Fairfield Elementary Schools Will Fully Reopen In November

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield schools will bring elementary students back to the classroom full-time next month, after starting the academic year with a hybrid schedule amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Students in grades kindergarten through two will return Nov. 9 to in-person, full-time learning, and those in grades three through five will join them Nov. 12, Superintendent Mike Cummings told the Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday. Parents of elementary students can expect a request in the coming days to commit to either full-time, in-person or remote learning, he said.

The board’s discussion Tuesday at times was tense and emotional, as many members said they wanted to see a faster transition from hybrid to full-time classroom learning.

Member Bonnie Rotelli was among the most vocal about her displeasure with the timeline.

“I am asking, I’m pleading really, with you and your staff, to somehow manage to cut that time and get these kids back sooner,” she said to Cummings, noting she was “extremely disappointed” with the return dates.

Whether the timeline moves forward as planned depends on area coronavirus data, Cummings said, adding the month-long transition period is necessary to hire additional staff for cleaning and lunch supervision, coordinate busing, evaluate technological needs and provide professional development.

“If we enact a plan that is rushed, hurried, and mistakes are made, then we’re going to be dealing with another level of parent frustration,” he said.

In a recent school district survey, about 90 percent of participating parents across grades kindergarten through 12 whose children are enrolled in the hybrid model supported full-time, in-person learning. About 20 percent of respondents whose children are enrolled in remote learning said their students would return to the classroom if the district moved to full-time.

The district is not yet in a position to discuss a full-time, in-person option for middle school and high school students, Cummings said.

Earlier this week, a letter signed by more than 300 Fairfield families was submitted to school officials requesting an immediate return to in-person, full-time learning. An online petition in August seeking a full-time classroom option received nearly 800 signatures.

“Parents are frustrated,” board member Jeff Peterson said. “They’re running out of patience.”

Cummings said he had received emails from doctors in the community urging him not to bring students into the classroom full-time.

“We are very aware of the predictions of a possible second wave,” he said.

Connecticut has not yet seen any coronavirus cases confirmed to be the result of in-school transmission, he said. Nonetheless, there have been several cases within the district — mainly at Fairfield Ludlowe High School — that are believed to have been contracted outside of school. As of noon Tuesday, four district students and one staffer had the virus, 23 students and one staffer had recovered, and nearly 50 students and staff were in quarantine.

Fairfield families must make a commitment to follow virus prevention protocols when students aren’t in school, Peterson said.

“It’s frightfully important that these kids be in the classroom,” he said. “… That might require families to make sacrifices elsewhere.”

Rotelli said the district should not allow fear and anxiety to slow its reopening progress, and that some children who used to love school have lost interest in learning and become disengaged and withdrawn.

“We’re failing those kids right now, and four weeks from now is a really long time, and we can talk about not being afraid but a lot of this is based in fear,” she said.

Member Trisha Pytko requested a vote to gauge whether the board preferred schools to reopen Nov. 3 instead of the following week, but Chair Christine Vitale ruled that the reopening date was not the board’s decision. Rotelli objected to Vitale’s ruling, but a vote to challenge the ruling failed, with only Pytko and Rotelli in favor of the challenge.

Vitale said she respected the timeline laid out by Cummings.

“We wish that we could make everybody happy, but it’s seeming to be very difficult to do that,” she said.