Parents of children in the Danbury school system have a tough decision to make.

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Because of the back to school insanity caused by a global pandemic, the lives of parents, their children, and their teachers have obviously been turned upside down. Danbury's Board of Education has given parents three choices to choose from as it pertains to how their children will be schooled this year, and they are:

  1. Full-time in-school classroom learning.
  2. Full-time distance learning from home.
  3. Full-time homeschooling.

I asked Mayor Boughton about the "Hybrid Option" which is a combination of classroom and distance learning. He told me that that particular option has to be approved by the state to become an official choice for parents. If the state does approve it, it will replace the homeschooling option.

New Milford High - Google Screen Shot
New Milford High - Google Screen Shot
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Last week, I posed this question on our FB page: "Parents - Which Back-to-School Plan Do You Prefer?" Here's what the community had to say:

"I will choose #3 -  I’m not taking a gamble. I’ll do my best to help him and even hire a tutor to help him regardless of the fact my husband is handicapped and I no longer have employment. It could be worse. My gut feeling is distance learning for now."

"Distance learning for 6th and up. In school for k thru 5. My reasoning is k thru5 need to develop social skills at their age or it could be detrimental in future interactions with their peers."

Bethel Middle School - Google Screen Shot
Bethel High School - Google ScreenShot
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"As a school employee, I will be choosing option three. Is it ideal? No. Absolutely not. I hated Distance Learning. I feel that our teachers did a great job but I hated not having the boundary of work and home life. But I will opt for DL again because keeping my son safe and minimizing the risk of getting my mother and grandmother ill is more important than my need for a said boundary."

"Here in FL (the COVID capital of the world) our options were similar and we chose distance learning. It goes by semester, so we’ll see how things look for the second semester as far as going back to brick and mortar school. I have a feeling she won’t be seeing the inside of a school til the third semester at the earliest".....

Pembroke School (Danbury) - Google Screen Shot
Pembroke School (Danbury) - Google Screen Shot
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"Only 3...nothing else makes sense until we have a vaccine. You’re putting the life of your child, their family, and all the educators in jeopardy. Do you want to have to tell your child about the death of a classmate or teacher, family member, etc, because they went to school? They will be scared to death to go back when all this mess is cleared up!!""

"As a teacher there is no way in hell I’m going to go near children who have inconsiderate parents that consistently send their children to school with just a ’cold’. Add Covid to the mix and we’ll have our second wave of virus by the beginning of October. I love what I do but I’m not willing to die for your kid. Sorry, not sorry."

Brookfield High - Google Screen Shot
Brookfield High - Google Screen Shot
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"Definitely ONE; Not because I don’t want to be near my child, but because the alternatives are quit work and live on a one-income family which forces the relocations much greater and children to lose relationships, communication with friends they’ve established and social distancing will be much more difficult with established friends and teachers. The other option would be for parents to send their child to school for TWO HALF DAYS totaling SIX HOURS A WEEK AND THE OTHER 20 SOMETHING HOURS IN CHILDCARE/DAYCARE so parents could work, be exposed to alternating kids in/out of said daycare/childcare and bring it to the next school session, which would do more harm than good. Once there is a symptom, and the teacher is being tested- what substitute will go in to teach, will they cancel the entire school for two weeks for one child to be tested as symptoms move forward daily. People and as parents need to be responsible and do not let our children anywhere but school and teachers need to do the same as we parents are out at work, wearing PPE.

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