BRANFORD — The town’s public schools will begin to open for full-time in-person instruction in stages starting with the elementary schools on March 22.
Walsh Intermediate School will follow on March 29 and the high school on April 5.
The plan restores five-day-a-week, in-person learning weeks sooner than a plan that had been outlined by Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez a week ago.
“It was certainly a win for Branford,” said Jennifer Orlando, a parent who helped start an online petition pushing the district to fully reopen. “We will claim it as a victory.”
Facing intense pressure from parents and with results of a survey that show parents and staff split on the best way to return, Hernandez called the revised framework a heavy lift for all.
“We need time logistically to transition,” he said.
Two weeks ago, with the community’s COVID-19 positivity rate consistently running higher than the state average, school officials had no firm timeline in place for a return to full in-person learning.
The district has run on a hybrid model that has most students in class two days a week and learning from home three days since the fall. That model reduces the number of students in school at any one time.
With other districts in the area returning to full in person learning, parents started an online petition to force the board to hold a forum to address the issue. The petition drew 285 verified signatures from Branford residents. The superintendent and his staff then developed a reopening plan. The tentative April 19 return, announced last week, was deemed unacceptable by nearly all speakers at a meeting held March 3.
The district then sent out a survey to parents that drew 1,591 responses, representing 52 percent of the district’s 2,585 students.
Of those responding, about 58 percent said they want students back in school by the end of March. Another 23 percent wanted the district to remain in a hybrid model and about 19 percent were OK with waiting until April 19 — after the district’s April vacation — to return.
In addition, if the option were available, 56 percent of parents said they preferred that all students to return at once, not staggered by grade level.
In contrast, 61 percent of Branford staff answering the survey favored a phased-in approach to repopulating classrooms. Some 46 percent of staff said they want to wait until the community’s COVID-19 positivity rate improved. Only 20 percent want students back in school by the end of March.
Staff raised concern about classroom density and logistics, such as how lunch would be handled with so many students in school at once.
“We are limited in the geography that we have,” Hernandez told the board.
The superintendent said that efforts are being made to carve out additional spaces, make sure air systems are working properly and that protective equipment such as durable plastic barriers are available in between desks.
Attention also will be paid to the social and emotional well being of students returning to school.
Although district positivity rates for the virus remains at 4.6 percent, it was noted that 522 of the district’s 753 employees have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
During a special meeting of the Branford School Board’s Communication and Teaching & Learning committees this week, the latest plan received a better reception but some still question a phase in by grade level.
“Why prioritize younger over older?” asked parent Stephanie Carvin.
Parent Ceila Sosha wondered why high school students couldn’t return for another four weeks — a week before April break.
“Parents want kids to go back at the same time,” said Karen Lopez, another parent.“High school kids cant wait ‘til April … It is not acceptable.”
Hernandez said the phase-in approach would help officials monitor the impact the return has on district infection positivity rates.
There is also a concern that a full return might lead to a spike in cases that would cause an abrupt return to remote learning, he said.
“The irony is our teachers, in the hybrid model, can make switch easily,” Hernandez said. He said he worries about children and families who might not.
Parent Becky Gillman said that while she is thrilled that the superintendent and board are taking action, there remain issues with communication that need to be addressed between district administration and parents.
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‘A victory’: Branford schools change course; all students to return sooner to in-person learning - New Haven Register
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