Schools Hustle, Improvise To Stay Open

Administrators filled in to keep classrooms running and lunches served Monday, bus routes were combined, and teachers all received masks, as the New Haven and Hamden school districts resolved to remain open even as some suburban districts temporarily pulled the plug.

The hope remained by day’s end that kids can remain in schools despite the fact that Connecticut posted a record 21.5 percent Covid-19 test-positivity rate.

Meanwhile, New Haven’s teachers union president applauded the efforts to fill gaps but questioned whether they’ll prove ​“sustainable” — or if Connecticut should allow some remote learning to count as official school days.

Like other districts around the system, the two districts welcomed students back from Christmas break Monday amid uncertainty over whether the wildfire-like spread of the Omicron variant would keep too many students, teachers and parents out of work to enable schools to function.

Ansonia’s district, for instance, announced it needs to shut down for the week after 25 percent of staffers failed to show up. Stratford and Westport began the week by keeping schools closed in order to weigh options.

But as of Monday’s end, no New Haven schools needed to be closed because of Covid outbreaks, district spokesperson Justin Harmon reported.

Hamden’s middle school and an alternative ed center did need to close because of staff shortages, but otherwise schools remained functioning. [Update: On Tuesday, Hamden High closed because of staffing shortages.]

Reflecting a new consensus, the districts are determined to stay open if possible and avoid the extended remote learning that students endured during the first wave of the pandemic.

That doesn’t mean staying open was easy. Or will become easier as the Omicron variant runs its course.

View From New Haven

The challenges began before school began, in terms of getting kids to school: Fifty-two drivers called in because they were sick from Covid-18, showing symptoms, or waiting for test results.

Monday morning’s routes ran better than expected, Harmon said: All children were picked up, with the longest delay running to a half hour, ​“which is significant.”

“We’ve been fortunate — some neighboring districts are closed today, so we’ve been able to get some bus drivers assigned” to New Haven to help with the crunch, he said. Also, as with past daily shortages, the district combined some drivers’ routes.

At least 515 teachers, nurses, other staffers, and administrators were out as well.

Teachers and other staffers in schools were pressed into service to cover classes without substitutes. Central office administrators fanned out to hard-hit schools like Edgewood, Wilbur Cross, and Cooperative Arts & Humanities to help out. In some cases they filled in in the classroom.

No classes or schools went on quarantine or were closed due to Covid,” Harmon reported.

By 4 p.m., teachers union President Leslie Blatteau had heard from stewards at about half the districts’ schools. They reported that teachers got their N95 masks. They appreciated the help from central office administrators covering classes.

Blatteau added a cautionary note, saying she doesn’t want to ​“understate the tremendous stress much of our teaching staff is feeling right now.”

“New Haven rolls up its sleeves. We come to the the table and solve problems. But we have major sustainability issues here. Central office people have jobs to do. While it was welcome for them to cover classes, we need them in their roles. A lot of teachers stepped in to cover [other classes], English language support, resource people filled in to help. We can meet the immediate need. It’s not sustainable. For today and tomorrow, OK. But beyond this, we’re trying to communicate with the state for more flexibility.”

By ​“flexibility,” Blatteau meant that the legislature should allow school districts to count some days of remote learning toward the 180 minimum days of instruction required per academic year. Districts were able to do that during the pandemic’s first wave thanks to a gubernatorial order, which has since expired.

New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar said he’s disinclined to allow any remote learning to count for fear of ​“normalizing” remote learning as an accepted alternative to in-person instruction.

“The evidence from last year suggests you’re really doing a disservice to students across the board. The lessons aren’t sinking in. The back and forth you get from students being together and challenging each other in an educational environment doesn’t happen,” said Lemar, the father of three New Haven public schoolchildren.

“I don’t want to end up in the same situation that we were in last year, when it seemed like every month there were more new reasons we couldn’t go back in person. We were counting days on online education that we knew were insufficient. I don’t want districts to be off the hook from making the necessary investment they need. If New Haven needs to hire additional teachers, additional substitutes — if I have to be pushed harder to come through for New Haven, I want that pressure” to deliver emergency funding rather than to approve remote learning.”

Blatteau argued that ​“we don’t want to normalize people not doing the jobs they’re hired to do” and potentially burning out. 

During dismissal Monday at Family Academy of Multilingual Explorations (FAME) in Fair Haven, a mom named Danielle said she was nervous to send her two kids back to school because of the increasing local cases. Her kids spent the month of December out of school due to battling Covid. She had Covid, too. The three of them recently recovered, and the kids were approved to return back in person Monday. 

“I have anxiety sending my kids to school,” she said. 

She struggled to take care of her two kids while remaining quarantined this past month. After being infected for a month, she said, her kids were left ​“mentally exhausted.” 

She debated whether to send them in to school Monday due to concerns about her kids being in classrooms with desks three feet apart while eating lunch. 

“The fact that we don’t have the option for remote learning I feel is really neglectful,” she said. ​“You don’t know who these kids are going home to.”

Another FAME parent, Laure, said she was nervous sending her two kids back to school as well. She credited the school with keeping communication lines open and accessible since the start of the academic year. 

