East Hartford schools have reopened as the town’s daily COVID-19 positivity rate is trending downward.
Classrooms had remained closed from mid-December through January 25. The hybrid model of remote learning and rotating classroom attendance will continue for as long as the East Hartford Health Department reports to the schools that the testing rate of daily COVID-19 positive cases is within prudent safety levels in the community. It had risen to over 103 per 100,000 on a daily testing basis for the first two weeks in January but has since fallen below 100.
Wrote Quesnel January 15: “Last week we communicated our intention to use this week to monitor COVID transmission data as we anticipated bringing our In-Person Learners (IPL) back to school on January 19th. At that time, we stated our intention was to “follow the data,” and to closely monitor the health of our students and faculty as well as the public transmission data as we identified our next steps as a district.
“Last night (Jan. 14) we received data from the East Hartford Department of Public Health (EHDPH) which marked the rate of new COVID-19 cases/100,000 population at 101.4. This data reflects cases from 12/27/20 – 1/09/21.”
The superintendent provided a chart showing the spike in positive tests through the beginning of January.
“Unfortunately, we are continuing to experience a significant spike in transmission that is likely the result of holiday convenings. Based on un-official case rates collected from EHDPH our current model suggests that this spike will continue through the current week and then begin to regress pending community mitigation behaviors. While we all want our students back in person, we must ensure that we continue to adhere to the core principles of our plan, safe, incremental and adaptive.”
Faculty and staff will be required to provide instruction from the school buildings – as they have been doing for the first two weeks of January.
The schools wrote that they expect to receive “our next data pull” on Friday, January 22.
“While our sincere hope is to physically return students to school, we want to be explicit that a definitive date of return is not clear at this time. Rather, we will continue to evaluate the data and assess trends that will allow us to make an appropriate selection for our district model. Please expect continued communication regarding these decisions as we recognize our families challenges to arrange child care and work schedules. While we fully empathize with this challenge, we share our community’s commitment to keeping our kids and staff safe. We are close to the end of dealing with this pandemic and urge you to persevere.”
Superintendent Quesnel plans a Zoom conference call with all parents and student guardians on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
“We realize that this is a wealth of information that will certainly stimulate ideas, questions and concerns.”
Zoom Link is https://zoom.us/j/96690890827
Dial: +1-929-436-2866 ID: 966-9089-0827
