Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi on Thursday outlined an updated re-entry plan for seventh- through twelfth-graders that will see all New Canaan Public Schools students back to full-time in-person learning within two weeks.
Under the revised phased plan, grade 7 will switch from the hybrid in-person and remote learning schedule they’ve been in since school started to a full in-person learning option Oct. 12, followed by grades 12 (Oct. 13), 8 (Oct. 15), 11 (Oct. 19), 10 (Oct. 20) and 9 (Oct. 22).
“This plan, made possible thanks to the outstanding work of our teachers, administrators, staff, students, and parents, meets several important objectives,” Luizzi said in an email to school families. Those objectives include: continuing what has been a successful phased approach; prioritizing New Canaan High School seniors; and getting those seniors into school with each other and their teachers before the Oct. 14 SATs, he said.
It also “[c]ontinues to be guided by the data and our local experiences, both of which indicate that we are in a yellow, ‘low-spread’ environment, and that conditions are favorable for in-person instruction,” Luizzi said, and “[a]cknowledges the outstanding efforts of our teachers, students, and staff, especially in their adherence to the mitigation strategies that help keep us all safe.”
“As we take this step, please know that we are continually monitoring the environment, regularly speaking with the local and state Department of Public Health, and constantly surveilling the environment to monitor the virus,” Luizzi said in the email. “If the environment changes, we will quickly reassess and adjust as warranted. Our system is responsive and flexible, and we’re fully committed to doing the right things for our students, staff, and community, each and every day.”
The school district outlined its phased-in plan in August, and has tweaked it since the academic year opened Aug. 31 amid the COVID pandemic, with elementary schools starting the week of Sept. 21, fifth-graders starting Sept. 29 and the sixth grade Oct. 5.
As Luizzi had noted during Tuesday’s special meeting of the Board of Education and reviewed in the email, a Saxe Middle School student tested positive for the virus this week.
“The student who tested positive was previously quarantined due to close contact with a known positive case outside of school, and has taken the appropriate steps as advised by the NC Health Department and the NCPS,” he said. “In partnership with the Health Department, our contact tracing resulted in quarantines for seven (7) individuals due to close contact either in school or due to other activities.”
As of Thursday, that middle-schooler was the only student isolating as a positive case, according to the district’s continuously updated operations guide, “Charting Our Course.” One NCHS and one West School staff member also were in quarantine as positive cases, while another 26 students and 17 staffers district-wide were in quarantine due to “close contact” with a confirmed positive case (within six feet for 15 minutes or more).
With mask-wearing, social-distancing and contact-tracing eased by seating charts, among other mitigation strategies, the district has managed to avoid seeing the virus spread among those in public school buildings.
The town has not fared as well, despite the efforts of local officials to urge mask-wearing downtown and observe residents to social-distance. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan during a town-wide outcall last week detailed new COVID-19 cases that pointed to a rise in community spread. According to the state DPH, New Canaan as of 8:30 p.m. Wednesday had 219 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases—up two from Monday.
[Note: The school district’s continuously updated operations guide during COVID-19 can be found online here.]