NORWALK — The city has close to 3,800 high school students, but only about 400 of them are currently learning in a physical classroom these days.

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Though Norwalk emphasized its commitment to keeping schools open for in-person learning even as coronavirus cases rise and classes go remote due to quarantines and staffing shortages, only a small portion of high school students are using the hybrid option that keeps them in the buildings part of the week.

Superintendent Alexandra Estrella said at a Board of Education meeting last week that there’s an estimated 200 students in each of the two high school buildings doing in-person instruction. Under Norwalk’s hybrid model, students in middle and high school attending in-person rotate between being in the building two days and doing remote learning two days.

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According to enrollment estimates from earlier this year, there’s about 3,800 students enrolled in Norwalk high schools including the P-TECH and Center for Global Studies program.

The reason why these figures are so low, Estrella said, is because she found many students made the decision to switch to remote learning after realizing they wouldn’t be able to see their friends in class.

“Part of the conversation I’ve had with students ... is associated with their social networks and some of the challenges that the hybrid models presents,” Estrella said at the meeting. “They feel some of the reason they wanted to come in-person was the social aspect which is limited because of the amount social distancing and sometimes their friends are not in the same cohort, creating limitations around that.”

Lexi Butler, 16, a junior at Norwalk High School, said she was excited to return to the classroom this year, but began to notice she was one of only a few people in her classes. She decided in late November to go remote when she was the only person physically present in all of her classes one day.

“I love going to school,” she said. “I love having friends in my classes. I was really looking forward to this year. I had friends in my cohort and they stopped coming to school. When it’s just you and the teacher, it’s awkward. All your friends are online and you have no one to talk to.”

Butler said many classmates who played sports decided to go remote so they didn’t risk needing to quarantine from in-school exposure and missing out on playing time. She said other students just preferred staying home and found it was easier to do so because most classes were focused on remote learners, which made up the bulk of students.

“I’d be in class with my teachers and they say put your headphones in and log onto class,” Butler said. “It’s an interesting experience. It’s hard for teachers. They have a whole class in person and online and you have to attend to both at the same time.”

Many older students also prefer the extra time in the morning offered by the hybrid option, Estrella said.

This has been the case for Jessica Herlihy’s son, who is a junior in P-TECH and has been remote for several months now. Before class sizes started to shrink in Norwalk High and Brien McMahon classes, the P-TECH program began seeing the effects of more students going remote.

When attending in-person, Herlihy’s son sat in classes with as few as four other students, eating lunch by himself and then going home early for his classes through Norwalk Community College.

“It affected him more and earlier,” she said. “It really is the same experience whether you’re there or home at this point. It was really just for him ... boredom and wanting to not have to get up and get dressed.”

Now her son gets to sleep in a bit more before getting up and working at his desk for the day. He gets to socialize with his friends through social media and online games, and his grades are just as high as they were in the hybrid model, his mother said.

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“They’ve been absolutely amazing,” she said. “He’s been able to engage and do all the learning. He’s able to get up, he’s doing everything he’s supposed to do done. He’s not in bed all day. He’s at a desk and getting stuff done. The extra time works for him. ... For me, it’s easy. (Though) it affects all students differently.”

Daina Donohue has found the remote model somewhat more difficult to manage for her children, who are a junior at Norwalk High School and an eighth grader at West Rocks Middle School. The two were originally using the hybrid model until mid-October when the family had to quarantine after traveling. Before that, Donohue said her children were already noticing they were some of only a few students in their classes. As a result, many teachers had to teach more to the students in remote learning.

While the family was in quarantine, Donohue kept getting emails about new cases at the kids’ schools and decided to keep them home, between that and their complaints about being alone in classes.

“I think it’s tough on the kids,” she said. “As much as I want them in school, if they’re the only ones sitting in class, it doesn’t make sense. They wanted to not go anymore and we finally made the decision not to send them. ... It just doesn’t seem very engaging.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Herlihy’s younger child has been attending elementary school in-person and been enjoying it. For older students, it seems, the socialization is a huge factor for being in person. Herlihy said most of her son’s friends have since gone remote for the same reason.

“The vast majority are dropping because no one’s there and it’s boring,” she said.

Herlihy said the remote learning isn’t permanent though. She hopes to get her son back in the classroom in the spring when other students will also hopefully start returning.

Estrella has the same goal. She said last week that she is hoping to connect with more high school students in the new year to further find out why so many are remote.

“It’d be really beneficial to have more students (in-person), especially those showing some academic trends which might merit more support in in-person setting to be more motivated to come in-person,” Estrella said.

The district said at the start of the school year that about 75 percent of families were opting to send their students back for in-person learning. Brenda Wilcox Williams, chief communications officer for the district, said they don’t have an updated estimate on these percentages, but plan to update the data in the new year. Norwalk has been allowing families to flip between remote and in-person learning as needed.

While all Norwalk schools have gone remote until Jan. 4, the district has said repeatedly that its priority is keeping schools open, even if some buildings are seeing more families turn to remote learning.

Butler said she hopes to return after winter break, but it depends on whether her classmates return. With cases continuing to rise, she thinks it’s unlikely.

“We wanted it to work,” added Butler’s mother, Michelle. “We’re hopeful because is a vaccine. If there’s broad adoption and we see cases turn, that’d be positive. But we expect it to get worse before it gets better.”

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com

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