District confirms 10th COVID case

GREENWICH — Students at both Julian Curtiss School and Old Greenwich School will be in quarantine in the coming weeks as a result of positive COVID-19 cases, school officials said.

Greenwich’s Board of Education Communications Liaison Jonathan Supranowitz confirmed Wednesday that fifth-graders at Julian Curtiss School are in quarantine for a week, until Oct. 27, and that two classes at Old Greenwich School are in quarantine for two weeks. Old Greenwich students are slated to return Oct. 30.

“At the moment, there are no additional positive cases in either class,” Supranowitz said of the

Old Greenwich cases.

The Julian Curtiss School community was notified Monday that a fifth-grader at the elementary school had tested positive and, as a result, the entire grade was required to stay home Tuesday so

contact tracing could be completed.

On Tuesday, Julian Curtiss families were notified that students would remain quarantined for an additional week.

“This quarantine is out of an abundance of caution and it has been determined that siblings of fifth-graders do not need to quarantine,” said the email, from

Principal Patricia McGuire and Greenwich Public School Head of Nursing Mary Keller.

The new cases bring the district up to 10, in total, since the start of school. Seven of those cases have come in just over a week. In the first month of school, the district registered just three confirmed cases.

Still, Supranowitz said the district’s existing safety precautions have proven effective.

“All of the cases have originated from non-school activities and exposure from individuals outside of our buildings,” Supranowitz said. “At the moment, we have not had a single additional positive case due to close contact within our schools, in part, because of quarantining. This is a safety mechanism designed to force students and staff to stay home and limit exposure.”

Board of Education Chair Peter Bernstein said he’d been tracking state and national trends, including the recent uptick of positive cases in Fairfield County.

“It certainly serves as a stark reminder that we need to remain vigilant as a community and ensure that our students observe proper social distancing and mask wearing whether at school or during nonschool activities,” Bernstein said.