City school buildings to close for month

District will revert to full-time distance learning on Dec. 21.

STAMFORD — Stamford school buildings will close and the district will switch to fulltime distance learning for all students starting Dec. 21, Superintendent Tamu Lucero announced Friday.

The period of distance learning is expected to last one month, with schools reopening again on Jan. 19, Lucero said in a letter sent to public school staff and families.

“Looking ahead to the upcoming weeks, we unfortunately anticipate our current staffing challenges, in both the Hybrid and the Distance Teaching and Learning models, to

become increasingly more difficult,” Lucero wrote. “In order to ensure continuity and quality of teaching and learning, we are going to temporarily transition to 100 percent Distance Teaching and Learning.”

Since the start of the school year, most Stamford students have taken part in a hybrid teaching model in which they have alternated between days attending classes in school and days learning from home. Another group of students, roughly a quarter, have opted for a full-time online “academy” in which they have taken all their lessons from home.

Operating the two models has stretched the teaching staff thin, many teachers have said, with many taking on additional duties and some courses having to be dropped.

Lucero said additional information regarding the move would be forthcoming from principals next week.

She also said time was being set aside next week for parentteacher conferences, and that schools would close early Wed

nesday, Thursday and Friday to enable them.

“Thank you for all your flexibility, understanding, and support to ensure the health and safety of our staff and students,” Lucero wrote.

The move comes as a growing number of teachers — fearful of spiking coronavirus cases throughout the school district — have been calling on the school administration to move to fulltime remote learning.

Last month, Westhill High School teachers peppered officials with emails urging that they close buildings. This week, after a spike in cases, a number of Stamford High School teachers did the same.

Jeanne Valentine, a teacher at the school and parent of two students there, was one of those who sent messages. She called for school buildings to close, at least until the end of the year.

“I am beyond frustrated and truly afraid for my life and the lives of my two children who attend Stamford High School,” Valentine wrote.

COVID-19 cases at Stamford High have ballooned this week, with 11 new cases between Monday and Tuesday, and 16 positive

tests between last Saturday and Thursday.

In comparison, there were 22 cases of the virus at the school in all of November.

Valentine made it clear in her message that she was not levying blame on anyone, but rather, questioning the system itself.

“Today, I had a student come to my classroom that I was told on Monday needed to be on quarantine,” she said, in an email sent on Tuesday. “Right after that, a student who was in my room on Monday self reported they tested positive. My level of anxiety is through the roof.”

The emails from teachers included calls for more robust contact tracing, as well as pleas to close due to stressed and overwhelmed teachers.

Seven staff members who sent emails to district administrators were reached for comment. All except Valentine declined to speak unless granted anonymity.

Principal Ray Manka this week sent out an email defending the work of building administrators, who he said are working around the clock.

“They are a cohesive unit of dedicated educators who go above and beyond the call of duty each

and every day,” he said.

Manka added, “Please rest assured that the members of my administrative team take no shortcuts because they truly care about the well being of all of my students and staff.”

Speaking on Thursday, Manka acknowledged that there are concerns among staff at the school.

“I know that the morale is not at its peak, and it’s not at its lowest valley either,” he said.

With so many news cases, teachers have speculated that transmission of the virus is happening inside the school building.

But Manka said there’s no evidence to suggest that so far.

“There was no emerging patterns that would suggest that it was a shared teacher or a shared class,” he said.

The number of new cases across Stamford schools dipped slightly this week, for the first time in over a month.

The latest figures, released on Thursday, show 71 new cases over the previous week. Last week, that number was 78. That means there have been 10 new cases, on average, across the district every day for the last two weeks.

“I don’t think the numbers are going to go down,” Valentine said.

Lucero on Thursday said she read all of the messages from Stamford High teachers and said she acknowledged the anxiety felt by educators.

“As always, we continue to work closely with Mayor (David) Martin and the Stamford Department of Health to analyze the data, follow all guidelines for contact tracing and emphasize mitigation practices with our staff and students, as well as continually assess the health and safety in our buildings,” she said, in an emailed statement.

Lucero added, “As we have said in the past, there is no single data point that will trigger a move to full distance learning, however, if and when such a decision is made, we are prepared to do so.”

The superintendent in her letter to parents and staff Friday did not mention the number of COVID cases in the district. The coming closure, she wrote, is in response to staffing challenges caused by the pandemic.

Messages left for a district spokesperson were not immediately returned Friday night.