Stamford teachers angry by lack of reopening survey
STAMFORD — Stamford parents received a survey asking their thoughts about school reopening in the fall.
No survey was circulated among teachers — causing many educators in the district to criticize the school administration this week.
Teachers, many of whom are worried about the risk of returning to school buildings, say their feelings and suggestions have not been taken into consideration
“What we think and feel and what we’re willing to do just doesn’t matter,” said Bettina Vaccaro, a third grade teacher at Julia A. Stark Elementary School and a director on the executive board of the Stamford Education Association, the teacher’s union.
Vaccaro was one of many teachers who sent emails or spoke to the Stamford Advocate this week to criticize the administration’s handling of the reopening process when it comes to teacher input. Many other educators disparaged the administration and Board of Education on social media.
The anger has reached such a boiling point that teachers have organized a car caravan protest on Thursday, July 30, to call for a safe return to school. The parade of cars will start at Scalzi Park at 2 p.m.
Superintendent Tamu Lucero sent out an email this week that included a section in which she wrote “there is no need for a staff reopening survey at this time.” Lucero reiterated that point during a Board of Education meeting this week and in an emailed statement to the Stamford Advocate.
“The Connecticut State Department of Education requires that we develop plans to return all students to school, have a hybrid model, as well as a Distance Learning Plan,” she wrote. “It seems disingenuous to ask if a teacher plans to return to school. Returning to school is an option for students, not for staff.”
Lucero said if a teacher has a health concern that would not allow them to return to work, they should contact the school’s human resources department.
But that response didn’t seem to please teachers, many of whom felt as if administrators were saying they weren’t interested in the opinions or feelings of educators.
Diane Phanos, head of the teacher’s union, said teachers have been underrepresented in the school district’s reopening committee, known as the CORE Taskforce.
Of the 50 members, only one — Westhill High School teacher Kate Tobin — is a classroom teacher.
Ann Zorn, a special education teacher at Julia A. Stark Elementary School, said a survey should have been sent to teachers to get suggestions.
“I would have thought they would ask teachers key questions on how to do this,” she said, referring to reopening. “We do matter and our voice should matter.”
Catherine Manning, a veteran math teacher at Westhill High School, said she feels “extremely conflicted” about school reopening.
“This is my job, my passion,” she said. “But I do not see how we can even come close to meeting even the most minimum of CDC guidelines ... As badly as I want to go back, I just don’t feel safe.”
She said the state has stricter protocols for grocery stores, hair salons, movie theaters and restaurants.
“Treat us with the same respect that you’re treating grocery workers,” she said.
One of her concerns, shared by many teachers who spoke to the Advocate, is that many school buildings in the district have poor ventilation systems, which led to the 2018 mold crisis in which parts or all of several schools had to be closed.
James Bertone, another Westhill teacher, said “I feel completely unsafe going back to work.” He described the thought of returning to classrooms as “utter terror.”
Bertone suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, and he said returning to Westhill would likely set off an anxiety attack that would be “completely debilitating.”
Opening prematurely, he said, would be a recipe for disaster.
Jeanne Valentine, a teacher at Stamford High School, said she is “very uncomfortable” with returning to school under the current situation.
She found it ironic that the Board of Education continues to meet remotely, but is asking teachers to go back into classrooms in a month.
“They’re willing to put me on the front line without any regard for my thoughts and my feelings,” she said.
Laura P. Dickey, a teacher at Dolan Middle School, joined her colleagues in criticizing the reopening plan so far.
“Teachers have not been included in the process of the reopening,” she said.
She called Lucero’s response that a survey was not necessary “totally insensitive.”
“You’re not inviting the conversation,” she added.
At a recent Board of Education meeting, Lucero and members discussed surveying staff about professional development. In an emailed statement, Lucero said that if any unions would like to add questions to that survey, “we would be very open.”