Wednesday, March 10, will be a regular early release day, as shared by Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue in a letter to district parents on January 29 announcing the recent Board of Education calendar change decision.

The letter follows.

Dear Parents,

I hope you and your families are well.

On Tuesday, January 26, the BOE approved a change to March 10 on the school calendar. As you know, due to the ongoing inclusion of early release schedules on Wednesdays, this created an issue with the existing delayed opening for staff development. This is the only date that was an issue, since other staff development days are not scheduled on Wednesdays in the calendar. [A revised calendar was attached to the e-mail and the calendar is available on the school district’s website, newtown.k12.ct.us.)

As I mentioned in a previous communication, we are using the dashboard on our district website as a more consistent venue for reporting cases and quarantining. You can access the website at newtown.k12.ct.us. While we continue to send communications regarding the overall health status and other important information — please refer to the daily information on our dashboard. I want to thank Anne Dalton and her staff for the work they are doing to contact trace swiftly and efficiently, as well as updating the dashboard once contact tracing is complete. This week, her team has handled cases at Hawley, Middle Gate, NMS, and NHS and have worked with families and staff regarding quarantining as an ongoing part of the process. We will continue to share information with you in review, but the dashboard should be used as a record of cases in the school community.

As promised, we will continue to monitor cases, quarantining, and our staffing needs. In concert with local health officials and based on changing health circumstances, a learning model at a particular school or level may change temporarily. Additionally, we just want to remind parents if you plan on switching your child or children to a different learning model (either to or from in-person learning/Cohort D), please provide school administration with advanced notice.

We appreciate all you are doing at home to follow through on ensuring students are appropriately masked, washing hands, and staying home when ill. Your understanding of the necessity for quarantining, as well as informing our school when a positive case is confirmed has been instrumental in maintaining safety for everyone in our school community.

Thank you and stay well.

Dr Lorrie Rodrigue, Superintendent