Students return to the classroom after 10 months of remote learning

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    NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) — After ten months of learning from home, students in New Haven returned to the classroom on Tuesday.

They’ve been out since last March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Justin Elicker, who originally pushed for schools to reopen during the fall, said he’s glad parents and students finally have an option.

“You can’t replace in-person learning,” Elicker said. “Our teachers have done such a great job with remote learning, but at the end of the day, in-person learning where the kids can talk with each other, socialize and be with their teacher is something that’s really important to their development.”

“I think we are looking forward to them getting back to it [Tuesday], being with their classmates and their teachers,” said Laura McGowan, a parent.

Laura McGowan’s two children, Xavier and Patrick, will finally get in-person learning. “We’re cautiously optimistic, so we’ll see,” she told Channel 3.

For them and other New Haven students, it’s not their first day of school, but rather the first day in school since last winter when New Haven first closed its classrooms for the pandemic.

In a statement, New Haven Superintendent Iline Tracy said, “New Haven Public Schools has taken great caution in setting up safeguards and protocols to ensure the safety of our staffs and students. I have had the opportunity to visit several schools over the past couple of days, where staff members were present putting on the finishing touches as they prepare for students’ arrivals.”

Back in the summer, New Haven’s Board of Education decided it would start the year with 10 weeks of remote learning.

When the state’s coronavirus numbers started to climb in the fall, the city hit pause on its planned November reopening.

Then late last month, New Haven said it would finally reopen in mid-January.

Last week, some parents and teachers told the Board of Education that they had some concerns.

Dave Cicarella, who heads up the teacher’s union in New Haven, said while they want to return to the classroom, the feeling is they waited this long, what’s a few more weeks, especially with teachers in 1B of the state’s vaccination phase.

“We need to get back, but with the vaccinations just around the corner, it just doesn’t make sense to send everyone back now, so the teachers are overwhelmingly [saying] ‘can’t we just wait for the vaccination?’ We know they’re coming, it’s not going to be that much longer,” Cicarella said.

New Haven’s back-to-school plan is a hybrid model. Pre-K through 3rd graders will go to school in-person four days a week. The 4th and 5th graders will have in-person learning two days and week, and for the time being the older children in grades 6 through 12 will continue with the full remote learning.

Two schools, West Rock and Quinnipiac, will stay closed for good.

New Haven’s COVID task force determined that older buildings should stay closed due to ventilation concerns.

There’s no word yet on when older students might return to in-person learning.

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