Superintendent: Darien schools to close until after winter break

DARIEN — All schools in town will go full remote starting Friday until after the holidays, Superintendent Alan Addley said Monday.

Addley said the district expects to return to the current learning models — in-person for elementary and hybrid for secondary — on Jan. 4.

Addley said the main reason for the change was to reduce the likelihood students, families and staff will need to quarantine over the winter break.

“It is reasonable to take a temporary and collective pause in order to provide our students, families and staff with the opportunity to enjoy the winter break/ holiday and to safely reconnect with family members,” he said.

He said other factors included:

— Allowing the staff to focus on one learning model as the number of remote learners increases leading up to the winter break.

— Anticipating further school disruptions due to quarantining and the inability to acquire substitute teacher coverage.

— Providing a dependable schedule for parents during the last four days of school.

— Reducing the amount of contact tracing time to be conducted over the winter break/holiday by our nursing staff.

The decision was reviewed and supported by the district’s medical advisor, the town’s director of health, the COVID compliance liaison, and the district COVID Response Team.

There are 14 active COVID cases in the school district with 168 in quarantine, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard. Darien had an increase of 51 cases last week. As of Dec. 10, First Selectman Jayme Stevenson reported 517 residents had tested positive for the virus since March from a total of 380 households.

There were 59 cases reported over the past two weeks and the town’s positivity rate stands at 3.4 percent based on the daily number of cases per 100,000 people over a twoweek period.

“The decision to change learning models for this short time period was made in the collective best interest of our students, families and staff,” Addley said.

Addley noted that this has been a challenging year for students, families and staff.

“Proudly, the district has been able to keep our children in school throughout the pandemic in spite of the significant challenges presented by rising COVID cases and the increasing number of staff and students required to quarantine. We have done this through the amazing efforts of our staff and the support of our parents,” Addley said.

Information about remote schedules may be accessed on page 92 of the district's Reopening Plan located on the main page of the district website.

“I encourage our students, families and staff to be particularly vigilant this week in exercising health and safety mitigation strategies so the district may continue in person learning and with the hope that everyone experiences a safe winter/holiday break with their family,” Addley said.