officials have said. On the same day students return, under the current rules set forth by Gov. Ned Lamont, residents 16 and older will be eligible for a vaccine.
Staying remote
Despite his confidence that the district is handling a return to schools appropriately, Fiore will not be attending school in-person.
“I do not see the need to,” he said. “I personally am doing well with online learning.”
However, he said other students have expressed that they would greatly benefit from in-person interaction with a teacher.
Spencer Greene, a junior at Engineering and Science University Magnet School and a student council representative for the school, said he has noticed the workload has been more arduous for students in remote learning.
“I sent out a survey, and the general consensus amongst the student body was people weren’t really feeling happy,” he said. “Students were feeling overwhelmed, overworked and over-stressed.”
Despite that, Greene said he will remain in the remote model. He said he believes teachers are teaching the same amount of material, but work that ordinarily would be assigned in class has been added onto students’ overall workload.
“I struggle to find the justification of moving to two days of in-person learning when I will still have probably the same workload,” he said.
Participation
At a recent Board of Education committee meeting, Tracey said the district currently estimates about one-third of its students have missed more than 10 percent of instructional time this school year. Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, the school district’s chief of youth, family and community engagement, said her department believes reopening schools will help to re-engage many students, especially those in ninth grade who have completed nearly an entire year of high school without being in the buildings.
“We’re truly hoping those ninth-graders stepping foot into high schools for the first time demonstrate a better response with attendance, academics and behavior,” Joseph Lumpkin said.
Cari Strand and Michelle Cabaldon, co-building leaders of High School in the Community, said they are in constant communication with their students and families as they prepare for the building to reopen. Strand said the school emphasizes small group meetings to give students individual attention and to share information clearly and directly.
“We think that it’s important for the return to school — whenever it happens — to be celebratory so that we can help students adjust to new expectations and rules in a way that is supportive, encouraging and joyful,” she said.
Although the in-person instruction will help to engage students who desire that connection,
Strand said the school’s instructional model of project-based learning means there will not be much of a difference in how teachers run their classes.
Teachers
Dave Cicarella, president of New Haven’s teachers union, said some of his members in high schools are slightly anxious about returning, although vaccinations have helped quell those concerns.
“There’s a little nervousness out there, a little trepidation, but we recognize we’ve got to get back to school,” he said.
Cicarella said that, in addition to the benefit to students, most teachers would prefer to work from the classroom. He said there is less professional collaboration for teachers under the remote model and that they have been trained in teaching in person.
“They do want to get back to school; they want some normalcy back in their life,” he said.
Leslie Blatteau, a social studies teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy, said she is projected to have about eight students in each of her classes on a given day, based on what has been reported by school administration.
“I feel like that’s doable. I feel like we’ll be able to observe social distancing and keep our masks on and stay safe. I’m hoping for the best,” she said.
Additionally, the week of April 5 immediately precedes the scheduled spring break in the academic calendar. “We’ll have a week of practice and a week of vacation,” she said.
Overall, Blatteau said she believes the most important impact returning to buildings can have is reducing stress and anxiety among students and staff.
“When stress is managed and things are wellorganized, things are better for everybody,” she said.
Parents
Despite the desire for normalcy expressed by many, several parents of high school students said they are still reluctant and will not send their students to school.
Eliza Arel said her daughter, a senior at Wilbur Cross High School — the largest school in the district — will not be returning to the building.
“The school population at Wilbur Cross is high, and with only two months left and many senior activities suspended, it doesn’t make much sense to return when adding in a risk factor,” she said.
She said her youngest daughter, who is in ninth grade at Sound School, also will remain home until next year.
Catherine John, mother of a sophomore at
ESUMS, also will be keeping her daughter remote. She said she believes the desire to leave the house during a pandemic is a “natural instinct,” but she has heard stories of younger students missing their parents and their home shortly after arriving at school. She said she believes the push to return to schools is one in which many parents feel forced to do so because of work obligations and a desire to give their children supervision.
John said she has been discouraged by the school district’s lack of clear reporting of when there are COVID-19 cases and in which schools. Often that information is shared only at the school level, with community members at other schools unaware that there are cases in schools.
“The lack of data transparency with NHPS has always been an issue and continues to be one,” she said.
Larry Conaway, a member of the Board of Education who was part of the narrow majority who voted against reopening schools over the summer, said his position has “slightly changed,” especially with the benefit of time and a communitywide mass vaccination program underway.
“I think it’s time we put the safety measures in place and bring the kids back,” he said.