New Canaan schools to go remote Jan. 4-8

New Canaan Public Schools will change to remote learning when they return from vacation Monday, Jan. 4, to Friday, Jan. 8, and plan to resume in-person learning on Monday, Jan. 11.

Superintendent Bryan Luizzi announced the decision at a short Board of Education meeting on Monday, Dec. 21.

All students K-12 “will be remote for that week, to give us some time for things to settle out,” he told the board.

The Department of Public Health has made an “informal recommendation” for “districts to do what we are doing, so that things can settle out from positive cases that can happen from the break, which is long enough where some people will be traveling and seeing other folks.”

“It allows us time to identify, then isolate and quarantine where we need to. It avoids the issue of coming back on the fourth and having to close on the sixth or the seventh in order to do the quarantining, isolating” after the holiday, he said.

“We are confident and able to do it because of the work that folks have been doing all throughout the course of the year, preparing to teach remotely. We are confident that it is the right decision and we are prepared to do it,” Luizzi said.

The town will conduct COVID-19 testing on Friday, Jan. 8, and “hopefully get all of our faculty and staff.”

The town is checking into making more tests available for the community, he added.

“All students and staff should leave on Wednesday, Dec. 23, prepared for remote learning after the break” and the buildings will be closed during the break, Luizzi in a memo on the Board of Education website.

“This provides time for our custodians to thoroughly clean, and for our principals, administrators, and administrative assistants to enjoy some time away,” he said in the memo.