Cardona: Vaccinating teachers a ‘top priority’
Newly confirmed education secretary tours CT school with Jill Biden
MERIDEN — First lady Jill Biden bent down to speak to a masked Meriden kindergartner painting a picture in her classroom on a visit to Benjamin Franklin Elementary School Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
During coronavirus, there are few visitors to most Connecticut schools, never mind a first lady and education secretary, but Cardona and Biden arranged the visit to highlight how schools can safely teach in-person during the pandemic as Cardona launches an ambitious fight to put students back in the classroom nationwide.
Biden, a community college teacher, complimented the girl in a T-shirt and teal gown, while Cardona — Connecticut’s former education commissioner and a Meriden native — fist-bumped students who sat at tables separated by plexiglass dividers. They spoke to teachers about the challenges of teaching amid the coronavirus, both in-person and virtually.
The trip was Cardona’s first as secretary of education, coming on his first full
day in the role. It was Jill Biden’s first visit to Connecticut since the inauguration of President Joe Biden and one of her earliest domestic trips.
“It’s important to safely reopen schools,” Cardona told a small crowd at Benjamin Franklin Elementary. “It’s critical that we do it as safely as possible and as quickly as possible. The yearlong pandemic has led to fewer learning opportunities and more kids going hungry.”
Later in the day, Cardona, and Biden visited a middle school in Pennsylvania as they examine strategies to mitigate the coronavirus in schools and safely open classrooms for in-person learning full-time.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Biden and Cardona for the tour of Benjamin Franklin Elementary and Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, planned to meet them at the Pennsylvania school. The presence of the two most powerful teacher’s union leaders sends a strong signal that the Biden administration intends to collaborate with unions on a plan to get teachers and students back in the classroom, not order them back over teachers’ objections. Weingarten and Pringle arguably have more influence over returning teachers to classrooms than Cardona or anyone else.
The visits kick off Cardona and President Joe Biden’s full court press to get students learning in-person in the majority of schools by April 30, Biden’s 100th day in office — a key goal Biden vowed to deliver on in December.
President Biden Tuesday called on states to prioritize teachers for vaccinations and get every gradeschool employee and child care provider at least one shot by the end of March. Connecticut started vaccinating its 99,000 teachers and school workers this week, the only essential workers to get priority for COVID-19 immunizations other than health care workers, now after the state pivoted to a mainly age-based model.
“We must continue to reopen America’s schools for in person learning as quickly and as safely as possible. The president recognizes this which is why he took bold action yesterday to get teachers and school staff vaccinated quickly,” Cardona said in Meriden Wednesday. “As secretary of education that is my top priority.”
The Biden administration has also pressed Congress to pass Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package as soon as possible, a bill that includes $130 billion in additional education money. The legislation is expected to clear the Senate later this week.
Cardona announced in an oped Tuesday night he will host a national summit on safe school reopening this month, publish a new volume of an Education Department handbook on operating schools during the pandemic and collect data on how schools are functioning during the pandemic through a national survey.
That survey is expected to reveal an uneven picture across the country with many schools offering only distance learning or
a hybrid model and fewer hosting children in the classroom every day. Schools are constrained in how they can operate by factors like funding, geography, virus prevalence and their teachers’ union. About half of Connecticut’s school districts don’t currently offer full-time, in-person learning.
Benjamin Franklin Elementary School and other K-8 schools in Meriden have offered full-time, in-person learning since before Labor Day, said Superintendent Mark Benigni. About 70 percent of Benjamin Franklin Elementary students are taking classes in person now. The district worked with its teacher’s union to develop a reopening plan, Benigni said, and require mask wearing, social distancing, increased cleaning and other changes to protect students and staff.
Three percent of students and 10 percent of staff in Meriden Public Schools have tested positive for the coronavirus this school year, according to data published by the district. Less than a third of students and a quarter of staff members have quarantined.
For Cardona, the trip was a return to his hometown and the school district he used to work at as a teacher, principal and then assistant superintendent. He never taught at Benjamin Franklin Elementary, where he and Biden visited Wednesday.
