Enfield School To Close Temporarily As Staff COVID-19 Cases Increase

ENFIELD, CT — The number of staff members from Henry Barnard Elementary School who have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days has increased to 40, prompting Superintendent of Schools Chris Drezek to cancel classes there Thursday and Friday for the time being.

Drezek said the number of positive test results among the 75 staff members was 12 on Sunday night, increased to 32 by Monday night and hit 40 Wednesday morning. He said efforts to staff the building with other district personnel have become unfeasible with the large amount of cases.

He sent a message to the Barnard community early Wednesday afternoon, stating:

Dear Parents, Staff, and Students of Henry Barnard School,

As I informed you on Monday, Henry Barnard has experienced a rapid increase of COVID cases with staff members this week. At the present time, we currently have 40 of our 75 staff members out with COVID. Although we have tried to cover the building with staff members from other schools, we have reached a point where we simply cannot provide adequate adult supervision to safely open for in-person learning. After consultation with the North Central District Health Department, we have decided to cancel in-person classes at Henry Barnard School for Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6. These two school days will be treated like a traditional snow day. To be completely honest, I’m hopeful that Henry Barnard can re-open for in-person learning on Monday, May 9, but unfortunately, we won’t know that until this weekend when we have a better idea of which staff members are cleared to return. Because of that, I don’t want to lock in a last day of school for Henry Barnard in case we have an additional closure.

The closure affects all school programming, including before and after-school activities, all athletic and extracurricular practices and competitions, and all weekend events.

Please understand this is the last message I wanted to send to you because I realize the impact this has on families, as well as students. I want to again commend the Henry Barnard staff, as well as the dozens of district staff members who came together to keep Henry Barnard open the past three days. It was a Herculean effort to make it as far as we did, but the lack of available staff has left me with no other option but to close. We are closely monitoring this situation and working with the North Central District Health Department. We will provide you with updates as we know more. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please Note: Meals for students will continue to be available for pickup at Enfield High School from 8:30 to 9:30 am. To order a meal for pickup, please call 860-253-6511.

Thank you - and stay well,
Christopher J. Drezek

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