Michael Melia
FILE - In this Saturday, July 18, 2020, file photo, Iesha Sekou, left, founder and CEO of Street Corner Resources talks to a young man while visiting and observing potential areas of conflict and gun violence, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. A rise in gun violence in cities across the U.S. is testing the limits of anti-violence groups that have been calling for more government funding for decades. President Joe Biden acknowledged earlier this year that community anti-violence programs have been woefully underfunded and has proposed $5 billion in new aid for them. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
Gun violence tests limits of urban crime prevention groups

By Dave Collins Jun. 24, 2021 08:31 AM EDT

Joining thousands gathered outside the State Capitol, opponents of a bill to repeal Connecticut's religious exemption for required school vaccinations marches down Capitol Avenue before the State Senate voted on legislation, Tuesday, April 27, 2021, in Hartford, Conn. A law adopted this week in Connecticut adds momentum to the push to strengthen vaccination requirements for schoolchildren, but efforts to give families more leeway are brewing in statehouses around the country in debates that go back more than a century. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant via AP)
Momentum grows for closing gaps in US vaccine requirements

By Dave Collins, David Crary And Michael Melia May. 01, 2021 08:12 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 31, 2021, file photo, freshman Hugo Bautista eats lunch separated from classmates by plastic dividers at Wyandotte County High School in Kansas City, Kan., on the first day of in-person learning. With a massive infusion of federal aid coming their way, schools across the U.S. are weighing how to use the windfall to ease the harm of the pandemic — and to tackle problems that existed long before the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
With new aid, schools seek solutions to problems new and old

By Collin Binkley Apr. 04, 2021 09:03 AM EDT

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, elementary school students sit on board a school bus after attending in-person classes at school in Wheeling, Ill. The latest federal relief package includes $81 billion that began flowing to states in late March 2021 with the goal of helping schools reopen quickly. The only problem is many of the school districts' current problems can't be solved by money. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
Reopening hurdles linger for schools, despite rescue funding

By Carolyn Thompson Mar. 26, 2021 10:21 AM EDT

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2020, file photo, a University of Vermont student walks toward a tent leading to a COVID-testing site on campus in Burlington, Vt. Colleges throughout the U.S. are assuring students that this coming fall will bring a return to in-person classes, intramural sports and mostly full dormitories. But those promises come with asterisks. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke, File)
US colleges tout hopes for return to new normal this fall

By John Seewer Mar. 23, 2021 12:41 PM EDT

High School Councilor Nadia Pearce gestures as she speaks during an interview, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, in Bridgeport. Conn. School counselors in many urban, high needs districts have been consumed with efforts to help students engage with their schoolwork since the pandemic hit. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
In poor districts, pandemic overwhelms school counselors

By Michael Melia Mar. 20, 2021 08:15 AM EDT

Graciela Leahy, 13, an eighth grader at Ohio's Columbus Gifted Academy, works on her computer in her bedroom, in Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 23, 2021, to begin a stretch of nearly six straight hours at her desk. A year later in the pandemic, the unplanned experiment with distance learning continues for thousands of students like Leahy who have yet to set foot back in classrooms. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)
'It's exhausting.' A year of distance learning wears thin

By Jeff Amy, Kantele Franko, Cedar Attanasio, And Carolyn Thompson Mar. 12, 2021 07:08 AM EST

New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is shown this still image, from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's media availability, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, in New York. Carranza announced Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, he would step down, citing the coronavirus pandemic's personal toll on his family. He will be replaced by Bronx Executive Superintendent Meisha Ross Porter, who becomes the first Black woman to lead the nation's largest public school district. (New York City Office of the Mayor via AP)
NYC schools chancellor exits, citing virus' personal toll

By Carolyn Thompson Feb. 26, 2021 10:22 AM EST

Social studies teacher Logan Landry looks over the shoulder of seventh grader Simone Moore as she works on a project while seated next to a cutout of Elvis Presley at the Bruce M. Whittier Middle School, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, in Poland, Maine. With instruction time reduced as much as half by the coronavirus pandemic, many of the nation's middle school and high school teachers have given up on covering all the material normally included in their classes and instead are cutting lessons. Landry, put up cardboard cutouts to keep up social distancing, where instruction time has been cut in half by the hybrid model.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
As virus cuts class time, teachers have to leave out lessons

By Michael Melia Feb. 01, 2021 11:11 AM EST

Vaccine appointments now being taken for 75 years and older

By Susan Haigh Jan. 14, 2021 01:35 PM EST
Roughly 277,000 Connecticut residents who are 75 years and older were allowed Thursday to begin making appointments online or via telephone for their COVID-19...

