‘First day of school again’
Bethel elementary schools open to full in-person learning
BETHEL — Elementary school students met a new set of classmates on Tuesday.
Berry, Rockwell and Johnson elementary schools opened fully in-person after taking part in a hybrid model for the first three weeks.
“You could tell it was almost like the first day of school again,” Superintendent Christine Carver said. “You could see kids just so happy to be there.”
The middle school is expected to return fully in-person on Monday, while the high school will stay on hybrid until further notice.
Carver said the start of the year has worked out better than she expected. Although one student was exposed to the virus outside of school, the district has not had any cases, she said.
“I hope we keep this going,” she said.
Jennifer Hantzarides, whose son is in fourth grade and daughter is
in first grade, said she prefers her kids learn in person.
“They were dealing with the hybrid,” Hantzarides, who is involved in the parent teacher organizations at Rockwell and Johnson. “But it’s just not the same being there in school, waking up, having a purpose to go every morning.”
Bethel parent Amanda Martinez said she was nervous sending her daughters back to school with more students.
“But at the same time they need to go to school and to socialize with the other kids,” she said. “It just benefits them so much.”
Her oldest daughter Grace is in first grade, while her youngest daughter Bella is in preschool, which was already fully in-person.
Safety measures
Martinez gives the kids new masks each day and has the girls change their clothes when they get home.
“Since everything happened, I’m over cautious,” said Martinez, a single parent who works as a special education paraprofessional with preschoolers at Tokeneke Elementary School in Darien. “There is always the ‘what-ifs.’”
Hantzarides said she felt comfortable sending her kids to school.
“They have taken all the safety measures, so that’s not a problem,”
she said. “I’m not worried about that at all.”
The district wanted to start all schools on hybrid to get students, parents and employees accustomed to mitigation strategies. Carver said the idea worked, and students know better how to walk properly in the hallway and how lunch masks breaks work, among other changes.
“Kids know the expectations and they’re following them,” Carver said.
Neighboring Danbury is still on
distance learning due to a spike in coronavirus cases in August. But Carver said metrics in Fairfield County showed it was safe for the elementary schools to fully return. Many local districts are on the hybrid model, but New Fairfield is fully in-person.
“You can’t compare districts because every district has their own ability to implement the mitigation strategies,” said Carver, adding resources and the age of the buildings are among the factors.
Class sizes vary depending on
the school, but average roughly 17 to 18 students, she said. Some classes have 20 students, while others have 13.
Parent pick-up has been the biggest obstacle because far fewer students take the bus.
“It’s going to be an extreme challenge,” Carver said.
At Berry and Rockwell, children are brought out individually when their parents arrive. At Johnson, the children wait outside in different areas for their parents. The schools started parent pick-up time earlier to help get kids home faster, she said.
Virtual vs. in-person learning
Hantzarides said she heard of parents who had planned to put their children on distance learning once school fully reopened, but changed their mind when they realized how challenging it would be.
About 21 percent of students across the district stay on distance learning, regardless of their schools’ model. The younger grades have a greater percentage of students on distance learning than the older grades, Carver said.
“We keep saying that nothing replaces the child with the teacher in person and that’s definitely true in terms of the academic piece,” she said. “It also helps with the synchronous learning because now you have fewer kids online.”
Martinez’s daughters participated in virtual learning at day care.
One day, there was a “hiccup” with Zoom and first-grader Grace missed her classes, she said.
“That was kind of hard because I wasn’t there to make sure she got all her work done or to make sure she went to all her Zoom classes she was supposed to,” Martinez said.
Hantzarides was home to help her kids through distance learning, but had to care for her 1 1/2 year old, too.
“The biggest challenge is definitely trying to keep her quiet while they were doing their work,” she said. “She would see them and want to go near them. She would be loud and try to get their attention.”
She said her 6-year-old daughter Caleigh learned how to use a computer last spring, but appears to have fallen behind.
“She wasn’t completely where they said they should be when they complete kindergarten,” Hantzarides said. “Reading independently took the biggest hit.”
Carver plans to talk to other districts to see when they hope to fully reopen to gauge when the high school could get off hybrid. It is harder to cohort students in high school, among other concerns.
“It’s just more complex there, so we’re trying to come up with a good plan,” Carver said.
Carver is urging families to get flu shots.
“That’s the next big barrier—flu season,” she said.