Teachers’ unions want stronger measures taken against COVID
A coalition of education labor unions is calling for all schools to shift to full remote learning unless stronger protections against COVID-19 are put in place.
In a joint statement released Monday, the group representing teachers and other educationrelated unions say the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, putting most parts of the state in a socalled “red” zone, call for statewide steps to be taken in reporting and responding to the ongoing pandemic.
Many schools are continuing with full-time in-person classes even as dozens of schools are quarantining hundreds of students and teachers or closing with little notice.
One school district, Stratford, is increasing in-person time for its youngest students by having kindergarten and first graders go full time five days a week — up from two days a week. On Monday, Stratford teachers protested that action by picketing after school at the Stratford train station.
“The Center(s) for Disease Control (and Prevention) says schools are not the safest place during the pandemic, and inperson learning is a high-risk activity,” said Jeff Leake, president of the Connecticut Education Association in releasing a report called “Safe and Successful Schools Now.”
The report outlines a number of steps the coalition wants taken to keep students, educators, staff and communities safe.
It calls on districts to make public, within 24 hours, COVID-19 incidents by school building. It wants the state’s COVID-19 dashboard to include a list of schools that are closed because of the virus and for how long and for teachers to be on committees that decide who gets contact tracing and/or quarantining in the aftermath of a positive COVID-19 case.
Other demands include:
1 Establishing consistent statewide protocols in schools for reporting and responding to positive COVID-19 cases and strict adherence to social distancing standards in school.
1 Quarantining an entire class if someone tests positive, not just those closest to the person.
1 A standard statewide length of time for a quarantine.
1 Contact tracing for all classroom staff when a classroom is impacted.
1 Regular COVID-19 testing of students and staff.
1 Using quarantine pay — or allowing teachers to teach remotely — while in quarantine rather than requiring sick leave be used.
Unless all of those things are met, the group wants schools to go fully remote from Thanksgiving through Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 18, 2021.
In response, the state Department of Education issued a statement on Monday, saying the state is committed to providing as many resources as possible to keep schools open.
“With the health and safety of our school communities always being our top priority, we are reinforcing the importance of in-person learning because it is the model that allows us to best meet our children’s educational and nonacademic needs,” the statement from Peter Yazbak, a department spokesman, read. “We continue to believe that any decision about limiting in-person learning should be made by the school superintendent and local health director.”
And Department of Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona, who joined Lamont’s news conference Monday, said “Decisions have been made made” to close schools by local officials based on the factors in their communities.
“So I don’t know that one universal number is the best way to approach it,” Cardona added.
Lamont said the state is also looking for volunteers and paid workers in classrooms, helping out with testing, and in healthcare.
“We’re sending all of the colleges home, something we had anticipated,” Lamont said. “That means there will be a lot of college-age students — look you could binge-watch Netflix for three weeks, but we have some other ways you could really be of assistance.”
The coalition calling for a unified approach represents more than 60,000 unionized public education employees across the state and includes members of CEA, AFT-CT, SEBAC, CSEA, MEUI, AFSCME and UAW.
“Every district has a different, inconsistent process to respond to Coronavirus cases,” said Donald Williams, CEA executive director. “We need strict, statewide oversight and assurances that districts are uniformly following the health and safety procedures established by the CDC and SDE, because right now, they are not.”
AFT Conecticut President Jan Hochadel agreed.
“We applaud those school officials who have worked in partnership with their employees and placed a high priority on health and safety,” said Hochadel. “It just makes sense to proactively close buildings rather than have students endure constant disruptions and upheaval.”
Jody Barr, executive director of AFSCME Council 4, which represents classroom aides, school nurses, custodians, bus drivers, food service staff and other school personnel, said in-person, classroom learning is best for students, but only when safe.
“The state’s COVID-19 numbers demonstrate it’s not safe,” Barr said.
The group points out that while the governor has ordered restaurants to reduce capacity to 50 percent, there are no similar protections for schools.
As of last week, Gov. Ned Lamont has continued to insist that schools are the safest place for young people to be.
Many schools are closing not necessarily as a safety precaution but because so many staff members are out schools can not operate normally, local administrators said.
The Safe and Successful Schools Now report highlights scientific evidence that it says shows children can contract and spread the virus while often remaining asymptomatic and undetected. At the same time, they can spread the virus.
The group also wants the governor to continue an order that protects the continued employment of all public school staff who are directly employed by the local or regional board of educations — from teachers to cafeteria, clerical, transportation, and custodial staff.
And it also is calling for a moratorium on annual standardized state testing for the 2020-21 school year and want school districts to inspect all ventilation systems by the end of December and upgrade where necessary to minimize the spread of COVID-19 droplets.