Groton The Groton school district will continue full remote learning next week, as 105 teachers and staff and 74 students need to self-isolate or quarantine, according to Superintendent Susan Austin.
The school district had shifted to full remote learning for this week due to a post-holiday uptick in cases, but Austin said the situation has only escalated since then.
She said in a communication Thursday to parents, guardians and staff that the decision to continue remote learning is due both “to the inability to provide appropriate staffing for in-person learning and for the safety of our students and staff.”
Austin said in a phone interview that, with community spread and increases in COVD-19 cases in Groton, the school district also is seeing cases in schools.
Norwich public schools will remain in hybrid model next week, while Norwich Free Academy remains in remote learning amid a post-holiday spike in COVID-19 rates in Norwich and some surrounding towns.
Both the Uncas Health District and Ledge Light Health District reported that the highest COVID-19 rates for their towns since March occurred at the end of December.
During the two-week period from Dec. 20 to Jan. 1, Norwich had a COVID-19 case rate of 82.3 cases per 100,000 population and a positivity rate of 11.5%, according to figures released by the Uncas Health District. The city’s COVID-19 positivity rate had been 10% for the previous two-week period.