COVID-19 has entered its third year of impacting the lives of Coginchaug students, and the decision around returning to school has been driven by many factors. 

Coginchaug is coming into the new year after a wave of COVID-19, primarily driven by cases during the holiday period. Due to the holidays and the omicron variant, statewide have been driven up to 21% by January 3rd. 

Some measures have been taken to limit the impact of the virus throughout the school. The most noticeable change is that lunch waves now have students eating in both the auditorium and the cafeteria. For the beginning of the year, students were only allowed to eat in the cafeteria: a change from last school year, where students could either sit in the gym or the cafeteria. 

The biggest decision is that students are in the school building. The state does not allow students to do school from their homes, an option which occurred last year. This year, it means that students who are out just because of contact tracing cannot do any school work in terms of direct class instruction through Google Meet. Teachers are allowed to post assignments through Google Classroom, and students are expected to make the work without specific class instruction. 

Principal Matthew Warner said that most of the decisions upon the immediate future of learning will be made by guidance from the Connecticut State Department of Education. “There’s specific criteria if a school can remain open or not,” he said, “and most of those indicators are decided by the state.” 

Sophia Reny, a Sophomore, believed it was not the time to come back.

“We should have come back a day later,” she said.