School officials concerned with COVID ‘on the rampage’

NEW FAIRFIELD — With a spike in cases since Thanksgiving, school officials have concerns about the effect COVID-19 could have on the district after winter break.

“COVID cases are on the rampage, really,” Assistant Superintendent Julie Luby said last week. “We’re up to 123 cases in-district so far this year.”

The case rate among the New Fairfield school community has gradually increased since Oct. 7, when it had 25 confirmed cases, according to the district’s latest data.

Between Dec. 2 and Dec. 16, the number of cases in the school district jumped 64 percent. Luby said the spike is likely related to Thanksgiving break.

A total of 700 students have been quarantined since the start of the school year, with an average of 46 students quarantined each day, according to the school district’s latest COVID data.

“We still quarantine many more kids in the lower grades because they are not fully immunized yet,” Luby said.

Forty-seven of the 69 students quarantining as of Thursday were in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The district COVID data also shows that 96 students have been quarantined more than once this school year, and 79 percent of all those quarantined have participated in Q-School.

Luby noted that the number of in-district cases believed to be related to inschool have jumped in recent weeks.

As of Nov. 18, there were two cases of suspected inschool spread compared to three on Dec. 2, and 11 on Thursday.

“A few of those are from Meeting House (Hill School),” Luby said. “In a switch class, there were several cases, one was a bus instance, and there were a few at the high school where someone came in sick.”

With the school district’s COVID numbers on the rise, Board of Education Chair Dominic Cipollone said he’s concerned what will happen once students return from winter break.

“It just seems like after Thanksgiving, it really popped,” he said. “We don’t want the same thing to happen after Christmas.”

While she shares that concern, Luby said there is some “good news.”

“Even if we have 45 new cases, that number would still be a small percent of our overall population,” she said.

New Fairfield Public Schools will dismiss early on Thursday for winter break, with students returning Jan. 3.