As teachers request leave, districts strategize to fill gaps

NEW HAVEN — The president of the New Haven teachers union said he does not believe the city’s school buildings are safe to enter yet as the pandemic persists.

And if the buildings were opening this week, district officials likely would need to be creative with staffing: More than 190 of approximately 1,700 certified city teachers have applied for accommodations or leave under the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Family and Medical Leave Act before the start of the school year, according to a corporation counsel for the city and New Haven Federation of Teachers President Dave Cicarella.

While that doesn’t mean all those classrooms in the school district would be vacant — because of the nuances of the law and the nature of necessary accommodations — it’s an indicator of a larger issue school districts across the state face: Ensuring

all students have a certified educator in front of them under two instructional models while hundreds of teachers have asked for leave, other accommodations, or are not medically cleared to enter buildings during a pandemic.

“Some teachers are excited about returning to work, they are not worried about getting sick. But most are apprehensive because they do not think it is safe enough to return,” said Michele King-Vazquez, a sixth grade teacher in Bridgeport and secretary of the Bridgeport Education Association.

“Some are medically compromised, and some have family members that are medically compromised,” King-Vazquez said, “They do not want to be the cause of their loved one’s demise.”

Bridgeport, like most districts in the state other than New Haven, is offering an option for students to learn in person

when schools open, although families have the option of keeping them home. School will be fulltime for Bridgeport students through eighth grade and on a hybrid model at the high schools; about half of the district’s students will be learning remotely.

. King-Vazquez said Bridgeport teachers were told to apply for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act or to take unpaid leave if they feel returning is unsafe. But being approved for FMLA does not guarantee being paid, so King-Vazquez said she does not believe it’s much of a choice at all.

“There are many teachers who are anxious, nervous and more than anything else afraid for their lives. Some of the teachers that were close to retiring threw in the towel and retired,” she said.

Similar concerns are being broached by teachers around the state.

In Stamford, as of noon on Friday, the district had received 144 requests for some type of accommodation, although not all of those accommodation requests would require those workers to take leave or work remotely, Stamford Public Schools spokeswoman Sharon Beadle said. In total, Stamford has 1,491 teachers and support staff within its union.

Because of its hybrid model, the Stamford Public Schools are effectively staffing for two versions of school, one of which is not in person, Beadle said.

The district is offering in-person instruction for students, which is being treated as discrete from its online model from a staffing perspective. The district’s Distance Learning and Teaching Academy will accommodate students who opt out of in-person learning entirely.

DTLA teachers are assigned classrooms from which to teach remotely, without students.

“We do not anticipate a large number of unused classrooms,” said Beadle. She said teachers will be assigned to the DLTA “either based on needs of the district, such as the need for a teacher in a particular subject/area, or because it is part of an ADA accommodation.”

“If a teacher is on leave, we would backfill that position, as we always do, with a substitute or long-term substitute,” Beadle said.

In Greenwich, a total of 27 teachers are not returning to in-person classroom instruction due to health issues and will instead take part only in remote teaching.

And with just about a week before students are scheduled to return to classes, the Greenwich school district is looking at the possibility of delaying the start of the new year in the elementary schools due to “staffing issues,” Superintendent Toni Jones said in an email to parents Friday night. A school board meeting will be held Monday on moving the start of school from Sept. 9 to Sept. 14 for kindergartners to fifthgraders.

“GPS is experiencing challenges with adequate staffing given the COVID Family Medical Leave Act,” Jones said in the email. “The most challenging area is in our elementary school.”

In Middletown, Geen Thazhampallath, chief of talent for the district, said at least “110 people in some capacity that reached out to us” about leave or another accommodation.

“What’s playing out in Middletown is probably playing out in every district,” said Thazhampallath.

He said that the majority of the requests he has received have been from district employees seeking a form of child care while they work. Thazhampallath said the district employs about 1,500 people in total.

“They’re educators: they want to be back in front of their kids,” he said.

Thazhampallath said Middletown will look to employ long-term substitute teachers to deal with potential classroom vacancies because of accommodation requests, leaves or illness.

“I understand every district in the state is going through this, but I think what’s become obvious is it’s not one size fits all,” Thazhampallath said.

“We, like most districts I’m sure, are scrambling to find qualified substitutes at the building level and for longer term assignments and even daily subs.” Thazhampallath said. “We are in pretty good shape to start the year.

“We aren’t poaching from other districts and I think we have be mindful we are all in the same boat and that it will take some flexibility and rethinking on how we approach issues that may present themselves,” Thazhampallath said.

Like Thazhampallath, Cicarella, the New Haven union head, said there is frustration because teachers want to go back to normal. But ‘knowing that’s not the case I think (teachers are) feeling a lot better we’re working remotely now,” Cicarella said.

The union president said that, in the case of the New Haven buildings, he has “zero confidence all those buildings’ ventilation systems are up and running.” he said.

. Although the school district is working to implement wide safety measures to persuade a reluctant Board of Education to approve an in-person learning option for students, many stakeholders like Cicarella say it’s worth waiting until everything is right.

