‘WE ARE FINALLY TOGETHER’
Danbury elementary school students, teachers, staff return to classrooms
DANBURY — The visible excitement among students and staff at the city’s elementary schools on Tuesday is usually reserved for the last day of school.
“It’s like they’re going home for summer vacation,” Superintendent Sal Pascarella said. “The kids are so happy to be there. The teachers are so enthused.”
But Tuesday was another first day of school, of sorts. Elementary students returned to the buildings for the first time in more than 10 months when they were sent home at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The exception was about 100 special
education students who returned after Thanksgiving.
The schools are on the hybrid model, with about one-third of the roughly 12,000-student district opting to stay on distance learning full time. The middle schools will return on Jan. 25, followed by the high school on Feb. 1. By then, about 4,000 students will be on the campus at a time.
Some New Haven schools also returned on hybrid Tuesday for the first time since March. Brookfield returned fully in-person for kindergarten through eighth grade and on hybrid for the high school after being remote since November. In Bethel, Johnson Elementary School moved from hybrid to fully in-person.
Megan Heggland, a third grade teacher at Danbury’s Pembroke Elementary School, said she could sense the excitement from the seven kids in her classroom.
“So many of them wanted to hug you, even though they couldn’t,” she said. “You can’t see their faces through the masks, but you know they were smiling.”
At Stadley Rough Elementary School, signs welcomed the masked students.
“After all this time apart, we are finally together,” read one sign.
Administrators expected drop-off time to be challenging, but it went better than expected, Pascarella said.
Few students rode the buses compared to normal, although he did not have exact numbers. More families may opt to send their students on the bus as they become more comfortable, he said.
Safety concerns
But some teachers said they wished they could have been vaccinated before students returned.
“We are so close and we all have sacrificed so much,” said Erin Daly, head of the teachers union and a third-grade teacher at Pembroke. “It is concerning, to say the least, that our teachers are returning at the height of community spread.”
Danbury saw its highest number of new COVID cases the week after Thanksgiving. The curve fell in December and then rose again following Christmas and New Year’s.
The district has an online dashboard where the number of school cases is tracked. Exposed students and staff are notified and asked to quarantine.
Experts have found little in-school transmission of the virus, which indicated to administrators that it was safe to return, Pascarella said. Signs, masks, desk shields and other precautions will keep students and staff safe, he said.
“I am very pleased that our superintendent has considered the health and safety of our entire school community at every step throughout the past year and has made it a priority for every decision,” Daly said.
Students and staff followed these rules on Tuesday, educators said. Physical boundaries, such as the desk shields, kept students and teachers apart. Students talked to Heggland behind their shields, rather than around them, she said
“It was perfect,” Heggland said. “I stayed in my boundaries and they stayed in their boundaries.”
She and other teachers virtually showed students what their classroom looked like last week
“Teachers have really prepared these kids, even from home, as to what it was going to be like,” Heggland said.
Megan Shaw, whose son Roger is in fourth grade, said she is not worried about the virus spreading at the school.
“Why can we go to a grocery store, but the kids can’t be at school?” said Shaw, who lives in New Milford but sends her son to the magnet school, Western CT Academy for International Studies. “At school, they’re going to be safer because you know the teachers are going to make sure the kids stay apart from each other.” Her son returns on Thursday. “Two more sleeps until he’s at school,” she said. “I’m thrilled. I wish he was going back full time, but we’re so happy.”
With her son in school, the hairdresser will be able to schedule appointments on weekdays.
Teaching
As he walked through the schools, Pascarella said he saw teachers interacting with their students in person and online. The goal is for teachers to connect at least three times with the cohort of hybrid students who are at home, he said.
“The innovation that has come out of this has really been powerful,” Pascarella said. “I’m really pleased.”
Heggland said this week she is not required to livestream with the athome students, but she checked in with them at the end of the day.
At home, Shaw said her son was given one math assignment and told to read.
“He’s having a hard time,” she said.
Students on full-distance learning have separate teachers. About 75 teachers, including some of those who requested health accommodations, were assigned to these students, Pascarella said.
Daly is among the designated distance-learning teachers. Half of her former students got a new teacher, while she got an additional half class of students.
“My students are engaged and learning and doing well,” she said. “Consistency and reliability is always a positive thing for student growth.”
Finding substitute teachers is expected to be a challenge. One school had as many has two to three staff members out, but others only had one, Pascarella said.
Gladys Cooper, chairwoman of the school board, said she was glad the day went well. Her granddaughter learned late last week that she would be going in person to kindergarten on Thursday.
“She’s been running through the house every since [saying], ‘I’m going back to school. I’m going back to school,’ ” Cooper said.