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Date: 4/26/2021
GRANBY – In a brief meeting, the Granby School Committee gave an update regarding the status of students returning to in-person learning and supplied information for the next school year.
Speaking about the process of reopening schools, Interim Superintendent Carol Hepworth said during the previous week there had been no positive cases of COVID-19 reported in staff or students. She added that grades nine, 10, 11 and 12 will return to in-person learning on April 26.
The School Committee briefly recapped that they had offered current Granby Junior Senior High School principal, Steven Sullivan, the job of superintendent. Chair Jennifer Bartosz said contract negotiations would be taking place soon.
In approving the 2021-2022 school calendar, they said the the calendar had been approved by the Granby Education Society (GEA) already. The school year, Bartosz said, would begin on the Monday before Labor Day, Aug. 30. Graduation of the 2022 senior class will take place on June 11.
Bartosz briefly discussed snow days. She said they were told in 2019 they were no longer allowed to use blizzard bags on snow days to supplement learning, as the pilot program had ended. However, she said when COVID-19 impacted schools snow days, instead, were replaced by remote learning days. She questioned whether this would be something that would continue moving forward or if the school would simply be required to use their snow days.
Hepworth said she was unsure as it was her understanding that remote learning days would “not be an option next school year.” Bartosz said she felt it was “ridiculous” that they would not be able to utilize remote learning days after they had spent a lot of time preparing for such events. The committee voted unanimously to approve the 2021-2022 school calendar.
Adam Tarquini, the district’s director of finance, said that the state’s free lunch program that began at the start of the coronavirus pandemic would be extending through the entire 2021-2022 school year. He said at the time of the April 20 meeting, the district had distributed 91,010 meals.