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Goeler: Painful, needed decision.
Hamden schools — which have had success with hybrid learning — will nevertheless move to entirely-remote classes starting Nov. 23 until Jan. 19 because of the statewide spike in Covid-19 cases.
The Hamden Board of Education voted unanimously Saturday evening to make that move from partially in-person to all-virtual classes.
It first heard Superintendent Jody Goeler’s proposal to go remote at a meeting on Tuesday, and opted to wait until it could get more information to make a decision.
The board’s vote comes as the seven-day average number of new cases shot above the state’s previous peak set in April.
“No one’s here saying we want to go remote,” Goeler told the board. “We want all our kids back. We can’t do that not because of what’s going on in our schools, but because of what’s going on in the community.”
Schools have been shown to be relatively safe for Covid-transmission. But as cases spike, the risk of infection increases. It also makes it very difficult to staff schools properly.
As Goeler and his team told the board Saturday, echoing their comments from Tuesday, more and more staff members are going to contract the virus, most likely in the community rather than at school. New Haven County has moved in the “red” category of highest coronarvirus rates; the number of local cases jumped 13 times in just a month, according to an analysis of RNA concentration in local sewage.
Whenever one school staff member tests positive, any staff who came in contact with that staff member must quarantine. That means it’s very easy to go from a fully operational school to a school without enough staff to stay open very quickly.
In deciding now whether or not to go remote on Nov. 23, the district wanted to give parents and staff adequate time to prepare. If the district did not make a decision and prepare, it is very likely that parents would have found themselves with their kids at home on a day’s notice, or even less, board members and administrators said.
On Tuesday, four board members indicated that they were ready to move ahead with the vote to go remote. The rest, the majority, said they wanted more information before making such a high-stakes decision.
All classes will take place over Zoom. One day a week students will learn asynchronously (at individual times and paces).
Many of the details of the full remote plan are not yet certain. As of right now, the district plans to offer childcare services to any families that indicate they need it through the YMCA and Right At School, which the district already contracts for before- and after-school programs. Goeler said both contractors have said they believe they will have enough staffing, based on how many parents they anticipate will request their services.
There is a greater degree of uncertainty when it comes to special education.
“This has been one of the hardest things that I have ever had to contemplate in my entire career,” said Director of Special Education Theresa Ott Saturday.
On Tuesday, board members asked whether special education could still take place in person, after a flood of parents submitted testimony opposing the move to remote education. On Saturday, a flood of teachers submitted testimony urging the opposite. Among them were special education teachers asking that their safety not be sacrificed.
“If schools are closed because they are unsafe for one group of teachers and students, then schools are unsafe for all teachers and students,” a group of special education teachers at the Alice Peck Learning Center wrote in a joint letter.
Many special education students require much more intensive in-person care than non-special-education students. For many students, it would be very difficult to do remote school. It would also pose a significant burden for their parents if they have to work.
But keeping them in school could be particularly risky for both them and their teachers.
“A lot of the students that we would consider needing in-person services more so than other cohorts of children are also the children who struggle with maintaining social distancing, who struggle with independent hygiene like washing their hands,” said Ott. Many struggle to wear masks. They are at a higher risk of contracting and spreading the virus than other students.
Many depend on being able to identify the faces of their educators, Ott said. For some, it could be difficult to learn from their teachers who are wearing N95 masks and face shields.
Ott said she is weighing the concerns of everyone involved and will determine what, if any, in-person special education services the district will be able to provide. That may involve one-on-one instruction and different schedules and school buildings than students are used to.
Ott must weigh the concerns of parents and teachers just like her colleagues. If the letters submitted Tuesday and Saturday are any indication, both sides have very strong opinions.
Tuesday’s public input included letter after letter of parents imploring the board not to go remote. They have to work, many parents said. Being in school is much better for their kids, they said, and doing remote school takes a toll.
On Saturday, the public input mostly reflected the teachers’ perspective, which urged the board in equally strong words as those of the parents that it should not sacrifice their safety. While some parents excoriated the four board members who said on Tuesday that they were ready to vote to go remote, many teachers applauded them.
“I am still trying to process what more information is needed in order to secure a vote of approval to move to a virtual plan,” wrote teachers union President Diane Marinaro for Saturday’s meeting. “You had the opportunity to get ahead of the curve and support the recommendations from Central Office Leadership, yet you disregarded the facts presented.”
“As the numbers of COVID are increasing, I am feeling unsafe at work, that I am putting myself, my family, my students and their families at risk,” wrote one Dunbar Hill School teacher.
“We are tired. We are stretched to the brink. We need your support. We need your compassion. We need you to look at us not as numbers, cases, and statistics — but as humans,” wrote an English teacher.
The district will be remote until Jan. 19, unless cases miraculously decrease before then. With the holidays coming up and people likely to gather, Goeler warned, a decrease is unlikely.