Inside: Norwich schools, NFA report increase in COVID-19 cases.

Thirteen NFA students have tested positive since Sept. 29

Norwich — Since last Wednesday evening, Norwich Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow has sent eight letters to parents and staff notifying them of eight different COVID-19 positive tests among staff or students at five different public schools, all of which already are in remote learning model during the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

Norwich Free Academy officials have notified staff and families that 13 students have tested positive for COVID-19 since Sept. 29. NFA letters regarding COVID-19 cases are posted under Campus News on the academy website, www. nfaschool.org.

Norwich Public Schools and NFA reverted to fully remote learning model for two weeks starting Oct. 2, after the state Department of Public Health declared a COVID-19 alert in Norwich due to a spike in cases in the city.

Stringfellow sends letters to staff and families each time a positive case is confirmed involving “a member of the school community.” Letters through Oct. 7 did not identify whether the positive cases involved students or staff members for privacy reasons, but Stringfellow said school staff had asked for more specific information. Uncas Health District then said letters could identify whether each infection involved a staff member or student.

Board of Education Chairwoman Heather Romanski said she appreciated the change to provide more information in the letters alerting staff and parents of new cases. She said she has received positive feedback from parents who appreciate the greater detail.

Three of the letters involved Kelly STEAM Magnet Middle School students, one of whom has been in the optional fully remote learning for this school year, Stringfellow wrote, and hasn’t been in school since March. The other two Kelly students had been in the hybrid learning model, one who was last in school Sept. 25 and the other on Oct. 1.

The Moriarty Environmental Sciences Magnet School has had two cases, one an unspecified “member of the Moriarty School community” on Oct. 7 — that letter sent before the change to add more details to the letters — and one student who was last in school Sept. 29.

A remote learning student at the John B. Stanton School, who was last in school in March, tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 8. A Bishop Early Learning Center staff member tested positive on Oct. 6. The person was last in school on Sept. 29. And a student at the Thomas Mahan School tested positive on Oct. 8 and was last in school Oct. 1.

Each Norwich Public Schools letter gave the “look back” period when the infected person likely became contagious and whether there could have been in-school exposures. In most cases, the schools already had been in remote learning during the Norwich COVID- 19 spike, minimizing exposure of others in the school system.

Stringfellow said the plan now is to return to hybrid learning beginning Monday, but public schools and NFA officials will meet with the Uncas Health District and others later this week to discuss the planned reopening and hope to announce plans “before Friday,” Stringfellow told the Board of Education on Tuesday evening.

In her report to the board, Stringfellow said the school system has had a total of 47 COVID-19 positive cases since the pandemic hit in spring, including 33 students, four of whom are in remote learning, and 14 staff members.

Even more time-consuming for school staff is the contact tracing for people who traveled and didn’t test positive but still have to be quarantined and people who are sick but turned out not with COVID-19. There have been 14 students and staff who have traveled to states identified as hot spots for COVID-19 and have had to quarantine. Contact tracing also had to be done on five people with COVID-19 symptoms and 120 people with no symptoms, but who had had exposure to someone with COVID-19, mostly outside the school system.

“We’re tracking everything,” Stringfellow said. “For those who can’t see all the work going into it, it’s every single day, every single principal.”