Prom Likely For Warde, Ludlowe High Schools

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield’s two public high schools will likely each have a prom, despite the coronavirus pandemic, but the logistics of how the events will come together remain uncertain.

Preliminary discussions are underway to determine how to safely host the dances for Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe high schools, Superintendent Mike Cummings told the school board Tuesday.

“I think we’re going to be able to do it,” he said, adding school leaders are focused on how to make the prom happen, rather than if it will happen at all.

Options under consideration include holding the events outside at the Warde courtyard and on the lawn at Ludlowe, and approaching the dances in a manner comparable to the high school lunch periods, when 300 students are seated together, according to Cummings. The proms are expected to take place in late May or early June, at least 11 days before the graduation ceremonies. That way, if either of the dances result in virus exposure, students will be able to quarantine and still walk at graduation.

The district is reckoning with a discrepancy created by Gov. Ned Lamont’s decision to lift all business restrictions next month except the indoor mask mandate, while schools must continue to follow more rigid pandemic procedures, Cummings said. Among the reasons for the strict rules in schools are the unavoidably low vaccination rates among students, many of whom are too young to get the vaccine, and the potential for virus variant transmission, according to Cummings.

“They’re just two different sets of rules, and that’s what we’re struggling with right now,” he said, adding head principals Greg Hatzis and Paul Cavanna are advocating for students to have the best prom possible.

School officials will collaborate with the town’s health department and emergency operations command to ensure the proms are safe as well as fun, according to Cummings.