New Haven’s school board voted to begin school on the planned start date of Sept. 3, but with instruction happening entirely outside of classrooms for the first marking period — or 10 weeks.

Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey did not respond to a request for comment on Cicarell’s concerns. But Tracey said during her presentation this past week, “We are not 100 percent sure we can keep everyone safe, that would be ridiculous for us to say that.”

New Haven Assistant Corporation Counsel Elia Alexiades said a combined total of 196 teachers in the district have requested leave under FMLA and under the ADA for the start of the 2020-21 school year.

Getting help

The state Department of Education does not collect or track information on the number of teachers seeking leave as the new school year begins.

How districts ensure every classroom is covered is a “local control decision,” state Education Department spokesman Peter Yazbak said.

But the agency has offered districts aid in terms of seeking substitute teachers.

“We’ve increased flexibilities

for emergency certifications of educators in certain shortage areas and we’re also allowing temporary flexibilities for the use of long term and short term building subs,” said Yazbak.

“We are in discussions with (the state Department of Labor) to provide districts with resources, information and existing options, however, districts should work closely with their HR and local counsel to ensure their policies are consistent with federal guidelines on this issue,” he said.

In the state’s reopening guidance, districts were advised to consider how teacher retirements and high-risk teachers could be accommodated within their planning.

Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said child care is a significant factor for many school workers who have children of their own who attend school in other districts. If those students attend districts that use the hybrid model, it would mean three days a week the children could be unsupervised at home while their parents work from buildings full-time.

“Superintendents have opened their own districtwide childcare facilities; they’ve gone to their municipality’s parks and recreation departments and attempted to do it with parks and recreation; they’re having before and after school providers do child care; they’re trying creatively to meet the needs of their staff, because more than anything we know the best person to have in front of the children is the teacher they will have for the year,” Rabinowitz said.

According to a CAPSS survey, about 400 teachers in the state reported needing child care before being able to return to the classroom; Rabinowitz said there are likely more than that, because not every district responded to the survey.

“I am seeing tremendous creativity” from superintendents, Rabinowitz said.

“As a superintendent you just know the most important thing you have for students on the first day are staff available: good, qualified staff to meet them,” she said. “Every superintendent

wants every teacher in the classroom that will be with the students long term. If that’s not possible, you reach out and ensure you get the best possible person for those positions that you can.”

Patrice McCarthy, deputy director and general counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said many Connecticut districts have taken advantage of the changes allowed by the state to cover classrooms when requests for accommodation are made.

“Some districts are hiring permanent substitutes for their buildings so they will have that extra support in place or won’t have substitutes moving around from building to building or district to district,” she said.

“Every district has to look at what their needs are and the extent to which they can make an accommodation, recognizing you can create legal problems if you accommodate some requests but don’t accommodate similar requests,” McCarthy said.

Although districts that vary in size have received different numbers of requests for accommodations, administrators report they are planning options.

Hamden schools Director of Human Resources Gary Highsmith said, for example, a remote teaching option was offered as an accommodation for teachers requesting employment leave.

At the most recent Hamden Board of Education meeting, Highsmith said about 100 staff members inquired with him about employment leave; 77 requested leave documentation under either the ADA, FMLA or the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, he said. Hamden employs about 750 teachers and classroom support staff.

In the northwestern Regional District 7, which serves the towns of Barkhamsted, Colebrook, New Hartford and Norfolk and employs 110 teachers, there have been four leave requests and one FMLA request, an official reported.

But a spokeswoman for Waterbury Public Schools said “more than 99 percent” of the district’s 1,530 employees have returned to work, which began with training on Aug. 24. The district, however, has planned for possible absences.

“A significant component of the planning process has been examining our staffing to ensure that we are able meet the needs of our students, both in-person and virtually, by continuing to provide the highest level of instruction,” she said.

Will Clark, the district’s chief operating officer, said the district has planned to use internal staff to cover within their subject certifications in the case that there are vacancies.

“We have some freedom of assignment,” he said. “One school may have more (students) than another, but if the school with less has more staff coming back, we can have them cover.”

The Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union issued a set of recommendations this month that included delaying the opening of school until midSeptember and “protecting and providing accommodations for at-risk students, teachers, and staff,” among myriad other recommendations.

Then, a coalition of unions, which said it represented more than 60,000 staff employed by school boards across the state, released standards it said aligned with the CEA’s recommendations.

The CEA “Safe Learning Plan” also recommended among other things: changing state policy and recommending all-remote learning for districts that have a moderate or high infection rate, or inability to maintain six feet of social distancing or other safety considerations, increasing funding to districts for COVID-related expenses, implementing comprehensive, school-centered contact tracing and upgrading school air handling systems.

“Failure to strengthen these protections risks creating COVID-19 hotspots, as we see happening in other states,” CEA President Jeff Leake said in an email at the time. “If we do not reopen schools the right way—which means the safe, equitable way—we will reverse the progress Connecticut has made. We must do better for Connecticut’s children, educators, and their families.”