Decision On Whether To Move Schools Online Expected Thursday In Ansonia

Assistant Superintendent Stephen Bergin speaks during Wednesday’s Ansonia Board of Education meeting (held online).

ANSONIA — UPDATE: The district announced in-person learning will stop and the end of the day on Friday, Nov. 13.

If the city remains a COVID-19 hot spot, Ansonia Public Schools may close its buildings and switch to online learning, officials said at a meeting Wednesday.

A decision could come at some point Thursday, depending on how Ansonia ranks on the weekly COVID-19 map released by the state Department of Health.

Ansonia made the state’s COVID-19 hot spot list on Oct. 29 and on Nov. 5.

Click the play button to listen to the Ansonia school officials talk about COVID at a meeting Nov. 11.

State government uses a three-tiered warning system to track COVID-19. Communities in the red — the highest alert level — have sustained daily positivity rates of at least 15 cases per 100,000 people (or per capita).

Ansonia’s rate was 19.5 on Oct. 29. The rate increased to 27.1 on Nov. 5, the highest rate in the lower Naugatuck Valley.

Click this link to learn how the rate is calculated.

“As these numbers creep up, it’s getting to be a greater and greater concern,” Ansonia Schools Superintendent Joseph DiBacco said.

DiBacco has sent at least seven letters home to parents the past four weeks about COVID-19 exposures. Ansonia Middle School switched to online learning on Nov. 10 and is expected to stay in that mode until Nov. 18.

DiBacco’s latest letter went home Wednesday, when the district decided to put Ansonia High School on virtual learning as officials wait for a test result for a person connected to the high school.

Those letters often warn that switching to full-time online learning may be inevitable.

The City of Ansonia isn’t alone in the COVID-19 struggle. The State of Connecticut is experiencing a second COVID-19 wave, the first being when the first cases were discovered in March.

The state’s daily COVID-19 positivity rate was 6.74 percent on Tuesday and 4.76 percent on Wednesday. Those rates were under 1 percent in the summer.

The number of ​“red alert” towns grows every week. First it was 11 towns, then 30, then 68 as of last Thursday (including Shelton, Derby, Naugatuck and Seymour).

Statewide, COVID-19 hospitalizations went from 68 people on Sept. 20 to 329 people on Oct. 29 — a 483 percent increase.

Ansonia (the city as a whole, not just the school district) picked up 93 positive cases between Nov. 6 and Nov. 11, according to state and local data.

Against that backdrop, members of the public and the Ansonia Board of Education heard Wednesday night from Dr. Domenic Casablanca, who has been serving as advisor to the school district as it tries to keep students and staff safe from COVID-19.

“If Ansonia stays in the red, the guidelines from DPH on school reopening is that we should go to 100 percent remote,” Casablanca said, noting that on Tuesday Shelton schools opted to switch to online learning until January.

“I don’t necessarily want to go there but I think we kind of have to go there if the other districts are closing. We’re going to put too many people at risk and we’re also going to have to worry about staffing the schools,” Casablanca said.

The doctor said if Ansonia goes online, it should probably remain online-only until January. Click the audio player above to listen to the discussion.

Assistant Superintendent Stephen Bergin said instruction is ready to move online should it come to that.

DiBacco explained how COVID can interfere with learning in a way that isn’t so obvious. He said a chunk of Ansonia teachers live in Danbury, New Haven, Milford, Wallingford and Seymour — communities where schools are (or were) temporarily online. That means an Ansonia teacher from one of those communities can’t report for work if he or she suddenly has to stay home.

He said Ansonia Middle School recently experienced a 30 percent staff shortage because of such an event.

The school officials also said COVID-19 seems to be circulating in the community at a greater rate than within the walls of the schools. Only 4 to 5 students have tested positive, though the numbers of staffers who tested positive wasn’t mentioned during the meeting.

DiBacco said he will consult with Casablanca and the Naugatuck Valley Health District Thursday to decide which way the school district will go. The state’s COVID-19 map usually comes out at about 4 p.m.on Thursdays, but DiBacco said a decision could be announced before then.

Christopher Phipps, Ansonia school board president, said he will support any decision the superintendent makes.

The superintendent credited district staff, teachers and families with persevering under very difficult circumstances.

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