Board of Education Meeting Cancelled Tonight
According to the Town of Westport - the Board of Education has cancelled tonight’s meeting.
Superintendent: January May Bring Full-Time Learning
According to a holiday message from Westport Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Scarice: Kindergarten-8th grade learners may experience full-time learning as soon as January. He said administrators should prepare plans for full-time learning by the end of the first week in January, which could be implemented by the 3rd week of 2021. He cites a minimal to absent virus transmission rates in schools and the need to give in-person access to more learners as reason to investigate the feasibility of the change.
His full message:
“Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and Thank You!!
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone the very best during the Holidays and a very Happy New Year. This has clearly been a year like no other.
I shared with the faculty and support staff during my opening address in September that in my research, I’ve found that the very best organizations are marked by a culture where each individual can count on each other. This year I’ve found that to be the case right here. Look to your right, look to your left and you’ll find someone on the team that you can count on. If this is the culture during a pandemic, I can assure you that there will be no limit to what we can accomplish as a school system. We can, and should, have a bold vision for our schools in the post-COVID world. This energizes me a great deal.
As I shared last night at the Board of Education meeting, I was fortunate enough to be invited to visit math classrooms at Staples a couple of weeks ago and I was humbled by the work of our faculty in leading classroom instruction this year. This morning I got a tiny window into the burdens of “Zoom instruction” as I struggled to engage a class of kindergarteners in my read aloud of The Gruffalo. Not my finest moment, but being in the presence of our students is where I find such purpose and fulfillment. I hope Mrs. Sweeney was able to clean up my “digital mess” afterwards!!
At the expense of sounding gratuitous, I see the work of our faculty and support staff this year as nothing short of remarkable. Yet, just over the horizon I can begin to see us starting to turn the corner. With our team and the support of our parents and community I am beyond enthused about the second half of our school year!!
What’s Next?
Take a look towards the horizon and the immediate future and you will see that vaccines are on the way, new testing technologies are arriving regularly to communities, and treatments for the virus have advanced well beyond the approaches of last spring.
Locally, like countless other school districts, we have demonstrated incredible resilience in preventing virus transmission in our schools. I was told earlier in the fall that the safest place in our communities outside of our homes is in a public school. I found this unbelievable at the time. But now, based on almost four months of experience and the vigilance of everyone in our schools, I believe this to be true.
I have recommended a cautious approach to the reopening of our schools this year. However, a great deal has changed over the past nine months. Perhaps most profound for schools is that high community transmission rates have had little impact on school-based virus transmission. What’s confounding is that community transmission rates were initially identified as the primary driver affecting the reopening of schools among public health experts, including the Harvard Global Health Institute which guided Connecticut’s efforts. In fact, just last week, Tom St. Louis, Occupational Health Program Director for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, concluded in a statement to superintendents that the high rates of spread in communities are not translating to similarly high rates of transmission in schools. He acknowledged that most experts did not know this would be the case when guidance was provided over the summer.
Population density is a factor in mitigating spread, thus the reason for hybrid models this year. Yet, there is ample evidence across the state of minimal to no virus spread in schools with greater population density than the current levels in our schools.
This track record of remarkable resilience, along with the timing of the reopening of Coleytown Middle School, and with the critical need to balance our responsibility to public health with the social/emotional/academic wellness of our students, has led me to begin conversations about engaging in additional reopening efforts for the second half of January, including a full reopening of on-site schooling for all K-8 students.
When We Return January 4, 2021
We will begin the New Year in the current hybrid model beginning on January 4. However, we will monitor the conditions around us, and within our schools, in an effort to begin to possibly open our schools for full on-site instruction at the K-8 level later in the month. Additionally, we will look to broaden access to Staples for more on-site instruction for all learners, beyond those identified as “at-risk”.
I have asked the administration from each of the three levels to have plans ready for my review by the end of the first week of January in anticipation of implementation for the second half of the month. Specific plans and dates have yet to be identified. This information will be forthcoming shortly thereafter.
Given the performance of public schools across the state, and here in Westport, I am confident that our resilience will continue to maintain high levels of safety for staff and students. It is true that it will not look like our classrooms prior to the pandemic and that a return to a “pandemic classroom”, particularly at the elementary level, was not optimal as rates sharply trended in the wrong direction in October and November. I stand by the prudent approach I recommended in the fall. Yet, since then, we have learned more and more about schooling during the pandemic.
It is clear that with strong mitigating measures, particularly fidelity to mask wearing, schools can remain resilient while serving more on-site learners safely. When we return, we will begin the process of planning for more on-site learners in earnest for the second half of the school year which begins later in January.
Of course, for this school year all parents will be afforded the right to distance learning for their child. We will continue to serve our students in this arena and seek to continually improve our practices in remote instruction.
Updated Quarantine and Travel Guidance
There have been two recent changes as it relates to our practices regarding length of time for quarantine as well as a new travel advisory. We would like to take this opportunity to share these changes with you which will become effective as we return from our holiday break on January 4th.
Travel Advisory
Pursuant to Governor Lamont's Executive Order No. 95, anyone traveling into Connecticut from a state or territory, other than New York, New Jersey, or Rhode Island or from a country other than the United States and have stayed more than 24 hours have the following options:
Option A Quarantine
Self- quarantine for a 10 day period from the time of last contact within the identified state or country.
Fill out the Connecticut Travel Health Form prior to arrival in Connecticut.
