News

NCHS, Area Schools Plan Fall 7-on-7 Football League

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New Canaan High School’s athletic director is working with counterparts through the FCIAC to develop a 7-on-7 football league that’s in line with state health recommendations, the superintendent of schools said Monday night. The non-contact intramural league could include “linemen’s challenge type activities and even linemen 7-on-7 kinds of things,” Dr. Bryan Luizzi told members of the Board of Education during their regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at NCHS and broadcast on YouTube. “That is aligned with DPH recommendations, because the 7-on-7 that is non-contact brings it from a ‘high risk’ activity to a ‘moderate risk’ activity,” he said. “Which is the same as some of the other sports we are playing now, with the mitigation strategies—like volleyball with the masks, for instance. So the league would use our district coaches, have teams of approximately 15 players and they would play against each other in the beginning, and even against other schools.

Board of Education

Moynihan on New COVID-19 Cases: ‘Our Bubble Has Burst’

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Tuesday that the town now is seeing a “handful of young positive cases.”

Those cases include “one under 10 years old,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“Our bubble has burst,” he said during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held via videoconference. 

“The superintendent has notified parents that we have a handful of young positive COVID cases, one under 10 years old,” Moynihan said. “And I think we have a couple of out-of-town—at least one, maybe two out-of-town college kids. And I suppose it was inevitable, as the superintendent said, because other school districts are beginning to have some positive cases with school-age children. We are still doing contact tracing. We want to try and make sure we understand as much as we can these new cases.”

The comments come on the heels of emails sent to the New Canaan Public Schools community Sunday and Monday by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi saying that two separate cases of COVID-19 had been identified among members of New Canaan High School.

Board of Education

District: Despite Lack of WiFi, Elementary Schools Making Use of Outdoor Spaces

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New Canaan’s elementary schoolchildren have been using outdoor spaces for independent learning, though a lack of WiFi has pre-empted the ability to live-stream classes, district officials say. The kids are going outside for “mask breaks’ and “the teacher might have given directions to the classroom saying, ‘Screens down, we’re going to go outside and do our independent reading and we would like you guys to finish your independent reading at home,’ ” Dr. Jill Correnty, the New Canaan Public Schools assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment, told members of a Board of Education committee last week. “And then they have been using timers on the smart board for the young kids, so that the timer actually goes off and that’s the 20 minutes, and that’s the signal for coming back together as a class,” Correnty told the school board’s Reopen Committee during a Sept. 15 meeting, held via videoconference. “And so I have seen a lot of those countdowns happening in the classrooms. And they are using beyond the courtyards.

Board of Education

Superintendent: Elementary Schools To Phase In Grades K-4 Next Week [CORRECTION]

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[Editor: The headline has been corrected to reflect grade 4 instead of 5.]

District officials said Tuesday that they plan to have elementary school students phase into in-person learning next week. Under the plan, all kindergarten, first- and second-graders will start in-person learning together Monday, with the full third and fourth grades to follow after a half-day Wednesday, according to Superintendent of School Dr. Bryan Luizzi. (For Monday through Wednesday, third- and fourth-graders will continue with the current “cohort” model, where half are in school at one time.)

The plan is designed to give faculty and staff “the time to learn along the way, pace it out, to make adjustments,” Luizzi told members of the Board of Education’s Reopen NCPS Committee during a meeting held via videoconference. “Make sure everyone feels safe,” he said. “Make sure all the mitigation strategies are in place.”

Luizzi noted that the district since early-August had planned to have all elementary school kids back for in-person learning next week, and described the phased approach of breaking up grades K through 5 as true to that plan.

News

Survey: 93% of New Canaan Public Schools Parents Will Have Their Kids Start Academic Year with In-Person Learning  

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Some 93% of New Canaan Public Schools parents are choosing to have their kids start the academic year with in-person learning, as permitted, as opposed to going fully remote, district officials said this week. Reporting on the results of a survey focused on an academic year that will open amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said Monday night that the parents of about 400 students still had not completed their survey, which was scheduled to close 2 p.m. Tuesday. “What we have to do is assume anyone who does not respond is in remote learning,” Luizzi said during a special meeting of the Board of Education, held via videoconference. 

The 2020-21 school year will open next Monday under a phased plan that Luizzi outlined at a Board of Ed meeting earlier this month (a continuously updated operations guide can be found here). It calls for students in grades one through 12 to be divided into one of two cohorts that will attend school in-person roughly half the week to start the school year (kindergartners will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions). Should health data and state guidance allow it, then starting Sept.