Inside: Rate of new COVID cases declines at Greenwich schools.

GREENWICH — The Greenwich Public Schools have seen a relative slowing in the rate of positive COVID-19 cases reported in the past week, even as the total number of cases since the start of the year approaches triple digits.

From Tuesday to Friday, the school district reported just four new coronavirus cases, bringing the total since early September to 97 and up just 11 since a week prior.

According to Board of Education communications liaison Jonathan Supranowitz, it’s the third consecutive update with declining numbers of new cases.

Many of the district’s current active COVID cases — which affect eight schools in the district — are expected to be resolved by Tuesday, when the next update will be provided, Supranowitz added Friday.

The positive trend comes after a barrage of cases since early October, in keeping with upward trends town and statewide, as the coronavirus surges in Connecticut.

Despite the rising cases, and some requests from teachers to consider an alternative plan for remote learning, the district has remained firm that students should stick with in-person classes in the weeks following Thanksgiving, where they say is safer.

Of the 97 cases of the coronavirus reported since the start of school, the district is reporting that just one could be linked back to in-school exposure. A total of 82 cases have been linked to outside exposure and 14 are due to “undetermined exposure,” the district said.

And though the district has seen an apparent leveling off of its recent uptick, it received some backlash earlier this week from teachers when officials failed to notified staff that several Greenwich High administrators, including Principal Ralph Mayo, were forced to quarantine due to possible exposure to the virus.

District administrators have said the failure to notify staff was simply a miscommunication. But some Greenwich High teachers have speculated that they were intentionally kept out of the loop.