Option B Test out of Quarantine
Fill out the Connecticut Travel Health Form prior to arrival in Connecticut.
Take a COVID-19 test (molecular, RT-PCR or antigen) 72 hours prior to arrival to Connecticut, or once you have arrived.
Quarantine and stay home from school until you have received a NEGATIVE test result.
Send a copy of your test result to the Commissioner of Public Health by email to DPH.COVID-Travel@ct.gov or via fax to 860-326-0529.
New Covid Quarantine Guidance
On December 2, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new quarantine guidance and on December 16, 2020, the Connecticut State Department of Public Health (CT DPH) published updated guidance that aligns with the CDC quarantine guidelines. This includes an option to allow a length of quarantine of 10 days if certain conditions can be met. After discussing with our local Health District and Medical Advisor we will allow the option of the 10 day quarantine, with the following conditions:
Daily symptom monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms and the individual has remained free of COVID 19 symptoms throughout the entire 10-day quarantine (day 0 is the day of exposure); AND
Daily symptom self monitoring continues after day 10 for an additional 4 days (day 11-14). If any symptoms develop, immediately self isolate and contact your health care provider; AND
Continue to take measures needed to prevent COVID-19 to include mask wearing, social distancing and hand hygiene.
Until then...
As I shared with the faculty earlier, we have an opportunity to take a break from perhaps the greatest professional challenge we will face in our careers, an eleven day respite. For all of us, this should be time to reconnect with our families and friends in safe ways. Perhaps some Netflix viewing (if so, you MUST watch The Social Dilemma with your teens), some unwinding, and some time to unplug. Whatever may come over the break, I have complete confidence that we will turn a corner to a positive horizon in due time.
Sincerely,
Thomas Scarice
Superintendent
Westport Public Schools Announces Participation In CREC Teacher Residency Program
According to a press release from the Westport Public Schools:
“The Westport Public Schools proudly announces their participation in CREC’s Teacher Residency Program beginning in the school year 2021-2022.
The CREC Teacher Residency Program (TRP) began in 2019, with approval from the Connecticut State Department of Education as a revolutionary method of recruiting, training, certifying, and retaining elementary teachers of color. TRP, in partnership with the RESC Alliance, operated at four locations in 2020-2021.
Participating districts join together to create a cohort of teacher trainees (residents) who work in the district with a mentor teacher and take classes with others in the cohort. Westport will participate in the cohort sponsored by Cooperative Educational Services in Trumbull.
Residents begin their 18-month road to elementary certification, starting with a six-week intensive summer course to prepare them for the year. Residents are each paid a salary, with benefits, as they gain first-hand experience with their mentor teacher for one year. Residents continue to take classes throughout the year, in the summer and into the fall. Residents who successfully complete the certification requirements are guaranteed full-time classroom teaching positions in the second school year with their participating district. CREC’s idea through this program is to prioritize minority candidates’ potential to work with diverse students, provide quality training and minimize barriers to traditional certification programs.
Mr. Thomas Scarice, Superintendent of Schools, noted, “The Westport Public Schools involvement with CREC’s Teacher Residency Program speaks not only to our commitment with creating a more diverse workforce but also to making this a long term focus for our schools and the greater community.”
As part of the 2021-22 TRP Cohort, Westport will employ one teacher resident in an elementary school.
“We are thrilled to be able to bring this model to other school districts across Connecticut. Since its inception, we have had 26 residents of color in the program and look forward to doubling that number in the coming year,” says Marlene Megos, Director of the CREC Teacher Residency Program.
CREC and its partners hope to assist the State meet its goal of increasing the number of teachers of color across Connecticut by 1000 in the next year. CREC TRP eliminates the typical barriers to certification for teachers of color, like the high cost of graduate school tuition, standardized test requirements, and inadequate preparation for candidates.
“Embracing diverse teacher candidates with existing connections to students and their community is the key to stronger, more welcoming schools,” said Conn. Commissioner of Education Miguel A. Cardona in October 2020. “Case in point is CREC's innovative ‘grow your own’ Teacher Residency Program providing mentorship and support to school staff on their path to certification.”
Westport’s commitment to increasing staff diversity is in line with the State’s commitment to increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of Connecticut’s teaching workforce. Westport hopes that the partnership with CREC and the RESC Alliance can soon achieve full fiscal support through broader public and private sponsorship.
More information about CREC TRP can be found at www.crec.org/c/trp.
Resident candidates can apply between January 4 and March 5, 2021. To register to learn more about this program, click here
As of December 11, eighteen districts across Connecticut have signed on to Partner with ACES, CES, CREC and LEARN for the 2021-22 Cohorts being offered in those regions. “
Superintendent: 3 News Cases in 3 Schools
According to Westport Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Scarice:
“Dear Westport Families and Staff,
In our efforts to remain transparent with reports of positive Covid-19 cases associated with our schools, we will continue to provide these updates as information is confirmed. As of the time I am writing to you this evening we have 3 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 that came in last night after my Sunday afternoon message. The reports came from the following schools:
Saugatuck Elementary School - 1
Bedford Middle School - 1
Staples High School - 1
No additional cases were reported today. Those impacted have been notified by school and District officials. As a reminder, families are asked to report positive of COVID-19 cases of students using our reporting voicemail or email regardless of whether the students are in remote or hybrid models of instruction. Please follow this link for more information on reporting.
Respectfully,
Thomas Scarice
Superintendent of Schools”