Conor Murphy, a teacher at West Genesee High School, in Camillus, N.Y., conducts his "Participation in Government" class, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021. Many teachers say they are treading cautiously in light of varied political viewpoints in their classrooms and communities. But they universally describe efforts to hear out students’ fears and concerns. (Photo by A. Thomson via AP)
Teachers help students make sense of violence at US Capitol

By Michael Melia And Carolyn Thompson Jan. 08, 2021 12:39 PM EST

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2020 file photo, Fotis Dulos, center, the estranged husband of missing mother of five, Jennifer Dulos, is arraigned on murder and kidnapping charges in Stamford Superior Court in Stamford, Conn. Dulos was charged with killing his estranged wife who had gone missing months earlier amid contentious divorce and child custody proceedings. Despite extensive searches, the remains of Jennifer Dulos have never been found. (Erik Trautmann/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool)
Coronavirus, Isaias among top Connecticut stories in 2020

By Michael Melia Dec. 25, 2020 12:36 PM EST

In this photo provided by Julie Mackett, the kindergarten teacher conducts her class at Ft. Meigs Elementary School, in Perrysburg, Ohio. Contact tracing and isolation protocols meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus are sidelining school employees and frustrating efforts to continue in-person learning. “I think everybody understands when you can’t have enough subs to fill the roles, it’s also a safety issue: You can’t have that many children without support from adults,” said Mackett, who went through her own two-week quarantine early in the school year after a student tested positive. (Courtesy of Julie Mackett via AP)
Schools struggle to stay open as quarantines sideline staff

By Kantele Franko Nov. 26, 2020 11:05 AM EST

FILE- In this July 30, 2015, file photo, shipyard workers work at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., prepare a submarine for float-off. Connecticut and Rhode Island officials are celebrating a new submarine contract for General Dynamics Electric Boat as a major economic win for the region's economy. The  $9.47 billion contract with the U.S. Navy, which was announced Friday, Nov. 6, 2020, is for construction and testing of the first two Columbia-class submarines. AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
Electric Boat workforce contends with rising infections

By Pat Eaton-Robb Nov. 17, 2020 12:01 PM EST

File-In this June 5, 2020, file photo, Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez poses for a photo in Hartford, Conn. In Hartford, which has 14.7 students per teacher, the district serves many high-poverty communities and also brings in thousands of students from 60 other towns through school-choice programs. The superintendent there said the challenges associated with reopening are so severe, it may be time to come up with entirely new models for instruction. “Is it that the entire ecosystem has to be examined?” Torres-Rodriguez said (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
Budgets put limits on social distancing options for schools

By Mike Catalini And Michael Melia Jun. 23, 2020 01:13 AM EDT

In this Friday, June 5, 2020 photo, Community School Director for The Village for Families and Children Trisila Tirado, left, Sarah J. Rawson Elementary School Principal Dr. Tayarisha Batchelor, center, and Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, right, speak to a middle school student and family out on the balcony of their home in Hartford, Conn. The Superintendent told the family to keep the computer they have through the summer for other programs. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
To help distance learning absentees, educators go sleuthing

By Michael Melia Jun. 15, 2020 01:03 AM EDT

FILE- In this Oct. 18, 2013, file photo, Randy Thurston, of San Jose, Calif., takes in the fall foliage and the view of the Mohawk Valley while hiking with family and friends along the Indian Ladder Trail at Thacher State Park in Voorheesville, N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, May 11, 2020, gave the green light to several regions of the state not as severely affected by the outbreak to gradually re-start their economies once the latest stay-at-home order expires Friday. The Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley and the Finger Lakes have met all seven benchmarks for opening some business activity and need to work out some logistical details by the end of the week, Cuomo said. The North Country, which includes Essex County, is close behind. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
Beginning to bloom: New York creaking back to economic life

By Michael Hill May. 15, 2020 06:30 AM EDT