“I was a little bit worried, but this school is handling it good,” she said. She decided to send them to school knowing she had to work and concluding that ​“they learn better in-person.” 

View From Hamden

Hamden middle schoolers woke up to an additional day of winter break Monday morning — thanks to staff shortages related to Covid-19.

Superintendent Jody Goeler shared that 16 staff members at Hamden’s middle school called in sick Sunday night and Monday morning following the holiday vacation. 

Another ten bus drivers called out of work. The school has already been down from 84 regular drivers to 68 since the beginning of the year. 

“Everything is hitting us,” said Goeler on Monday afternoon while working out of his own home while down with a cold. ​“It’s all compounding.”

The canceling of classes at the middle school as well as the Hamden Collaborative Learning Center — a district-based alternative education center — meant that the loss of bus drivers did not significantly impact pick-up and drop-off times Monday, according to Goeler.

However, Goeler said he has told parents to expect delays between 30 minutes to an hour in the coming days and weeks as available drivers double up routes to ensure all students have a guaranteed means of transportation to school and back.

Though the district’s high school and elementary schools were able to avoid closure — unlike not only Hamden’s middle school and collaborative learning center but Eli Whitney Technical High School, a state school based in Hamden that closed early on Monday because of staff shortages — even schools that are staying open are struggling with absent teachers and staff members.

For example, nine staff members at the High School called out on Monday. Over at Church Street elementary, on the other hand, not a single positive case was reported among staff. 

Goeler said that each principal must decide whether or not it is possible to safely bring students into school on a daily basis by analyzing the role of each staff member that’s missing. A missing guidance counselor, for instance, is not as problematic as an absent math teacher.

Following state protocol released this week in response to the Omicron variant, Hamden schools will no longer engage in contact tracing and monitoring low-risk exposures but focus their efforts on identifying and isolating individuals with active symptoms. Individuals who test positive for Covid-19 will now be required to isolate for five days rather than ten, and are only required to wear a mask after that point if their symptoms are resolving. 

While adhering to revised state guidance, Hamden schools are also taking their own steps to mitigate spread. 

Students and staff are now required to wear Kn95 masks. Anyone wearing, for instance, a cloth mask to school will be asked to replace their mask with one provided by administration. Principals will also on a case by case basis create new regulations around social distancing depending on the layout of the school. Goeler advised that large groups of students congregating in communal spaces like auditoriums should maintain a distance of more than six feet between one another, given the highly contagious nature of the new variant. 

Though teachers are struggling like everyone else to access Covid-19 tests in a timely manner, Goeler pointed out that the town is distributing roughly 9,000 self-administered tests which will be crucial to symptomatic staff. On Monday, the town gave out the first batch of those tests to people lining up at the closed Hamden Middle School.

“As difficult as now is, it’s very different from a year ago,” West Woods Elementary Principal Dan Levy reflected after school dismissal. ​“That doesn’t mean it’s any less difficult … but we have more tools at our disposal.”

Levy serves as chairperson of the district’s safety committee, which has met 66 times since July 2020 to compare local and state health data, regulations, and advice.

Despite limitations on testing, Levy pointed to high vaccination rates and community familiarity with protocols like masking and distancing as important forms of protection that did not exist in 2020. Every elementary school in the district has held both vaccination and booster clinics for students and staff alike. 

As of Dec. 22, 96 percent of all staff members — or 1,077 out of 1,0126 across Hamden schools — are fully vaccinated. The state has called to shorten quarantine periods. Levy said he is hopeful that individuals who catch Covid will be back in school without extensive delays.

“I’m not a public health expert,” he said. ​“I have to rely on what they tell us,” referring to the Quinnipiack Valley Health District as well as the State Department of Public Health. 

His role, as well as that of his teachers and staff, he said, is to be courageous in the face of continued anxiety and hardship. ​“Heroism and bravery is the ability to continue on despite the challenges,” he said, recalling his experiences in the Coast Guard. ​“You don’t say I’m not afraid… but you continue to do your job… to care for kids.”

West Woods was short by 10 certified staff on Monday. The school covered those absences by moving a mix of substitute teachers and paraprofessional educators around the building to oversee students. Some specials classes were canceled because of absent teachers, but elementary students were able to remain with their classroom teachers. 

Levy assisted with lunch and recess duties but did not need to cover any classes himself. 

Unlike last year when schools shut down due to an executive order and mass uncertainty, this time around, Levy said, keeping schools running is ​“not wonderful, but it’s doable.” And, as proven by school fights and behavioral issues mounting throughout the district, keeping schools open is key to keeping children socialized and cared for while parents work to make ends meet at home. 

That sentiment was echoed by parents picking up their kids on Monday afternoon. Despite the rollercoaster-like surges of cases over the past year and a half, fourth grade parent Phil Alexander said that ​“people should understand that what goes up must come down.”

Rather than attempting to place blame on others, Alexander said, everyone must take responsibility for the health of themselves and others by getting vaccinated, boosted, and masking up. Since March of 2020, he said, he has learned to accept the reality that Covid-19 is here, and that he can only control how his family decides to deal with it.

“I’m not nervous,” he said.