With the COVID-19 case rate skyrocketing during the winter holiday break, Wilton Public Schools officials are bracing for a bumpy re-entry on the return to class Monday, Jan. 3. By midday Sunday it was still unknown how many staff and students will be out due to either contracting COVID or being exposed to the virus, so Superintendent Kevin Smith notified the school community the district would have a two-hour delayed start to assess the situation.
Based on initial calls from staff, he estimated that there may be anywhere from 20 to 60 school employees absent for the return to school, and perhaps even more.
“We can cover 60 absences — we can cover 100 absences if we need to really — but we’ll need a little bit of time to juggle,” Smith told GOOD Morning Wilton.
He explained that substitute teachers would be dispatched where possible, and at the high school, if need be, some classes might have to be cancelled on a day-by-day basis.
“We have a good plan in place for the ones that we know. The other bigger question is how many students [will be absent]? Emails have been tricking into the nurses and the principals all week,” Smith added.
Sunday Smith sent an email with links to Google forms for each school for parents and guardians to use to report any COVID-related student absences. [Find the online forms at these links: Miller-Driscoll, Cider Mill, Middlebrook, and Wilton High School]
“That’ll give us a little extra time because we’ll have it in one place instead of having to wait for the nurses or the attendance secretaries to go through all the calls and emails. That’ll just give us a leg up on planning for remote learning,” he added.
In an email sent Sunday to the school community, Smith asked for patience and understanding as the district returns to classroom instruction during the unpredictability of the current COVID-19 surge, especially as it impacts staffing.
“Like so many of our families, many of our staff members are managing their own illness or illness within their homes. We are expecting a number of teachers and support staff to be physically unavailable the week of Jan. 2 and possibly beyond that, depending on positivity rates. You can expect instruction to continue, but we ask for your patience, flexibility, and understanding as we navigate the challenges of this surge,” he wrote.
In-School Protocol Changes
Smith told GMW that starting Monday, Wilton Schools will reimplement some of the more conservative protocols that had been relaxed at the start of the school year when the infection rate was much lower.
“We’ll be back at the high school to six feet apart for lunches. In the lower schools where the kids have snack and lunches in their classrooms, like Miller-Driscoll, we’re asking the teachers again there to just spread kids out. Those are probably the most substantial changes, and then we have some decisions to make about concerts coming up and crowd sizes at games. I expect we’re going to more dramatically limit access to those things, at least for the short term, while we try to get over this hump.We’re kind of taking it one group of decisions at a time.”
Remote Learning for Some
Smith’s email explained that the district is following guidelines from the CT State Department of Education (CSDE), which allow remote learning only for students who are absent due to COVID-19 in specific situations: students who are confirmed as COVID-19 positive; students in quarantine after close contact with a confirmed case; and in rare and individualized circumstances, students with live-in family members who have a documented unusual vulnerability to COVID-19.
Students absent for any other reason will not be able to take part in remote learning opportunities and will be considered absent.
Families pursuing remote instruction for a COVID-related reason must contact the specific school’s administrator or school nurse to be approved for remote instruction and to receive the protocol for accessing remote instruction.
Elsewhere, he explained that remote learning won’t start until Tuesday, Jan. 4.
“Teachers whose students will need to access remote learning will learn about their remote students upon their return to the buildings on Jan. 3. Remote instruction will be delayed by one day as staff learn about positive cases and prepare for remote instruction. Consequently, remote instruction will not begin until Jan. 4. We will do our best to support all students who are out due to COVID as quickly as possible,” Smith wrote.
Smith told GMW why the district doesn’t have the option to move to a remote learning plan for all students. Per the CDSE, all-remote days won’t count toward the required 180 days of a school year and would have to be made up at the end of the year.
“The state is really asking districts to make a conservative effort, to remain in person and then, if there are particular circumstances in the district, to call the State Department of Education and try to work with somebody up there,” he said.
WPS Isolation and Quarantine Guidelines
Smith’s email to the school community said the district is following new guidelines issued Dec. 28 by the Centers for Disease Control regarding isolation and quarantine periods, and CT Department of Public Health‘s recently adopted changes to quarantine, isolation, and contact tracing protocols.
Smith wrote that, after consulting with the district’s medical advisor, Dr. Christine Macken, the district will adhere to the following protocols:
COVID-positive Students
- Isolate for 10 days from the start of symptoms (day 0) or, if asymptomatic, from a positive test date (day 0)
- Return to school on day 11 if fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication and symptoms are improving
COVID-positive Staff
- Isolate for five days or more from the start of symptoms (day 0) or, if asymptomatic, from a positive test date (day 0)
- Return to work on day 6 or later if fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication and symptoms are significantly improving
- Wear a mask around others
Smith wrote that students don’t have the shorter, five-day isolation period that staff do because students can’t meet the requirement to wear a mask around others at all times until day 10 because they remove their masks during snack and lunch.
Quarantine Guidelines for Unvaccinated or Partially Vaccinated Staff and Students
- Quarantine for five days
- Seek testing (lab or home) on or after day 5
- If symptoms develop, isolate immediately, seek testing, and consult with a physician if necessary
Quarantine Guidelines for Fully Vaccinated Students and Staff (Two weeks out from second dose of Moderna or Pfizer or single dose J&J)
- Confirm vaccination status with the school nurse
- If there are no symptoms, the individual can return to school
- Wear a mask around others
- Seek testing (lab or home test) at day 5
- If symptoms develop, isolate and seek testing
Visitor Policy Changes
Smith said that the schools will temporarily adjust the visitor policy thanks to the surge in cases in the wider community.
“Visitors will not be permitted in our buildings beginning [this] week. We will revisit this decision during the month of January and will make decisions about whether to reopen our buildings to visitors in the following weeks,” he wrote adding that anyone with a meeting scheduled for the week of Jan. 2 will be offered a Zoom meeting for the same time or the option of rescheduling.
I’m sure glad I graduated long before this all went down!