Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice today issued the following update to school families:
Dear Westport Families and Staff,
Bedford/Coleytown Middle School will remain in a full remote learning model through the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. Despite our efforts to return to the hybrid model at the middle school, additional positive cases of COVID-19, and the associated quarantines involving staff this weekend, have impacted our ability to provide adequate supervision at the school. Bedford/Coleytown Middle School will remain in a full remote teaching model through November 25th. The majority of our staff in quarantine will be coming out of that status over the holiday weekend, so we anticipate returning to hybrid operation on November 30th.
In my correspondence with the community on Friday about plans for both Staples High School and Bedford/Coleytown Middle School, I shared our plans to reallocate staff from the high school to the middle school for help with coverage needs. Unfortunately, over the weekend, we became aware of 17 additional positive cases of COVID-19 in the District which greatly increased the number of staff forced to quarantine. This is consistent with the trend across the region as all school districts are facing similar challenges.
To put things in greater perspective, Bedford/’Coleytown Middle School now has 3 full teams of teachers along with 9 encore teachers in quarantine. As a result, nearly 350 students had to move to distance learning.
Ms. Szabo, Principal of Coleytown Middle School, and Dr. Rosen, Principal of Bedford Middle School, will send additional information to their students, families, and staff about plans for the days ahead.
Sincerely,
Thomas Scarice
Superintendent
