After he graduated from culinary school in Hartford, Gurpreet Singh spent three years driving through Connecticut searching for a welcoming spot for a member of the Sikh community to start his own Pun.
Norwich Norwich Public Schools will return to five days of in-person learning starting Monday for all students in preschool through eighth grade for the first time since March 12, 2020, Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow announced to parents and staff Friday.
She said requests for fully remote learning still will be honored, but the model for remote learning will be drastically different.
“The greatest impact is the change in our remote learning pattern,” Stringfellow said during a teleconference with city department heads, state legislators and human services agencies. “We had remote learning that was state-of-the-art.”
Under the two-day hybrid model, only four to six students would be in a classroom at one time, allowing the teacher to offer live, on-screen lessons to students in remote learning. Stringfellow said she felt it was important to have students be able to see their classmates and their teachers during live classes.
Norwich The phones at Norwich Public Schools central office ring all day, and later, Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow’s cellphone takes over.
Desperate parents beg her to open schools full time. Teachers, paraeducators and support staff fear classrooms are too crowded and ask if schools should go to remote learning.
“The parents that call, their stories are heartbreaking,” Stringfellow told the Board of Education on Tuesday. “They are pretty much: ‘Stringfellow, you’ve got to get my kid in there full time, because I have to go to work. Do you want me to go to work and feed them, or do you want me to supervise them while they’re remote learning?’ And the staff members’ calls are just as heartbreaking. ‘What can I do to make sure my kids are safe, and I’m safe, and that my colleague is safe? ”