Four test positive after event attended by New Fairfield staff, students
NEW FAIRFIELD — New Fairfield’s public schools had an unplanned early dismissal Friday after people at an event attended by local staff members and students last weekend recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Superintendent Pat Cosentino said at least six staff members and four students from New Fairfield Public Schools attended the private, out-ofstate event.
“This morning I found out that four people at the event tested positive for COVID-19. None of those people are New Fairfield residents or in our schools, so we do not have any cases — but we did have staff and students there, and those people who were at the event were in school Wednesday and Thursday,” she said.
New Fairfield schools were not open Monday in observance of Columbus Day, and no students were in school Tuesday because it was a professional development day.
“We have to give the Department of Health and our nurses time to contact trace, so I felt in an abundance of caution and with the paramount goal of student and staff safety and health that we close today and wait until all of those
people who were at that event, who are part of our school system, come back with a negative test,” Cosentino said.
School community members who attended last weekend’s event are all being tested for COVID-19, she said, and all New Fairfield students and staff are being sent home with Chromebooks and supplies in case schools have to remain closed next week.
“We have all of the students and the staff taking home everything they need so that if next we have to be on remote learning for the week, that’s what we’ll do,” Cosentino said.
Cosentino said school officials were ready for a situation like the one the school district currently finds itself in.
“We’ve been preparing for this,” she said. “We had seven full weeks of school, so we have been very fortunate — but we knew that eventually COVID-19 would hit us in some form. I’m pleased to say it’s not because of anything we’ve done in the schools — it was an outside activity.”
Cosentino said she plans to send out a letter this weekend about whether schools will be open at the beginning of next week.
“I’ll talk to my team and the nurses and the Department of Health to get their suggestions and recommendations for returning — but as of now, I will assume that we will definitely be closed on Monday. That’s what I would think. I’m leaning in that direction,” she said.