Milford's Back-To-School Plans Released

MILFORD, CT — The Milford Public Schools are planning to adopt a unique back-to-school schedule for the 2020-21 academic year.

The first day of school for students is Sept. 8. All students will attend classes in-person on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays will be a day of distance learning for all and it will cover the length of a normal school day.

There will also be shortened days for students and a full day for staff. School officials cautioned that this plan can change based on the health metrics at the start of the school year.

Superintendent of Schools Anna Cutaia wrote a letter to parents dated Aug. 4. Here is the full letter.

Dear Milford Public Schools Staff and Parents/Guardians,

"As I indicated in my communication to you on July 29th: On July 27, 2020, the Governor announced that schools will not be required to have students return to school full-time, in person unless they deemed it appropriate. At the same press conference, the Governor shared that it would be the decision of each school district on how to offer instruction to students in the fall stating a strong recommendation to bring PK-8 back full-time and a request that we make every effort to have consistent and coherent regional hybrid models.

We received interim written guidance on his announcement and are required to submit to the Connecticut State Department of Education our plans on reopening schools for the 2020-2021 school year.

This submission is due Wednesday, August 5. Last night I shared with the Milford Board of Education four scenarios for reopening schools in the fall. As stated in the Board meeting, which can be viewed here, my first goal is to keep all students and staff safe while at the same time consider factors such as social/emotional and academic priorities, staff availability and resources.

The four instructional scenarios are as outlined and can be viewed here.

"With the information that I have as of the writing of this letter, we plan on starting the 2020-2021 school year in the Tier 1 instructional scenario.

The advantages to the Tier 1 Model include:

● Giving students and staff the opportunity to acclimate to a new way of schooling with a priority on relationship building and social/emotional learning.

● Abbreviated daily schedule to be considerate of mask wearing and social distancing rules.

● Opportunity to experience newly reconstituted distance learning experience planned for 2020-2021 in preparation of the potential of full-time distance learning.

● Additional time for staff to plan together for a new instructional model which accommodates current protocols and practices.

● Allows us to “ease” into a potential full-time, in-person instructional scenario.

● With 100% of students returning to school, having Wednesday as a distance learning day will allow us the opportunity to disinfect and engage in deep cleaning of our facilities.

With the first day of school, Tuesday, September 8, 2020, being five weeks away, I will review all health metrics, social/emotional and academic priorities, staffing availability and resource demands and regularly consider this decision in light of new/updated information. With the precedent of fluid and at times, conflicting information, we should anticipate a change in the decision on how to reopen schools in the fall.

Therefore, families should make plans for all four instructional scenarios now as it is likely that we will move throughout all scenarios throughout the 2020-2021 school year. View all 4 scenarios here.

A survey will be sent to you tomorrow. We ask each family to respond to the survey with your intention on how each of your children will return to the 2020-2021 school year.

Instructional scenario selection should be considered for the first marking period (trimester or quarter) of school in order to ensure the greatest degree of consistency for your child. We realize that you have the right to change your selection at any time and that the health metrics may also require us to change the instructional scenario.

We will continue to keep you informed as new information is available. Thank you for your patience and confidence in our team’s work to develop a plan while information and guidance is continuously evolving.

Best,
Anna M. Cutaia, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools

You can read more documents prepared by Milford Schools concerning the new school year here and here. You can also watch the Milford Board of Education's meeting on the reopening plans here.