That s not school to me : COVID-19 leads some Danbury-area teachers to retire
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DANBURY Ray and Ann Bielizna loved being teachers because they could interact with students.
That changed when schools closed last March with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the couple learned to teach remotely.
“A big part of our job is the connection you have with kids,” said Ann Bielizna, an educator for 32 years who most recently taught in Danbury’s Rogers Park Middle School. “That’s really the reason I went into education, was that working with kids and watching them develop and grow.”
Distance learning became even harder when Ray Bielizna’s mother, Judith Bielizna, died from COVID-19 complications in April. She had been “kind of a legend” as a former New Fairfield school teacher, he said.