In last week's usual Tuesday news conference with Vermont health officials, school districts got some surprising news. They were told on Nov. 10 the state would be funding COVID-19 testing for all faculty and staff in K-12 schools.

The responsibility then fell to the administrations around the state to very quickly organize testing sites. For example, Essex Westford Superintendent Beth Cobb was told on Wednesday her district would have their testing materials on Monday.

Three people in the Essex Westford School District have tested positive for COVID-19. They are members of the Thomas Flemming and Summit Street school communities.

The Essex Westford School District will begin providing free meals to children under 18 during the weekends through much of the rest of 2020 as a way to gauge community needs.

After being notified Monday afternoon that a member of the Essex Elementary School (EES) community had tested positive for COVID-19, Essex Westford School District (EWSD) Superintendent Beth Cobb and Chief Operating Officer Brian Donahue spoke with the Reporter Tuesday morning about the situation.

"We try and be as transparent as possible," said Beth Cobb, the superintendent of the Essex Westford School District. Cobb said the district learned about a positive COVID-19 case in its elementary school, prompting four kindergarten classes to go into a fully remote option out of an abundance of caution.

Have you ever wanted to spend all day at the movie theater? Some lucky Essex students get to have school at one. Essex Cinemas welcomes students five days a week, ticket free, to use the facility during the children's remote learning days. The movie theater is a child care hub site, a program established by the state to provide care to students on non-in-person school days.

The principal of Hiawatha Elementary School said she went into this unusual school year with the mindset that they'd be back fully in-person soon.

"I don’t feel like it was rushed," Principal Katherine Grykien said. "It was something we were talking about right from the beginning, so the community knew this was where we were headed."

By creating its own program, instead of contracting with Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative as other districts have done, the Essex-Westford can align curriculum and assessments across the hybrid, in-person or remote learning models, to make it much easier for students to transition between them.

They were asked what went well and better than expected, what didn’t go so well or might be at the top of their priority list to address, and if they have heard any negative feedback or concerns from parents.

Elementary school students at the Essex Westford School District will learn in-person, five days a week. Starting Oct. 5, one grade at a time will integrate back to classrooms, with all elementary students back in the building by Oct. 13.

Things seem to be going smoothly at the start of the academic year for the Essex Westford School District (EWSD), so much so that it has announced that some grades will begin having fully in-person instruction in the coming weeks.

Thrilling news for high school athletes came out of Montpelier Tuesday when it was announced during Governor Phil Scott’s press conference that schools will be able to enter Step III of reopening.

The Agency of Education is relaxing some health and safety guidance required by schools starting Saturday, Sept. 26. Dan French, secretary of education, announced at Tuesday's governor COVID-19 news conference that schools would move into Step 3.

Over six months after being sent to the sidelines due to the pandemic, it’s officially ‘Game On’ once again for high school sports in Vermont.

One Chittenden County school system will be moving many of its students back to in-person learning full-time. The Essex Westford School District will start in-person learning in October for pre-K through 5th grade.

As cold and flu season looms, many are concerned about both sicknesses making their way through schools and being confused with COVID-19.

Geraldine Hallock has been helping students cross at the corner of West St. and South Summit St. in Essex Junction for more than 25 years. It’s just a short walk from her house at 6 a.m. In that time, for them, she has simply been a safety measure on their walk to school, but for her, she gets to watch kids grow.

The outer grounds of the Essex High School (EHS) campus were buzzing this past week after the final bell as Hornet Athletics returned to action.

Vermont students that started the school year Tuesday in the classroom had quite the morning as schools got to see the fruits of their preparations. Channel 3′s Kevin Gaiss was at one school drop off in Essex Junction to see how the planning paid off.

The first day of school in any year is cause for some anxious excitement. With the school year pushed back an extra week in Vermont and the entire reopening model changing in each district, everyone is feeling the extra pressure.

After months of planning, the first day of school is finally here in Vermont. In-person class started up Tuesday for roughly half of the students as they get ready to take on another year, even though it may look a little different.

Vermont students head back to school on Tuesday and things will be different. Adjustments have been made inside and outside the classroom, but according to Diana Smith, the COVID Coordinator in the Essex Westford School District, they are optimistic they won’t miss a beat.

The EWSD shared what it will look like inside a few of its buildings at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. While some areas of the schools might look just the same to students, others will be noticeably different due to safety measures implemented to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The fields at Essex High School were quiet this day, but that will soon change if everything goes according to plan. Fall sports teams can begin holding official practiced as soon as the new school year begins next Tuesday. Essex athletic director Pat Merriam and his staff are preparing for that day and are making every effort to prepare for all contingencies.

With just under a week until Vermont schools are back in session, each district across the state is fine-tuning different models of how they plan to teach student safely this year. For some, that includes the child care hubs that students will use on remote learning days.