COVID-19 & Reopening 2020-2021-FAQ

No. According to the Connecticut State Department of Education and Department of Public Health, schools remain safe, with transmission of COVID being a “rare event inside of school buildings even in communities with elevated transmission rates.”

To date, we’ve had 11 staff or students test positive, driven by “outside of school” transmission events. This total number accounts for only 0.3% of the Ellington Public Schools staff and student population. Continue to be mindful of mitigation strategies when you’re off the clock to help keep our schools safe.

No. The Town-Level COVID Response Framework from the state suggests that in Orange, schools should maximize their mitigation strategies, including spacing, hygiene, mask wearing, and ventilation.

When in the Red category, the district shall continue its collaboration with the local health district to consider more distance learning.

Yes. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation.”

We will continue to improve our services for Silver Group students and those who are required to quarantine.

No. The State recently revised Addendum 4 to redefine a school district’s reaction to increase in health data.

It is incumbent upon schools in counties where data has increased to understand what is going on within their schools and make collaborative decisions with their local health department.

• Homeschooling means a parent withdraws his/her child from the Ellington Public Schools and the parent is solely responsible for providing educational programming
• Distance Learning option means a parent elects for his/her child to learn from home - regardless of what reopening model the district selects - and is enrolled in the Ellington Public Schools following all policies and expectations

• Hybrid models are designed to reduce the number of students in the school at any one time for health reasons
• As there are many hybrid models, every effort will be made to develop a model that is similar to surrounding towns to minimize staff child care issues
• Hybrid models exploring alternating cohort weeks, AM / PM splits and other variations are being discussed
• A hybrid model widely discussed in the region would have K-12 students split into two cohorts
  • Each cohort would attend school for two days with the other three days in distance learning
  • One day a week would be distance learning for all K-12 students at the same time

For example -

• Every effort would be made to ensure siblings remain in the same cohort

• Parents will always be able to select the distance learning program option

At this time, NO, the Ellington Public Schools is not planning to go remote for the time period between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

Schools are safe places to be as they are a controlled environment mitigating the spread of the virus as opposed to unstructured out-of-school settings where students have demonstrated a lack of discipline implementing mitigation strategies.

The Commissioners of Education and Health Departments recently stated:

“The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) and Department of Public Health (DPH) are closely monitoring the community spread of COVID-19, as well as the school-related cases of COVID-19. The mitigation strategies we have put in place (masks, distancing, cleaning and hygiene, ventilation, cohorting, etc.) are working. We are not seeing sustained person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in schools or outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools, despite increasing levels of COVID-19 in the community.

We also know that in-person learning is benefiting our students’ social, emotional and physical well-being. The CSDE and DPH do not think that arbitrary, date-based closures of school are warranted at this time. We will continue to consult with and work with school districts, local health departments and medical advisors on individual decisions around closures, but are not recommending that districts proactively close for a prolonged period of time in anticipation of changes in disease prevalence. In-person education is too important for our children to disrupt their education further, unless and until local conditions specifically dictate the need to do so.”

If we see changes in this data, we will make appropriate adjustments, including possible changes to the school model, to keep our students and staff safe.

The other challenge school districts are facing is not strictly health-related, but operational. Due to requirements of quarantine and isolation, staffing has been a challenge within our schools. Thankfully, we have not yet reached a critical inflection point where holding in-person school is not viable due to inadequate staffing. However, other school districts in the state recently went remote for short periods due to lack of staff. We will continue to monitor our staffing levels to ensure safety of our buildings.

1. CDC Recommendations for Holiday Celebrations

If you plan to have a holiday gathering, please keep in mind recent guidance from the CDC.

• Indoor gatherings are riskier than outdoor gatherings. If inside, increase ventilation by opening windows when possible
• Wear a mask at all times when not eating.
• A close contact is defined as being within 6 feet, for more than 15 minutes cumulative. Maintain physical distance when possible and avoid direct contact (e.g. handshakes, hugging, kissing).
• Limit the size of gatherings

2. Connecticut State Travel Advisory

If you plan to travel out of state, we ask that all families adhere to the rules of the advisory. To quickly summarize:

• If you travel to state or territory on the affected list (currently 46), for more than 24 hours, you are subject to a 14-day quarantine.
• The state does allow for a testing exemption to the quarantine, 72 hours prior to return to Connecticut, or thereafter . The test must be an RT-PCR test. These typically take 2-7 days for results to come back, so plan accordingly.

Please let your school know if your child will be subject to this quarantine.

This year, the Ellington Public Schools developed protocols for tracking and tracing the spread of COVID-19 cases in the schools. As part of our protocols, our contact tracers often obtain a good idea of the likely origin of the cases impacting our community. The data reveal that most cases originate outside of the school environment, either through transmission in the household, or through an external event. This is not to say that transmission of the virus could or has not occurred in the school setting.

On Wednesday, November 18th, United States Attorney General Vice Admiral Dr. Adams --on a conference call with Board of Education Chair Michael Purcaro-- reaffirmed the position of our nation’s public health experts that schools should remain open because the transmission of COVID-19 is largely occurring outside of the school setting.

Here is the recording of that conference call as played at the November 18th Ellington Board of Education meeting.

Recording - United States Attorney General Vice Admiral Dr. Adams

We will continue to track our cases and the broader health data and will make necessary adjustments to our mitigation strategies, as needed.

The Ellington Public Schools, as a school district and governmental agency, is bound by certain laws and regulations regarding the dissemination of private information, like health data. District communications balance the need of the community to know what is going on within the schools, with the privacy rights of the individual(s) who tested positive for COVID-19.

We are committed to providing the varying stakeholders within the community, from staff to families, with the appropriate amount of information, while adhering to the relevant laws and regulations.

And while in a tight-knit community like Ellington, many will have more information than officially provided. Some of this information will be accurate and some will not.

We must recognize that while many of our cases remain asymptomatic or show only mild symptoms, this is not universal. COVID-19 can be a serious illness with significant health implications. As a community, we need to rally behind these individuals and their families, showing them love, support, and compassion.