On Sunday afternoon Greenwich Schools issued its second update on the dispersal of students from Central Middle School beginning after a two-hour delay Monday morning.
On Friday all schools were closed due to dangerous weather conditions, so students were at home when it was announced that CMS had been deemed unsafe for human occupancy.
Saturday night a plan to disperse CMS students to Cos Cob School (6th graders), Eastern Middle School (7th graders) and Greenwich High School (8th graders) was announced. According to the district, there are 578 students enrolled at CMS.
On Sunday evening the district provided additional details, including how transportation will work, how to retrieve important items from Indian Rock Lane, and a system for student medications. Families are instructed not to attempt to gain entry into the building. Rather, they are instructed to fill out a form to retrieve items.
“The staff have been granted a small window of time for critical, monitored, and quick retrieval of essential instructional materials, like laptops, while staying out of the areas marked as unsafe,” wrote Dr. Toni Jones and CMS principal Tom Healy in their second update, adding that staff would do their best to assist.
Jones and Healy said the entire Greenwich Schools team had worked since Friday to evaluate space, organize buses, move furniture, organize lunches, and plan for the day.
“It certainly takes a team effort to mobilize an entire school over the weekend to three different locations,” they said.
Other than the two-hour delay on Monday, buses will run as normal this week and pick students up at their usual stops and times. Families who drive their children will drop-off and pick-up at CMS, not the alternate location.
From Central, students will take shuttle buses to CMS, EMS and GHS.
Parents with an 8th grader who has siblings at GHS or who have time constraints will be allowed to drop off at a specific location at GHS. That said, CMS will typically start before GHS, so the GHS sibling would be arriving earlier than normal.
Tuesday through Friday this week, shuttle buses will arrive by 7:45am and leave the campus at 8:00am. In the afternoon, the shuttle buses will leave the alternate locations at 2:30pm in order to return to CMS at their usual time of 2:45pm.
Championship basketball games will occur at previously planned locations at Eastern and Western Middle Schools, and the music concert will take place at Eastern Middle School.
Families were given emergency contact numbers for administration and office staff at each of the three schools.
Also, Dr. Jones emailed families and staff at the three schools where CMS students will be dispersed to be sure they are aware of the situation in order to minimize traffic and other challenges.
The email notes that Central Middle School is undergoing repairs this week, and says, “We are often reminded that GPS is a wonderful community of great patience, understanding, and support, especially during challenging times.”