Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski. (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – A special school committee meeting on Jan. 21 revisited returning students to school in the cohort hybrid plan on Feb. 1, a date tentatively set at the meeting on Jan. 14.
Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski said the numbers this week of COVID cases were down to 15 from a high of 59 the week of Jan. 4, and 21 the following week. He said since Sept. 14, the school community has had a total of 170 cases, 95 of which have been reported since Jan. 4.
Czaporowski also said that beginning Jan. 19, the Westfield Technical Academy shop students and special educations came back to school, and the students are happy to be back. “One student told me, `I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back,’ “ he said.
Public Health Director Joseph Rouse said the numbers in the city are also down from a record high the previous week. He said he believes the holiday spread has started to be revoked, and he’s hoping to see the numbers continue to go down as they are.
Rouse said they still need that two week sample size to make sure there’s not some abnormality or glitch in the testing system. A special meeting has already been scheduled for Jan. 28 at 5 p.m.
“At this point, if you want to vote on proceeding back to the hybrid model on Feb. 1, it’s looking good. The only thing I ask is if the numbers do go back up next Wednesday, that you reconsider at that point,” Rouse said. He added the Health Department is not seeing a lot of new school-aged cases. He said out of 25 on Thursday, only three were school-aged.
“We’re ready to enter into the second phase of vaccinations including all of the school staff. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll start to get vaccinations out to school staff,” Rouse said.
Czaporowski said the district’s plan would be to bring everybody back as they were on Dec. 17, in the cohort A and B schedule. Cohort A will return on Feb. 1.
The motion to return to school Feb. 1 in cohorts passed unanimously. The School Committee will meet again on Jan. 28 to review the decision, as Rouse recommended