Benigni and Benjamin Franklin Elementary Principal Joanne Conte gave Biden and Cardona a tour to show them how they operate the 323-student school amid a pandemic that’s killed over 500,000 people.
Welcome messages hung in classrooms and hallways in the school. In one kindergarten class, students wore blue T-shirts with 2037, their expected college graduation year, on the back.
When Biden and Cardona walked into one classroom a little before noon the students screamed “Welcome to kindergarten!”
“Hi, I’m Jill,” the first lady said.
Biden and Cardona walked through the classroom, stopping to ask the students what they were working on. The children wore masks and sat at individual desks or at tables divided by plexiglass.
Next, the pair visited a sensory room filled with play mats, yoga balls, monkey bars and a large chart with a set of color-coded moods to help students with social and emotional learning and special needs. The school has three such classrooms.
“Being at home and being on the computer doesn’t access this,” Cardona said. “For students that have disabilities — having inperson opportunities that are safe, is important ... That’s what this room provides.”
Biden, a community college educator with a doctorate in education, asked if student anxiety increased during the pandemic. A teacher told Biden the answer: yes.
In another classroom, Biden, Cardona and Weingarten spoke with a teacher who recently transitioned from teaching via computer to teaching in person. Weingarten said it was important to have flexibility to do both forms of teaching.
Cardona, Biden and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont spoke to teachers and media at the school at the close of the visit.
“Teachers want to be back,” Biden said. “We want to be back. Last week I said to my students, ‘hey guys how you doing?’ And they said ‘Dr. B, We’re doing OK, but we can’t wait to be back to the classroom.’”
She noted the hometown pride Meriden showed for Cardona and the support he had from teachers there.
“Educators’ favorite three words are not ‘I Love You.’ It’s going to be Education Secretary Cardona,” Biden joked.
Cardona took the podium and said it was good to be home. He said that in-person learning has resumed at least partially at local schools since mid-August of last year — an effort he oversaw as
Connecticut’s education commissioner.
“The yearlong pandemic has led to fewer learning opportunities and more kids going hungry,” Cardona said. “Across the country, future Lin-Manuel Mirandas are sitting at home instead of going to drama club.”
Lamont, who also spoke to the small crowd, told Biden “It’s great having a teacher in the White House.” He teased Cardona about whether he was ready to take on Biden’s 100-day reopening goal.
“You hear that Miguel?” Lamont asked. Cardona laughed and said he had about 72 days left.
Outside across West Main Street from the school driveway — where police kept supporters and protesters alike — about 140 people lined up in a generally friendly atmosphere, in the latewinter sunshine. About a dozen supporters of former President Donald Trump waved flags and occasionally shouted out debunked conspiracy theories about the election. One man wore a white hazmat suit and held a sign in a shape of a mask that said “We are being lied to.”
Most people were there to support Cardona, a local man with solid roots in the community who left the Meriden school district to first become Connecticut’s education commissioner in February 2020.
Raynia Martinez, 18, a UConn freshman, took off a few hours from her online classes to pay homage to her former third-grade principal. Inside Benjamin Franklin School, her younger brother got an up-close look at the first lady and Cardona.
From behind a white face mask, Martinez remembered Cardona as a caring and kind principal in her early school days, after she arrived with no English skills, at age 6, from the Dominican Republic.
“He always talked to people and helped people,” she recalled of her time at Hanover School. “He goes to our church. His mom used to be my teacher there at St. Rose of Lima.”
“They do a lot of fundraisers for the community,” said Ilsa Nieves, 55, who’s known the Cardona family for years. “Their children sing for the Puerto Rican festival. They go to the library for Three Kings Day. Yes, the whole family sings there.”
Nieves wore an American flag baseball cap and was waving a Puerto Rico flag during the hour before Biden’s motorcade arrived, during her hour-long visit inside the school and finally, during the swift drive-by, as Biden waved at the crowd from an open window when the motorcade left for the airport to head to another school visit in Pennsylvania.
Claudia and Thomas Malone drove in to Meriden from nearby Plainville to mark the occasion standing a few feet away from a bearded man waving a Trump flag.
