We need your support to re-open Darien public schools in-person, 5-days / week starting September 3rd.

At the August 10th BOE Special Meeting, Dr. Alan Addley and BOE Chairperson Tara Ochman discussed re-opening plans for Darien Public Schools.

Details of the plan can be found at the link below and include a "hybrid" start on September 3rd followed by in-person start September 29th.

https://www.darienps.org/ourpages/auto/2020/4/14/60814556/2020-08-10%20BOE%20Materials.pdf

Several members of our community and the BOE asked for qualitative and quantitative rationale for not re-opening in-person 5 days / week starting September 3rd, for which superintendent Dr. Addley was unable to provide support.  In fact, Darien is well within the recent guidance provided by the state of CT and its health experts, which suggests the following 7 day average # of cases per 100,000 population:

1) Favors in-person learning: <10 cases / day (equates to <14 / week for Darien)
2) Favors hybrid learning: 10-25 cases / day (equates to 14-35 / week for Darien)
3) Favors remote learning: >25 cases / day

Dr. Addley cited that Darien is currently at 3 cases in the last week, which is well below the guidance provided for by the state.  The link below from DarienCt.gov shows that Darien has not been above 14 cases in a week for the last 17 weeks (over four months).

http://www.darienct.gov/filestorage/28565/31353/64482/64927/Weekly_Summary-end_08.04.2020.pdf

Given the data and guidance from the state, and Dr. Addley's and the BOE's abrupt change in re-opening recommendation, it is not clear that they will ever recommend a full re-opening in person.  Darien has been within the bounds of in-person learning for over 4 months; how much more supporting data is needed?

A hybrid re-opening is a lose, lose, lose recommendation:

1) Students have no consistent schedule and the 2 days / week curriculum will not be full, leaving our kids at a disadvantage vs. neighboring towns opening 5 days / week in person (e.g., Norwalk elementary schools)
2) Teachers are still potentially exposed, but also now have to manage both in-person and eLearning
3) Parents (especially dual income families) will have continued management of eLearning, which was a nightmare, and no fixed schedule for our kids

Every parent and teacher should be given the option to return to school in-person, 5-days / week starting September 3rd.  Please support this worthy cause and petition, which we plan to submit to Dr. Addley and the Darien BOE in the next couple of weeks, and feel free to pass along to other parents / teachers in the Darien.