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.

Board of Education

Superintendent: CIAC Views High School Football As ‘High Risk’ Sport

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Given frequent and extended contact among players, football is seen by Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference officials as “high risk” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, New Canaan’s superintendent of schools said Monday night. CIAC officials view volleyball as “moderate risk,” Dr. Bryan Luizzi said during a special meeting of the Board of Education, “because it’s indoors, in a gym.”

“And the others they are putting somewhere in low to moderate,” Luizzi said of other fall sports during the meeting, held via videoconference with some Board of Ed members joining him in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “Being that they are outdoors and the duration of contact in the sport—in soccer, in field hockey, it’s a short duration in the contact that they have—which is different from football or volleyball indoors. So they are looking at each sport individually and hoping that by the end of the week they come to an agreement with the [state] Department of Public Health and they are able to communicate that.”

The update—based on an afternoon call that included superintendents of schools and the CIAC executive director, Luizzi said—came as fall sport athletes wait to find out whether they’ll be able to play this season and, if so, under what conditions. The CIAC said in a press release late Sunday that schools could commence conditioning work Monday and “non-contact sport specific skill work” Saturday. 

Yet it remains unclear whether popular and widely followed sports will happen, or whether some sports will go on while others are modified or canceled.

News

Reopened Public Schools To Include More ‘Outdoor Learning’

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District officials say they’re looking at additional “outdoor learning” New Canaan Public Schools in seeking to reopen Aug. 31 under a widely discussed phased plan. The schools could have tents set up in areas such as fields and courtyards, and the district is “looking at WiFi availability outside, looking to get it in some places where it doesn’t exist right now,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi told members of the Board of Education during their regular meeting Monday. “All of those things will help—will help our kids, help our teachers, help our comfort level, everything else,” Luizzi said during the meeting, held via videoconference. “To get outside on a nice day and do some teaching outdoors.

Board of Education

Board of Ed To Seek Up to $2 Million in Additional Funding for Upcoming Academic Year

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New Canaan Public Schools needs $1.5 million to $2 million beyond what’s budgeted for the current fiscal year to cover expenses related to COVID-19 virus, as well as funds for additional staffing needed to meet a rise in enrollment, district officials said Monday. The district already has spent about $600,000 in areas such as technology (primarily), supplies, signage, barriers and sanitation stations—half again as much as a $400,000 “non-lapsing” account built into the spending plan for fiscal year 2021, according to NCPS Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating. “Moving forward, the big items that we have are staffing—and we can’t really nail that down right now, because it’s going to depend on a number of different things that we just experience annually, like turnover savings,” Keating told members of the Board of Education at their regular meeting, held via videoconference. “And we have added staff but we may have additional turnover savings based on the number of retirements that we have had.” 

The district will have a better handle on staffing numbers come September, when it’s more clear just how many kids are attending public schools, Keating said. Major COVID-related technology expenses include WiFi and a classroom livestream learning system with improved audio and visual elements, she said. 

“So we are thinking anywhere between $2 million [and] $1.5 million,” she said.