To the Editor:

Recently, my spouse and I were invited to join a group of concerned parents in Newtown who, like us, are both anxious and frustrated in dealing with the remote learning program in our schools. I believe I speak for that group, which is now 90 families strong and growing, in expressing concern for the decision to revert back to remote learning for K-8 made by District Superintendent Dr Laurie Rodrigue and our Board of Education. The reasons cited for this decision were COVID transmission and staffing.

It is difficult to understand why we have eliminated in-person learning when there have been no reported cases of COVID transmission in schools out of the 471 quarantines that have been enforced. (The Newtown Bee, December 4, 2020, “Schools To Continue ‘Remote’ Through December 23.”) In these difficult times, stability for our children is paramount and the on again off again inconsistency with in-person instruction leads to heartbreaking disappointment in our youngest students.

To make matters worse, the ineffective remote learning program is not only denying our children the kind of education they deserve but, in numerous instances, is creating emotional issues. If you have children in school, I encourage you to take a look at this “distance learning” model and join with us in voicing your concerns to the BOE should you also find it ineffective.

Our school officials should strive to achieve what Westport, New Canaan, and Darien, the top districts in Connecticut have done. Their schools are open as are schools in Bethel, Ridgefield, Southbury, Middlebury, Prospect, New Fairfield, and many more. Our Governor and medical experts advocate keeping kids in school. Why is Newtown failing to do this even as other districts succeed? Even New York City has reopened. As Dr Fauci has proclaimed, “Schools are the safest place for our children.”

Remote learning places a crushing burden on families. Neither our young children nor many of us parents are IT experts. Can staying at home staring at a computer screen, struggling to navigate hastily designed virtual lessons really be the best thing we can do?

The above-mentioned schools would appear to be far more creative in their approaches than Newtown and have been able to stay open. Those approaches include utilizing volunteer parents to enable smaller class sizes for at least a few hours per day of in-person instruction, using parent transportation to get kids to school, allowing teachers who are concerned from transmission to stay home, but freeing up finances to engage greater numbers of substitutes at reasonable pay scales (Newtown offers only $87/day for a substitute). The one bright spot in this difficult period has been teachers and staff at the HOM, who all have been beyond wonderful. I am sure they share similar concerns.

We call on the Superintendent and BOE to do the right thing, get more innovative, take advantage of the tools being offered by the state, and get more active in engaging parents to help and open our schools!

William DeRosa

Kersti Ferguson

Taunton Hill Road, Newtown December 11, 2020