COVID concerns fuel teacher departures
Schools see many last-minute retirements
NORWALK — Sherri Daley was already thinking about retiring during the summer of 2020. The teacher and writer had been missing some of the creativity that came with her early days in the field, and after 26 years teaching in Norwalk Public Schools, she was getting ready for a change.
As she prepared to go back into the classroom under coronavirus, Daley, who is asthmatic and in her 70s, asked the district about installing Plexiglas barriers between herself and the students, something she had seen in other schools.
She claims she didn’t get a response, so instead bumped up her decision to retire, “reluctantly” submitting her letter of retirement just days before classes were set to begin. Her last day with the district was Aug. 26. She has since been doing freelance writing and publishing work.
“It broke my heart to leave under those conditions and to leave on the first day of school basically,” she said. “I walked in and said I can’t do this. I’m asthmatic and I’m older and I didn’t want to deal with all that mess. I can’t really fault anyone for that . ... There’s an unprecedented situation and there’s a disconnect between administration and teachers.”
At least 31 Norwalk
schools staff, including teachers and custodians, submitted letters of retirement between July 1 and Sept. 16, according to records obtained from the Board of Education by Hearst Connecticut Media via a Freedom of Information Act request. For comparison, about 15 teachers retired during the same time period in 2019, according to BOE meeting documents from this time.
Though it’s unclear how many of the 31 individuals left due to COVID-related health concerns, several did cite the coronavirus as a factor in their decision. At least two teachers cited their health or COVID-19 in their retirement letters. Other letters were redacted due to privacy conerns, making it unclear if other staff expressed concerns about this as well.
Norwalk Federation of Teachers President Mary Yordon said there were a few more teachers who decided to leave at the start of the school year when teachers were informed the district would not accommodate requests for remote work assignments, as it originally suggested it would do. Some teachers chose to retire while others resigned or took a leave of absence. More teachers have continued to retire throughout the school year.
One letter submitted Sept. 7 for a teacher looking to retire Sept. 8 specifically cited COVID-19 as a reason for leaving. Several other schools staff made reference to this in their retirement letters as well.
Yordon said the lack of remote assignments were a “huge point of contention,” especially after the district said teachers would have them and then walked back on that in the weeks before classes began.
“It is not clear to me even now why we don’t have that option that would have saved some of our teachers,”
she said. “It was a very last-minute decision. People were scrambling to come up with a plan B.”
Yordon said some were advised by doctors returning to the classroom during COVID would provide too much of a risk to their health, while others may have chosen a leave of absence to serve as a caregiver.
“I think nobody retires on a single issue. Every person has a complex constellation of reasons behind such a big decision,” Yordon said. “But certainly it is my understanding a large number of the mid-year retirements especially were associated with a dissatisfaction with the specifics of teaching in person during the pandemic.”
She added some of the turnover within administration means staff have trouble establishing trust in the people making these decisions.
“It’s very much more difficult when we don’t have well-established relationships,” she said. “People who are high risk have to consider whether it’s worth it . ... If we were in a situation where we understood well that the district was committed to the well-being of employees in some kind of balanced equation with well-being of students, if we really had well-established relationships with people in charge, (it’d be different) . ... There’s been so much turnover. It’s been very difficult to find that sense of reassurance.”
Daley said this was a factor in her own decision to retire, saying high turnover in central office “shakes the faith” of classroom teachers.
“It’s like a perfect storm,” she said. “There has been so much turnover in the administration, and the teachers feel left out of any decision making . ... I said no one is caring about me so I left.”
Chief Communications Officer Brenda Wilcox Williams said the district could not comment on Daley’s circumstances, but said the distrct implemented a number of health and safety practices before returning to school.
These included setting up classroom layouts to maintain a minimum of 6 feet, requiring masks for all students and staff, adding hand sanitizing stations and commerical-grade filters with UV light to every classroom as well as repurposing gyms, auditoriums and cafeterias when a school required more space to maintain social distancing.
Plexglas partitions were purchased and installed to create separate sections in rooms where tables were used instead of individual desks. They were also installed in school counseling offices, nurses’ rooms, security stations and other areas were distance cannot be maintained, she said.
“The district put substantial health protocols in place in accordance with state and CDC guidelines, prior to opening school on September 8,” Wilcox Williams said. “The start of school was delayed a week so that we could make sure all buildings were ready, and so that staff could be fully trained in all health and safety practices . ... We know these are challenging times and individuals have difficult personal decisions to make. We look forward to celebrating her (Daley’s) tenure with the district, along with those of our other annual retirees, as we always do at the end of the year.”