“It’s education versus ignorance,” Thomas Malone said, pointing a thumb over his left shoulder.
“This was a blatantly stolen election,” said the Trump supporter, who declined to give his name as he stood on the corner of West Main Street and state Route 71 waving a frayed Trump flag. “The fraud is off the charts. It’s being covered up by seditious government, turncoats in every aspect of our legislature. All three branches of government are compromised. And we’re here to say that President Trump won in the biggest landslide in history and we’re not accepting the results.”
After Biden’s motorcade left, participants in the event, including local officials, drifted out of the school and across West Broad Street. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, state Sen. Mary Daugherty Abrams, state Reps. Michael Quinn and Hilda Santiago attended the official visit Wednesday.
State Rep. Catherine Abercrombie, D-Meriden, emerged from the school praising the first lady’s interest in getting more kids back into schools around the country.
“But she also wants to make sure that the support system they need for schools to get funding for mental health,” said Abercrombie, who is co-chairman of the legislative Human Services Committee.
“We need to do a lot of screening because this is going to be a long-term effect for these students, so they were talking about the next round of dollars and how it can help impact these kids,” she said. “And food insecurity. People forget that with kids being out of school, food insecurity, right? We here in Meriden serve two meals a day. All our kids get breakfast and all of them get lunch.”
Conte said she hoped Cardona would “reflect on the positive things that came out of the pandemic, and what things we've learned from it that we can use.”
“We've taught children how to use Google Classroom and how to manage both in-person learning and distance learning, and being able to even teach their parents,” Conte said.
Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati added, “As Dr. Cardona said in his statement, the Silver City certainly did shine today.”
NRG Energy has sold its Connecticut power plants to the subsidiary of a Boston-based investment firm as part of a larger $760 million deal.
Generation Bridge, a whollyowned subsidiary of ArcLight Energy Partners Fund, has entered into a purchase agreement with Princeton-based NRG Energy. The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of this year.
NRG is selling four Connecticut power plants in Middletown, Hartford, Montville and the Devon section of Milford, along with what’s known as Connecticut Jet Power, which covers four remote jet turbines in Cos Cob and Branford and two in Torrington.
Two NRG power plants in California and a pair in New York are being sold as part of the deal. NRG has owned the Connecticut power plants since 1999, according to Dave Schrader, a spokesman for the company.
Schrader said the deal reflects the fact that “NRG is constantly reviewing the make-up of our asset portfolio, assessing the location, type and mix to ensure it is wellsuited for our customer’s evolving needs.”
NRG’s sale of the Connecticut power plants comes even as the company is negotiating with Middletown officials regarding the replacement of two turbines at the natural gas-fired power plant located along the Connecticut River.
The company wants to replace the turbines with one generator that produces fewer emissions and is able to be converted to renewable energy in the future. But local environmentalists claim the result of the plan could increase air pollution, including putting out five times more carbon dioxide than the plant currently produces.
The plant, located at 1866 River Road, uses turbines built in the 1950s and early 1960s and operates as a peaking generation unit, which means it only runs during peak power demand periods throughout the year.
Any increase of air pollution coming from the plant could create a conflict with Middletown’s Common Council, which voted unanimously in September to declare a climate emergency. The goal is to end city-generated greenhouse gas emissions by or before Dec. 31, 2030.
Schrader said that the company will continue to move forward with the plant upgrade permitting process even as it has “further discussions with the buyer, ArcLight, on their desire to pursue” the project.
Eugene Nocera, majority leader of Middletown’s Common Council, said NRG officials met with the governing body about a week ago and never said anything about the power plant being sold.
“We were very surprised,” Nocera said. “We are anxious to meet with the new owner and welcome them. We’d also like to know what other possible options there are for the plant.”
Taken collectively, NRG’s Connecticut power generating assets being sold produce about 1,528 megawatts of electricity, which represents about 31.5 percent of the generation capability ArcLight Energy Partners is acquiring.
Officials with ArcLight Energy Partners, which focuses on energy infrastructure investments, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.