Dear Mr. Lamont and Dr. Cardona-

Thank you for everything you have done to keep Connecticut safe, to dramatically decrease our Covid numbers and to make Connecticut a model for the rest of the country.

It is simply not safe for many Connecticut schools to reopen at full capacity. Please listen to the superintendents who have reached out and tried to make this clear to you. 

On July 17, Fran Rabinowitz, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, spoke during a Fairfield Town Hall meeting about the importance of the five mitigation factors that must be in place for schools to open safely:

1. Social distancing 

2. Cohorting 

3. Face masks 

4. Hand washing 

5. Sanitizing

She stated that all five factors must be in place, that there is no one magic bullet and that all five are needed to work together to keep our kids safe. At minute 18:37 of the video she states, "I'm not sure, I'm honestly not sure that we're going to, that we're going to be able to bring all kids back every day at the high school level."

Link to the Fairfield meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VssY8gAZJs  

Schools that we see running successfully in Europe are cohorting children into groups of ten that do not mix. High schools do not have the ability to cohort their students at all and can not provide social distancing. Having a "cohort" of 80-160 students as some middle schools are planning is a cohort in name only and not a mitigation strategy that provides any measure of safety. 

Reports coming out of Israel show that middle school children "proved the most dangerous vectors" in an outbreak there.  Link to article

A South Korean study that shows that "those between the ages of 10-19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do." Link to article

We believe that as our state leaders, you are fully aware of the safety issues involved in reopening schools at full capacity when they are unable to provide small cohorts and social distancing.

We ask that you allow superintendents and boards of education to make the decision to reopen with a hybrid model which will allow for only 50% of students to be present in a building at one time. While this will still not allow for cohorting at the high school level, it will at least allow for appropriate social distancing. It will also allow for safely sized cohorts at the middle school and elementary school levels and it will allow for appropriate social distancing. 

Please allow the districts to decide for themselves how to best open schools as each community is unique. We have worked so hard as citizens of Connecticut to keep our numbers down. Please do not let those sacrifices go to waste. 

We, the undersigned residents of Connecticut ask you to PLEASE ALLOW ALL CONNECTICUT SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO REOPEN WITH HYBRID MODELS.