Milford's Middle School Students To Move To Distance Learning

MILFORD, CT — Superintendent of Schools Anna Cutaia said all middle school students will move to full distance learning beginning on Monday, Nov. 23. This will continue until at least Jan. 8, 2021.

Here is the full letter from the Milford Public Schools:

Dear Milford Public Schools Families,

As I mentioned in my letter to you last week (Nov. 10, 2020), the number of positive COVID-19 cases continues to trend upward. On Monday, (11/16), all of our high school students moved to a full distance learning model in order to help control the spread of the virus while still receiving a robust instructional plan virtually. Unfortunately, we now need to shift all of our middle school students to full distance learning beginning Monday, November 23, 2020.

As with the high schools, we will keep middle school students in distance learning through January 8, 2021. While the high school shift to distance learning allowed us to redeploy 15 high school staff members to our elementary and middle schools, we are finding that it is not enough.

Unfortunately, the rise in cases continues to impact our in-person learning model, again most notably in the area of human resources. In fact, as of yesterday, we have 181 staff members reported absent. And, sadly, our difficulty continues in being able to fully staff our schools at the middle and elementary levels. Please note, these absences are not all positive COVID cases but mostly required quarantining due to potential exposure.

Milford Health Department data continues to demonstrate that we are not seeing sustained in-school transmission among students and staff; rather, contact tracing confirms the increase in transmission is largely due to attendance at large social gatherings outside of school and the natural trending seen when in a pandemic environment.

I am confident we are all doing our best to safeguard ourselves from this virus but the rapid spread in our community and surrounding area is simply catching up to us. I am grateful for the diligence of our staff to implement all safety protocols to protect our students and one another.

As we were able to do with the high school shift in instructional model, an additional 19 staff members will be redeployed to the elementary level, in the hopes of keeping our PK-5 students attending our in-person learning model for as long as possible. Moving middle and high school students to distance learning gives us 34 staff members to be redeployed to the elementary schools to support in-person learning.

Going Forward

Our goal, going forward, continues to focus on the safety and health of all students, staff, and family members throughout the Milford Public Schools. We recognize that while these times may be challenging, please know that all judgements, decisions, and plans are made in alignment with this goal -- always.

If at any time, there is an improvement in the five factors considered in school opening/closing decisions (health metrics, social/emotional needs, academic priorities, resources availability and human resources), we would most certainly reconsider our distance learning decisions and bring students and staff back for in-person learning.

As we enter a time for holiday gatherings, we ask you to do your part and be strategic in the way you celebrate this year. The ‘3 Ws’ have been publicized lately from the Connecticut Department of Public Health -- and they are easy to remember:

W: Wear your mask
W: Wash your hands
W: Watch your distance

Thank you, once again, for coming together in support of our friends, our families, and our community.

Stay safe,
Anna Cutaia, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools