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.

Dr. Bryan Luizzi

Superintendent: Second Positive COVID-19 Case from NCHS

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District officials said Monday that a second positive case of COVID-19 virus has been identified at New Canaan High School. Close contacts already are undergoing quarantine and the district is now doing full contact tracing for the affected individual, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi. As with the first case disclosed Sunday, it wasn’t clear from an email Luizzi sent to public schools families whether the affected person is a member of the staff, faculty or student body. He or she is part of the “Y cohort,” Luizzi said—a reference to one of two divisions the district has used for the student body as it phases in at the start of this academic year. This week, that cohort is not scheduled to attend school in-person until Thursday, so “we have time today to identify and notify any close contacts in need of quarantine prior to their return to school on Thursday,” he said in the email.

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.

Superintendent: Member of NCHS Tests Positive for COVID-19

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An individual who works at or attends New Canaan High School has tested positive for COVID-19 virus, according to the superintendent of schools, prompting district officials to instruct that person to stay home for a time and for others in “close contact” with him or her to self-quarantine. The district was notified Sunday afternoon of the positive case, Dr. Bryan Luizzi said in an email to the school community. It wasn’t clear whether the affected individual is a student, teacher or faculty member. He or she last was in NCHS Thursday, Luizzi said. “The affected person has been instructed to remain home in self-isolation for 10 days, and has been provided with additional instructions to follow prior to returning to school,” Luizzi said in the email, sent around 5 p.m..

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.