Azar: Covid Impacted Faculty, Not Students

The decision to close Dighton-Rehoboth schools and go to remote learning was made due to the impact Covid-19 had on faculty and staff, not students, according to Superintendent Anthony Azar. “Covid-19 has brought on numerous situations where staff have been out because of being in close contact from 14 days of being quarantined or from students who were (infected),” Azar said at the January 12 school committee meeting. “The transmission so far has been outside of the (schools).” In addition to Covid, maternity leaves, leave of absences, sick days and personal days for employees have made it difficult to staff the buildings, Azar noted.

Dighton and Rehoboth currently are reporting high numbers of positive Covid-19 cases. Rehoboth’s daily positivity rate was 13.64 percent as of January 14. Dighton’s daily positivity rate was 13.70 percent. In a January 8 letter to parents, Azar wrote: “From Monday, January 11 to Wednesday, January 20, schools will continue remote learning with the exception of high needs programs. High needs programs will report to school buildings for in-person learning. Transportation will be provided for students in high needs programs. As in the fall, those students assigned to self contained classrooms and the preschool program will have the option to attend school.” The schools will return to a hybrid model on January 21.

“The bottom line is to keep everybody safe as we possibly can and to move forward from there,” Azar added.