Half of New Milford students just had their first day of in-person learning yesterday. The delay was sparked by positive COVID-19 cases detected in the district last Wednesday. The New Milford Acting Superintendent of Schools is shedding more light on the decision making process to shut down all of the schools. 

Dr Paul Smotas says his office was notified late Wednesday afternoon that there was potentially multiple families with positive cases, though they didn't have reliable information.  The district started contact tracing with the local Department of Health. 

Smotas compared it to a spiderweb, looking into all of the variables including transportation, classroom, lunch and recess among others.  After two to three hours of contact tracing, Smotas says it became clear that there was a problem and it wasn't going to be just one school.  He says the contact tracing was completed too late on Thursday to be able to open on Friday. 

Smotas noted that state Department of Public Health guidelines call for schools to close for at least 2 days when there is a positive COVID case detected.