The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Schools chiefs warn against May 20 reopen
State officials won’t announce until early next week if they will keep to a targeted May 20 reopening of schools.
But schools superintendents from around the region are increasingly questioning the wisdom of the idea.
“It doesn’t look like that can be possible,” said Michael Testani, acting superintendent of schools in Bridgeport, one of the largest school districts in the state.
His sentiments were
shared by many superintendents who suggest there are too many roadblocks to safely send more than 500,000 public school students back to buildings with the COVID-19 pandemic still taking a toll on the state.
A few, like school chiefs in Stamford and Greenwich, said they will wait for the governor to make the call. New Haven’s interim Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey said her district is currently planning for the first day of school in the fall.
On Thursday, Gov. Ned Lamont said the state reopening plan developed by his task force depends on “contact intensity.”
Schools seem to flunk that criteria in terms of proximity, length of time people are together and the number of people in one space.
Since they closed in mid-March, school districts have attempted to teach students through distance learning.
“From the time students get on the bus in the morning to the way they enter the buildings, lunch and recess, and for older students time in the halls to socialize, I don’t believe there’s a practical way to keep students apart,” said West Haven Schools Superintendent Neil Cavallaro.
Cavallaro said up until a couple of weeks ago it was his hope that schools could reopen for the last few weeks of the school year.
“I thought that it was important to bring the year to a closure, and also lay the foundation for the new year,” Cavallaro said.
He has come to realize that schools just do not lend themselves to social distancing protocols health officials are advising as the state slowly reopens.
In Stratford, Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson said she did not see any evidence that the state is at a level that would enable students and staff to be safe.
“It doesn’t look like that can be possible. Our classrooms, buses, cafeterias are not set up for 6-feet spacing,” Robinson said. “Masks would have to be removed for lunch where well over 100 students sit elbow to elbow.”
In Milford, Schools Superintendent Anna Cutaia said given that the landscape of this pandemic changes from day to day, a “wait-and-see” view rather than any hard-and-fast opening date might have to be the answer.
Ansonia Schools Superintendent Joseph DiBacco called a May 20 reopening impossible for many reasons.
“I know personally my own kids would run right up to their teachers and hug them because they miss their teachers,” DiBacco said.
Before schools open, DiBacco said there needs to not only be a physical site reentry plan but a social and emotional plan to support kids.
That, he said, will require additional staff.
Thomas McMorran, the superintendent in Easton, Redding and Region 9, said he needs to see two solid weeks of falling hospitalization and COVID-19-related death statistics — which state officials have also espoused — before reopening is discussed.
Even then, he said, schools should be at the back of the line when it comes to reopening.
“By their nature, schools are not places where social distancing can be easily attained,” McMorran said. “Think of hallways, cafeterias, locker rooms, art tables, science labs and playgrounds.”
Then there are students and staff with health issues. McMorran called is unlikely that student or adults can return this spring to resume where they left off on March 12 when schools were closed.
Both the Connecticut Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-Connecticut, unions that represent teachers in the state, agree.
Both have representatives on Lamont’s reopen Connecticut advisory committee.
“We can’t play Russian roulette with residents’ lives,” said CEA President Jeff Leake.
Mary Yordon, president of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers and an AFT-CT vice president, said her membership is overwhelmingly in favor of waiting for public health authorities to confirm that it is safe to bring school communities back together in person.
When they do reopen, Leake envisions schools needing to stagger start times, create new lunchtime and classroom seating formats, and changes in hallway passing periods so that students and teachers are kept safe.
Thorough and continuous cleaning protocols would also have to be established, the unions say.
Cavallaro, of West Haven, said there has been talk of double sessions, or a schedule that rotates who may attend school on certain days. It could be logistically impossible with current staffing levels.
Testani said there is a lot to consider.
“I think small summer programs will be a good way to begin the phase in of school,” Testani suggested. “We need to consider how many parents would keep their children home even if we opened.”
Bethel Superintendent Christine Carver, who also calls a May 20 reopening unrealistic, said the idea of offering a hybrid in-school and distance-learning model would also put a “tremendous stress” on families and could not be implemented this academic year.
“There are too many logistical things that would have to be worked out before that,” Carver said.”
Carver said she hopes the governor announces his plans for timing soon.
“Parents, not just us, are wondering,” she said.