Connecticut schools should plan to reopen in the fall, with mask-wearing, frequent cleaning of facilities and social distancing protocols in place, the state announced Thursday.
As the state sees positive trends in COVID-19 transmission, Gov. Ned Lamont and Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona presented the statewide schools reopening plan for daily in-person instruction. But the state also is asking districts to prepare alternate plans, should there be an uptick in cases.
“As you might imagine, developing a plan for school reopening that predicts where we will be as a state in terms of COVID spread in two months is extremely challenging, but we are pleased to have a plan for Connecticut that promotes health and safety for our students and staff,” Cardona said in unveiling the plan.
The state reported on Thursday that two fewer people were hospitalized due to COVID-19, for a total of 122. The state also reported 81 additional COVID-19 cases for a total of 45,994, and 11 additional COVID-19 deaths for a total of 4,298.
The data showed 1,157 COVID-19 cases and 62 probable cases in New London County as of Thursday evening, as well as 76 COVID-19 deaths and 26 probable deaths, the same as on Wednesday. Two people were hospitalized with the disease in the county.
As long as current trends continue, he said school districts will reopen in the fall and must maximize social distancing, provide frequent hand-washing opportunities, and enhance cleaning and disinfecting measures. Students and staff are expected to wear face coverings, except in cases in which teachers are instructing from a distance or when there is a medical reason.
The state is asking districts to reconfigure available classrooms and spaces, such as gymnasiums and auditoriums, to maximize social distancing as much as possible, he said.
The state strongly recommends grouping students into cohorts, or groups, that can function independently from others. He acknowledged this is most feasible in kindergarten through eighth grade and more challenging in high schools, though some ninth grade set-ups may allow for this kind of model.
Temperature checks will not be required, he said.
The plan could change if community transmission increases, and the state is asking districts to prepare alternative plans. Those include a hybrid model in which some students would come to school one day while others stay home, as well as a distance learning plan if a sharp uptick in cases requires students to stay home.
“While we’re in the health pandemic, it’s important to recognize that we’re also in an educational emergency,” Cardona said. “While efforts to provide computers and internet access is important and efforts of teachers and school leaders to provide quality remote learning was nothing less than heroic, we heard loud and clear that students wanted to get back to school.”
He said the plan was developed with input from educators, parents and students and in close partnership with the state Department of Public Health. Students’ physical, social-emotional and academic well-being will be at the forefront of decisions.
“We acknowledge and embrace the opportunity to bring students back but also support them as they deal with the trauma of separation, seclusion, loss and effects of racial tensions and ignorance that plague our country," he said. "While the challenge ahead of us is greater than any educator has experienced in our lifetimes, we’ve also seen educators rise masterfully to the challenge three months ago. We know there are no easy answers and nothing will be set in stone. We’re prepared to serve our students and adapt as needed.”
Schools in the region
Many school officials in the region welcomed the state guidance Thursday. Most said they have begun readying the schools, from buying personal protective equipment, or PPE, to forming planning committees.
Superintendents also said they were awaiting the more detailed guidance to be released on Monday to formulate plans and determine estimated costs and logistics.
East Lyme
East Lyme Public Schools has formed five subcommittees — on communications, instructional planning, social and emotional learning, operations, and logistics — made up of about 100 school employees, including teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals, as well as some parents, to address the reopening process, Superintendent Jeff Newton said.
He said they are planning for both in-person, virtual and hybrid forms of learning next fall.
Newton said he was expecting costs associated with reentry would exceed the $50.8 million the schools have been budgeted for 2020-21 and said he has notified the town that the district may need to request a special appropriation this summer to cover the costs.
The district is expecting to receive about $175,000 in federal CARES ACT money in September or October, which will be applied to additional reopening expenses. “That won’t cover it all, pending what the requirements are, but it will help,” Newton said.
The town already approved a plan to allow the district to bond approximately $1 million to purchase every student a mobile learning device by this fall, to better pivot between in-person and distance learning throughout the year.
Groton
The Groton school district has appointed seven committees to cover topics such as finances, instruction and mental and physical health. A Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee will look at policies, procedures and practices to ensure all students are treated in an equitable manner, Superintendent Michael Graner said.
Graner said his sense is the statewide reopening plan announced Thursday will be practical and achievable and provide safe guidelines for students and staff.
“While we’re going to be flexible, that’s for sure, I think this gives us a really good set of marching orders going forward,” he said.
The district has procedures in place for sanitizing facilities, he said. Some spaces, like gymnasiums, may need to be reconfigured to help with social distancing.
The district is continuing to plan not only for in-person learning, but also a hybrid model and a distance learning model. The district also will work on how to accommodate children who won’t be able to come back to school for medical reasons.
The district has invested about $1.1 million, through state Alliance District and federal Department of Defense Impact Act Supplemental Program grant funds, to ensure all younger students have tablets and all others have Chromebooks, he said. The technology can be used for distance learning and in school.
He said the district saved some funds while schools were closed. The district used some of that money to purchase supplies and PPE, including masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and thermometers. The district also plans to use some of its roughly $682,000 in CARES Act funds for supplies and PPE.
Ledyard
In a message sent out Thursday, Ledyard Superintendent Jason Hartling said the district created three committees for the reopening: distance learning, curriculum and instruction; district return to school plans, and school based return to school plans.
