CT School Reopening Plan Draws Criticism From Teachers

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont’s preliminary school reopen plan was met with skepticism from parents, teacher unions and others who questioned the feasibility of a five-day school week with full class sizes.

The American Federation of Teachers Connecticut and Connecticut Education Association unions questioned the plan and asked for more details.

“ Simply directing district officials to follow generic CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommendations, without customizing requirements for the realities of our school settings, is insufficient for a safe statewide reopening,” the unions said in a joint statement.

The plan also drew criticism from within Lamont’s own party. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, who is a former national teacher of the year from Waterbury tweeted at the governor.

Hayes opponent David Sullivan, a federal prosecutor who teaches at the college level, said that he agreed with Lamont's plan; parents could homeschool if they felt it would be too dangerous, he said. He has two elementary school aged children who he helped teach through the distance learning period.

"We need to stem the academic slide that all children have encountered during this pandemic,” Sullivan said. “We need to close the scholastic achievement gap. All our children deserve a bright future. The best way to address the current shortcomings and prepare our children for the future is through in-school classroom education, led by our qualified and dedicated teachers."

Lamont’s back to school plan mandates mask use for students and staff in almost all instances. Students will have to wear a mask from the time they get on a school bus to the time they step off the bus at the end of the school day. The ultimate goal is to have as close to a normal experience as possible for students and teachers with a five-day school week and non-staggered days.

The preliminary plan makes no mention of capping class sizes, but does encourage cohorting, which would keep the same group of students and teachers together throughout the day.

Cohorting was just as important if not more important than class sizes, Lamont said during his news conference.

Both unions said that teachers want to get back into the classroom, but not without stricter safeguards, including smaller class sizes, staggered start times, routine testing and frequent disinfecting of schools.

“There are deep disparities that exist among our school communities, especially in our Alliance Districts,” the unions said in their statement. “We need to ensure that they all have access to the resources needed to implement social distancing and CDC guidelines in order to keep our schools healthy and safe.”

State Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona appeared on WNPR's Where We Live program to talk more about the reopening plan Friday morning. He reiterated that the state's plan is trying to make predictions for two months out and that school reopenings could be scaled back if the public health situation were to change.

The plan also takes into account that each school district has its own set of challenges, including how to best use the space that already exists. The state is going to focus on helping the largest districts that have large class sizes already, though Cardona admitted that keeping six feet of distance within a full-size classroom would be hard.

"We feel at this point a combination of mitigation strategies is the best approach,”he said, adding that is why the state is mandating mask use.

Cardona was asked what would happen if a parent said they didn't want their child wearing a mask for the full school day. His message was simple: without masks you won't have staff members coming back and without staff you won't see schools reopen.

"I know it’s difficult, this is by no stretch an easy plan however without masks we are also increasing the opportunity for spread," he said.

The state’s back to school plan includes contingencies for hybrid in-person/distance learning if the coronavirus begins to spread through a school or community. It also has a contingency for full remote learning should the virus become a widespread issue again. More details about the thresholds for those circuit breakers are expected in the near future from the state Department of Education.

In addition, the plan calls for generic CDC guidelines such as frequent hand-washing/sanitizing and disinfecting of surfaces.

All of this is sure to cost school districts more money. Lamont indicated during his news conference that the state would be kicking in more money than the typical Education Cost Sharing amount given to local districts.