9/24/21
A message from Superintendent of Schools Kevin Case:
I hope this message finds you well as another week comes to a close. Thank you for your participation at each of our Curriculum Nights held for Canton High School, Canton Intermediate School, and Cherry Brook Primary School. I hope you found these evening to be helpful and informative as we work as partners to ensure your child(ren)'s success. Curriculum Night for Canton Middle School will be held next Monday evening, September 27th. Information will be forthcoming from the school. Like last year, I will send out these Friday updates with the latest data from the Farmington Valley Health District, also released on Friday. A copy of this data is attached.
Case Rates
As of September 18th, there was an average case rate of 6.3 per 100,000 individuals over a two week period in Canton, down from 10.4 cases the week before. The average case rate for the Farmington Valley was 13.3 compared to 11.8 cases last week. The highest number of cases is found within the aged 19-39 group in the Farmington Valley, a total of 20%. Canton has held steady at 73 % of all students, aged 12-17, having received at least one dose of COVID vaccine. To date, the Canton Public Schools have experienced five (5) positive cases requiring quarantine since the start of the school year: One (1) at Cherry Brook Primary School, one (1) at Canton Middle School, and three (3) at Canton High School. There were no positive cases of students identified since this past Monday. Great news!
Daily Family Guidance from the Farmington Valley Health District
Please review the attached guidance from the Farmington Valley Health District regarding daily home screening for COVID-19. We encourage you to continue daily screenings for COVID-19 symptoms and communicate with our health offices if your child or family member has been in close contact with anyone confirmed with COVID-19. Additionally, If ANYONE in your home has been tested for COVID-19 (excluding routine testing) OR is symptomatic, please, DO NOT send your unvaccinated child to school until the results have been obtained. Please find the attached document provided by the Farmington Valley Health District to support this important work.
We will continue to contact trace any positive cases. Vaccinated individuals who are asymptomatic are NOT required to quarantine even if they are a close contact with a positive case. Close contact is based on the guidance of less than three feet distance for 15 minutes or more in a masked classroom. Final determinations on quarantine periods will be made by the Farmington Valley Health District. The length of quarantine will be shortened for those who submit negative PCR test results.
Vaccination
The CT DPH continues to stress that the most important mitigation strategy is vaccination. In order to quickly determine the extent to which quarantining is required for close contacts to a positive case, we will be asking students to share their vaccination cards with us. This is not mandatory or a requirement for attendance by students, but is a strong recommendation from the Farmington Valley Health District. This information will be kept confidential by the school nurses and only accessed for contact tracing purposes when necessary.
If you would like to to share evidence of your child’s vaccination status to assist in possible future contact tracing, please send a hard copy or email/fax an electronic copy to Diane Sodaro at dsodaro@cantonschools.org or fax 860-693-5837.
Mask Wearing
Under the current Governor's Executive Order, masks remain required for all individuals indoors in schools and whenever students are riding the bus through September 30th. Students are not required to wear masks when outside (ie... recess or outdoor instruction). If there are any changes, I will communicate them in a timely manner. Please continue to send your child(ren) to school with a clean mask each day. There are extremely rare conditions where a child would qualify for a mask exemption. When this occurs, other mitigation strategies are put in place for the child.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Diane Sodaro, Nursing Supervisor, at dsodaro@cantonschools.org or 860-693-7201. I will continue to send out weekly updates every Friday afternoon with the latest health information from the Farmington Valley Health District. Thank you for your continued support and partnership.
COVID-19 Report Week ending September 18 2021.pdf
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin D. Case
Superintendent of Schools