Local Moms Petition Against Full In-Class School Attendance

RIDGEFIELD, CT — Four Ridgefield mothers have begun an online petition urging state officials to allow school districts to open with a mix of remote and on-site learning in the fall.

The petition addresses Gov. Ned Lamont and the Connecticut State Department of Education commissioner, Miguel Cardona.

In June, Cardona issued guidelines to the district superintendents in his call for their reopening plans. The state requested that schools prepare and submit plans for one hundred percent in-classroom learning, complete remote learning with no physical classroom component, and a hybrid mixture of both, but made clear it would be requiring the first model come the start of the school year. Last week in a letter to superintendents, and just ahead of the Friday submission deadline, Cardona doubled down on the state's mandate for schools to open fully in September:

"Any plan submitted to the CSDE on July 24, 2020, that does not include a full reopening option as one of the three models, where all public school students have the opportunity to access school in-person five days a week, will not be in compliance with current state law regarding the number of school days, or the expectations of State leadership."

The petition on Change.org was started by Stephanie, Tina, Emily, Kathleen, all of whom have children in Ridgefield middle schools or high school. (The moms have requested that Patch not print their last names.)

Ridgefield's original model for full attendance "had elementary school kids going back one hundred percent, because they can cohort" into smaller groups more easily, said Stephanie. The district determined that the integrity of the cohorts would begin to fray in the middle schools, and "in high schools, there's simply no way to cohort."

Stephanie said she was perplexed about the motivation behind the state mandating one hundred percent attendance on the first day of school.

"We have heard over and over that you need to have social distancing, face masks, hand washing and sanitizing... in place to open schools safely," she said. "But our superintendents are telling us that at the middle school level we need to have these very large cohorts... and then at the high school we can't have cohorts at all."

The CSDE requirements do allow for parents to choose to temporarily not have their children participate in the live physical learning models.

The petition was posted on Saturday, and by Sunday night had over 1,180 signatures towards a goal of 1,500.

"Towns know best, school districts know best, what they can and cannot do. If the district is saying to the state, 'this is how we can do this in the safest way possible,' why would you not allow them?" Stephanie said. "All we are asking is for the state to allow districts to do what is safest."