Wallingford Middle, High Schools Returning To 5 Days A Week

WALLINGFORD, CT — Students at Wallingford’s middle schools and high schools will return to in-person classes five days a week beginning April 5, officials announced Tuesday.

Lyman Hall and Sheehan high schools, along with Dag Hammarskjöld and Moran middle schools, have been operating on a hybrid model since the beginning of the school year. The district’s elementary schools have been in school five days a week since the school year started.

“The decision to return to full-time learning is based on the district’s collaborative partnership with the Wallingford Health Department utilizing the latest health data as well as our belief that in-person learning provides our students with the most effective model for academic success,” reads a message to middle school and high school families.

The Board of Education approved the following return to school plan for middle and high school students, according to Superintendent Salvatore Menzo:

• Students who were in either Cohort 1 or Cohort 2 will all return to school for five days a week starting on Monday, April 5, 2021.
• The students will follow the shortened day schedule that they follow at this time.
• There will not be an option for a hybrid school week for students.
• There will still be the option for voluntary distance learning, per the State of Connecticut Reopening Plan.

Future plans to resume a five day a week full day schedule, with lunch, are being reviewed and discussed in collaboration with the Teachers Union and Wallingford Health Department.

The Board of Education also approved a day of virtual learning for all students on Monday, March 29, in order to be “proactive regarding potential staff absences due to the vaccination clinic for their second dose that weekend,” Menzo wrote in a message to parents. “All students, teachers, paraeducators, and nurses will also work from home that day. All other staff will report to work unless they are feeling ill with side effects. Administrators will remind families of the schedule for that day.”