Wilson: Seymour public schools to close for 2 weeks

Sharing from Seymour Public Schools' Facebook page:

March 12, 2020

Good Evening Seymour Families,

As you are all aware, we have been closely monitoring the current COVID-19 virus concerns and have been in constant contact with our Director from the Naugatuck Valley Health District. 

Over these last several days, we have seen an escalation in the concern across the state. Late this afternoon, I again took part in a conference call with all State Superintendents where the Commissioner of Education alerted us of new information around the concern for the virus and about being proactive.

The Director of the Naugatuck Valley Health District has stated that as of this evening, there are no confirmed cases in the Valley. While this is positive news for us, the threat of the virus impacting the Valley is still potentially there. 

Therefore, in an effort to be overly cautious and to take on an abundance of precautionary measures to help ensure that our students and staff remain healthy, we will be closing schools for two weeks (Monday March 16, 2020 through Friday March 27, 2020). 

The plan is to reopen on Monday March 30, 2020. Throughout this time, we will remain in constant contact with our local Health District, community stakeholders, head nurse, as well as review updates from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) every day in order to respond safely and responsibly to the new information as it becomes available.

We understand that an extended closure of schools can place a burden on families and we empathize with you on that. To reiterate, since there are no confirmed cases in the Valley, we jointly decided with the Naugatuck Valley Health District to have tomorrow be the last day of school so that our students and staff can take home any materials that they deem necessary for their continued learning during this period.

We also want to convey that it is the State Department of Education’s recommendation to close schools outright and to not implement a distance learning model at this time. The rationale is that providing educational access to the curriculum for all learners is very difficult to accomplish through a digital platform. As a district, we will continue to work as a team with our State Department of Education with the potential for distance learning opportunities in the future. The Governor and the State Department of Education did agree to relief with respect to the number of school days needed and stated “that at no time will the State of Connecticut go past June 30, 2020”. Any days where the schools are closed due to COVID-19 concerns prior to the June 30, 2020 date will have to be made up as if they were used during the year for inclement weather. As a result, every attempt must be made to use the days up to and including June 30, 2020 for the waiver to be considered. To summarize, we will use the next two weeks as inclement weather days, thus placing our last day of school on June 25, 2020.

Please continue to look on the following mediums for any communications from our schools:

• Seymour Schools Facebook
• Seymour Schools website

If you have any questions about COVID-19, please call 2-1-1. My team will continue to monitor the situation daily and will keep you informed as changes occur. We will get through this together as a team. We remain positive and hopeful that we will resume our normal school routines on March 30, 2020.

Please make every effort to keep your families safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Michael Wilson
Superintendent