In her Friday email to families, Greenwich Schools superintendent Dr. Toni Jones announced an easing in COVID mitigation strategies in response to the decline in the number of Covid cases.
The district’s Covid tracker depicts a drop of cases from 392 just after holiday recess to 40 on Friday Jan 28, 2022.
“The district is constantly monitoring how we can adjust when spikes go up or down,” Jones said. “Returning from December’s break, the District tightened up for the month of January as cases were very high.”
“However,” she added. “Cases are trending down significantly and next week we will begin February by loosening back up again.”
Jones said athletics will welcome back more spectators and clubs will return to in-person meetings.
Certainly, students will be pleased at the easing of mitigation strategies.
At the Jan 20 BOE business meeting, GHS student government vice president of student concerns Sean Mirza said the Covid mitigation strategies that had increased in January at GHS were inconsistent at best.
Mirza said clubs had been forced to meet virtually in January because of a surge in Covid cases.
“Clubs take place in the exact same classrooms, usually with a lower number of people,” he said. “It seems impossible for the building to be safe for class during the day, but not for clubs after.”
“Our administration preaches social and emotional wellbeing,” he continued. “Yet they have deprived students of a key social interaction in high school: meeting of clubs in person.”
“I believe the same safety that has been achieved in our school’s basketball courts and hockey rinks can be reached within clubs and Covid mitigation for the long run,” he continued.
“It’s disheartening for us to be unable to meet while wearing our masks and socially distanced, yet see plexiglass that has proven to be ineffective brought back to our student center, or having a one-way glass corridor that makes us walk in the freezing cold ice covered sidewalks and down slipper mud covered hills.”
Later in the Board of Education meeting board member Joe Kelly said the governor’s executive order was in effect until Feb 15.
“That kind of ties our hands on whether kids have to wear mask,” he said.
“If the Executive Order ends, or his powers no longer continue, we’ll get together and hash it out. We have the responsibility of the decision on the policy going forward for our local district…I know it’s a sensitive topic, but we should start talking about it now instead of later.”
The board put it into policy that they have a maximum of one week to meet to make a decision if and when the governor’s emergency powers come to an end.
On Thursday, February 3, the Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting at 7:00pm at Central Middle School, with a virtual viewing option on Zoom.
The board will only discuss two agenda items: Strategic Plan Update and Special Education Action Plan.
As a reminder, public comment happens only during monthly business meetings, not at special meetings.
The district’s daily Covid report is optional for families to receive. Jones said as of last week, the district started to distribute the daily Covid report for those who wish to receive them.
The state has now expanded Project COVID DeteCT, an opt-in program to facilitate weekly COVID testing, to all students and staff regardless of vaccination status.
Children who were previously enrolled and recently ineligible due to their vaccination status, will need to be enrolled again.
Testing at Greenwich High School is beginning Tuesday, February 1. For children already enrolled, testing will continue as planned. Staff must be enrolled in order to participate in this program. Consent forms, available in both English and Spanish, are to be submitted electronically directly to the testing facilitators through their website. Once enrolled, students and staff will be tested each Tuesday, with times to be announced at each school.