Back to school — sort of
Parents remain uneasy over every-other-day hybrid schedule
STAMFORD — What happens when a Stamford student tests positive for COVID-19? How will the hybrid model work? What will distance learning look like?
Those are just some of the many questions parents have as the school district gets ready to embark on an unprecedented school year, in which a portion of students will be returning to classrooms in the fall, while others continue their education from home.
Jennifer Forman, senior copresident of the Stamford ParentTeacher Council, said Friday during a virtual discussion on school reopening that many parents are concerned about the proposed schedule for the hybrid model, which city schools have adopted for the fall. It would have children attend every other day, meaning one week, the child could be in class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, followed by a week when they attend class on Tuesday and Thursday.
Some parents spoke against the schedule at the most recent Board of Education meeting, saying the changes from week to week would make it harder for families to adjust in relation to their work schedules.
Families that participate in the hybrid model will be divided into two groups: blue and green. Each group will attend school in-person every other day. On days when the group is not in class, students from that cohort will participate in distance learning.
Students in distance learning full-time — an option open to parents — will be grouped into classes that will include students from across the district in the same grade level.
The school system has put together a plan for the reopening, but parents still have many questions about how instruction will take place in the fall.
Hybrid live streaming?
Parents have frequently raised the subject of at-home learning, seeking to know what, exactly, it will be. Those with students headed for the hybrid model, in particular, want to know if their children will be able to follow classes through live streaming on home days.
That question is still being worked out, said Amy Beldotti, associate superintendent for teaching and learning.
“We are still exploring ways for students to potentially be able to participate from home,” she said, during a Board of Education meeting this week. “We have not yet come to any final conclusion.”
The latest version of the plan says all teachers will use Google Meet as the approved video conferencing platform.
Teachers are being encouraged to record the sessions and post them for students who could not attend.
In the event the district does live stream classes, parents have asked if it has enough bandwidth for every school to participate.
Superintendent Tamu Lucero said she has been told there is enough, but capabilities have not been tested.
“We really won’t know until we are back in our classrooms and everyone’s there,” Lucero said at the PT Council meeting Friday. “That’s something that we will be working on in the days before school starts.”
Alternating days and weeks
An early complaint parents have about the model chosen for the new school year regards the alternatingdays format. Many have inquired why that schedule was chosen, as opposed to one that would be more static week to week.
Coordinating work and child care needs with a shifting school calendar will be very difficult, parents have said.
“I know you’ve heard from many parents who are unhappy with the schedule. In my own circles, dozens of parents — nearly all of them working mothers — are deeply distressed by the schedule,” one mother wrote to the superintendent and school board.
The reason for the chosen model, Beldotti said, is alternating days will provide better continuity for students than other options.
“We literally tried every single combination,” she said.
Under the alternating schedule, the green and blue groups will be in classrooms every other school day.
“I know it’s not ideal, but any hybrid model is not ideal to a family, especially a working family,” Lucero said.
She added, “It allows children to be in school most consistently without huge gaps of five or six days not being in school.”
Positive tests, tracing and cleaning
Parents also are concerned about any health risks posed by their kids returning to school buildings.
First up, they want to know what will happen if a student in the hybrid program tests positive for COVID-19.
In the simpler version of that scenario — that a student tests positive while at home — the district is asking that parents contact school officials to let them know. A risk assessment will then be conducted with help from the city’s health department to figure out which students and staff the child was around and who might have been exposed.
If a student shows symptoms of COVID-19 while inside a school building, he or she will be taken to a designated “isolation room” until a parent or guardian can come. A similar risk assessment will then be performed.
But contact tracing, while relatively simple for elementary school students, could get trickier for higher grades, Lucero said.
Educators will work to limit unnecessary interaction and movement within schools.
“This whole idea of skipping class and going wherever you want in the building just can’t happen,” Lucero said.
High school students in particular are apt to mingle in the hallways instead of walking directly to and from class.
“We’ve all been to the high school,” Lucero said. “And we all know that students like to stand around and chat with one another. We’ve really got to talk to our students and work with our staff to make sure that everyone is continuing to move.”
As that happens, parents want assurance that places students are moving from and moving to are clean.
Lucero said the guidance from the state is to move away from the idea of a “deep clean” that is done sporadically.
Instead, she said, the district will implement a standard of cleaning every day to keep school buildings sanitized.
A contractor is currently helping the district come up with a protocol for cleaning both inside and outside of school buildings. Lucero said the same protocol would apply to cleaning of buses.
“You should be cleaning every day,” she said.
Switching streams and devices
Finally, parents who plan to opt for full-time distance learning have asked whether they will be able to switch if they decide they want to send their children back into school buildings instead.
There will be a two-week period at the beginning of the school year in which a parent can opt into the hybrid model, administrators said.
Families can request a change later in the semester, but it could take a while to accommodate such requests.
Some parents have asked why students are being asked to bring their own computers to school.
Beldotti said students used technology such as Chromebooks during class regularly before the spread of COVID-19, and the school district would like to continue the practice. But the district wants students to bring their own devices to class in the hybrid model.
In the past, students would grab a device from a cart and return it at the end of class.
“That would mean everyone touching the Chromebooks all day long, and we want students to have one device that they have with them all day to limit the sharing of devices,” Beldotti said.
However, Beldotti said students at second grade or below would not be asked to bring a device to class.