BOE favors hybrid approach for fall return

STAMFORD — Stamford schools seem headed toward a hybrid approach for the upcoming school year, meaning students could potentially be in classrooms two-to-three days a week.

Superintendent Tamu Lucero had planned on presenting a reopening plan during the next school board meeting, scheduled for Tuesday night. She took an unofficial poll at the school board’s latest meeting and those board members who spoke up favored the hybrid model.

Late Friday, however, Lucero sent out an email saying she would delay her reopening decision after news that the Department of Education and the Connecticut Department of Public Health would release guidance this week on the spread and prevalence of COVID-19 that would inform her decision.

Gov. Ned Lamont said this week that a full return to schools was unlikely and predicted schools would likely use a hybrid model, which Lucero said took everyone by surprise.

“We really weren’t expecting that,” Lucero said. Lamont had previously pointed to in-person schooling as the preferred option.

The final decision will come

down to health officials, and a full return to distance learning in the fall is still an option.

Most school board members expressed that a hybrid model makes the most sense with about a month to go before school starts again.

Members Dan Dauplaise and Fritz Chery chose not to make any comments on the subject at the school board meeting, and member Becky Hamman said she would like more detail about what a hybrid model would look like.

Under the hybrid approach, students at the elementary, middle and high school levels would be split into two groups and placed in separate cohorts. Those cohorts would attend class inside school buildings two-to-three times a week, while continuing distance learning the rest of the time.

Member Mike Altamura said the hybrid model may be inevitable.

“Even though we don’t choose to have a hybrid, we’re pretty much having a hybrid anyway,” he said, referring to the fact that any plan that includes in-person learning would be a hybrid model by definition, since some parents

will choose not to participate.

Under any plan, parents would still have the option to opt out and keep their children in the remote learning model.

Lucero asked the members for input at the latest Board of Education meeting so she could share their thoughts with the ad-hoc reopening committee of 50 members which has been meeting weekly. Multiple subcommittees of that group have been meeting even more regularly.

Stamford Board of Education member Jennienne Burke said she supports a hybrid model.

“My main concern really is the health,” she said. “I come from a public health background and I

am really, really concerned … about exposing staff and students.”

Fellow member Jackie Heftman also said the hybrid model makes the most sense.

“I think just being able next week to send the message that we’re going to be a hybrid district in September will calm down a lot of the fears and the angst that our staff and families have,” she said.

Lucero said parents will not be sent another survey about reopening. Instead, they will be asked to make a final decision on whether or not they plan to send their children back into school buildings at all in the fall.

She said the goal is to get responses from parents starting on the week of Aug. 10.

Schools in Stamford are expected to reopen to students on Sept. 8.

Board president Andy George also preferred the hybrid option, but said he is concerned about extracurricular activities for students, such as athletics, music, drama, and art.

“Those serve an important purpose for a lot of students and can be almost as important as the academics side for some students,” he said.