Once draft plans are ready by mid-July, the district will seek feedback from teachers, staff, families and community members as it develops a final draft that will go before the Board of Education, he said.
“This has been a trying time and we all are looking forward to increased certainty about school this fall,” he wrote. "A lot of effort has gone into preparing our district for various contingencies and we are ready to pivot and create our specific plans with the guidance we received from the State.”
Montville
Montville Superintendent Laurie Pallin said the district has “already done a great deal of work,” including designing cleaning protocols, installing hand sanitizers in every classroom, posting signs in the buildings, developing a visitor policy and protocols for staff at work, and creating a daily self-wellness check for staff who are currently working.
The district assigned prekindergarten through eighth-grade students into cohort groups, and teachers are working on the most effective use of technology.
Teams next will tackle details of the reentry plan.
“We very much look forward to the return of students and staff at the end of August and will work hard in the next two months to review and develop protocols that ensure a healthy and productive learning environment,” Pallin said.
New London
New London School Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie said the district would be rolling out its plans in July, “after unpacking the additional details presented to us on Monday.” The district is expected to receive nearly $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 stimulus funding.
Norwich
Norwich Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow said Norwich formed three reopening committees and the region’s superintendents have been holding remote meetings regularly to plan. She said it was reassuring to receive more definitive guidelines.
“Now I think we can have more focus,” she said, “but we were told, to be sure, that these are all drafts subject to change depending on the wellness of the state and the region.”
She divided the school’s return plans into three groups: a wellness group; a group to address in-person teaching and improving distance learning, should it be required; and a group to handle logistics from bus loading to cafeteria and library access.
Norwich staff created site maps of schools to plan access routes and travel patterns. Some classrooms are small, so larger spaces might be needed to meet state guidelines. Stringfellow hopes teachers can hold outdoor classes occasionally, as well.
Playgrounds will be cleaned more regularly, and the school system purchased backpack-style sanitizing foggers that can sanitize rooms without harming paper and soft materials, Stringfellow said. Norwich also has purchased some equipment that is not required in the directives announced Thursday, including no-touch thermometers that will be housed in the nurses' offices in each school for general use.
Stringfellow and other superintendents stressed to state officials that earlier suggestions for strict limits on the number of bus riders would have been impossible.
Norwich received $1.9 million in CARES Act funds but the district must share that money with local private schools based on the number of children from Title 1 low-income families attending those schools. The district also can use part of the city’s $200,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to purchase PPE.
While money from the CARES Act grant has not been drawn down yet, Norwich has used the grant to purchase laptops for teachers and students for distance learning, software platforms, professional development and safety training.
Norwich has surveyed parents and school staff on their views about returning to classrooms, though data is not yet available.
“The biggest challenge is inspiring confidence in families and staff that their safety is our first priority,” Stringfellow said. “It means everything to us. It’s not that reading and math and all the important things are less, but safety is more. That’s all we’re thinking about day and night."
Norwich Free Academy spokesman Michael O’Farrell said the directives released Thursday were “encouraging news” for NFA on the plan to reopen in fall.
“Our team has already begun conversations related to a variety of scenarios, so having specific guidance will allow us to focus our efforts and work within these guidelines to prepare for the year and provide the safest environment possible for our students, faculty and staff,” he said.
Preston
Preston Superintendent Roy Seitsinger said a survey was sent to parents and the “vast majority” want children to return to school. Part of the district’s planning has to be to prepare for a return to distance learning if necessary, he said.
He created a social and emotional learning subcommittee that is using the trauma training instruction to respond to students who have been affected by issues such as extended isolation, family job losses or family illness or loss of life. The district will use professional development, guest speakers and provide supports for school psychologists and nurses.
“The focus on the entire effort on social and emotional learning is the relationship between the teacher and the student,” Seitsinger said. “The distance learning has had an impact on that relationship.”
Preston received $63,000 in federal CARES Act funds. Seitsinger said it will be used to get technology in the hands of students and teachers and obtain PPE.
Stonington
In Stonington, Board of Education Chairwoman Alexa Garvey said the school system is establishing a reopening task force with members from the school and town community.
She said the district’s curriculum and distance learning teams, as well as facilities personnel and administrators are working together to provide safe reopening plans, which they will present to the task force.
Garvey said plans will be in place for both in-school learning and access to virtual learning. She said the task force’s work will continue through July and then it will present plans to the Board of Education for final approval.
Required face coverings are expected to cost the town an additional $500,000 not in the 2020-21 budget, according to a study done by school officials. The state’s decision to allow normal capacity on buses means the town will not have to spend an additional $3.4 million on extra buses.
With the state asking districts to reconfigure available classrooms and spaces to maximize social distancing, some residents have suggested the school system could look at reusing the former school administration building in Old Mystic and the former Pawcatuck Middle School, which is now partially used for school administrators, for additional classroom space.
Waterford
Waterford Superintendent Thomas Giard III said a district reopening taskforce is looking at everything from curriculum, technology, logistics, cleaning, and mental health supports to human resources.
Once the district receives written guidance, it will work to develop a plan.
“CARES Act/ESSER Funding applications were released to districts earlier this week and we are in the process of putting together an application to access those funds,” Giard said. “Between PPE, technology, cleaning and staffing needs this money will be well spent."
Day Staff Writers Claire Bessette, Mary Biekert, Amanda Hutchinson, Greg Smith, Sten Spinella and Joe Wojtas contributed to this report.
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