NBHS Returns to In-School Classes

NBHS’s Principal has announced that in-school classes will resume this week, after earlier announcing three days of remote learning.

New Britain High School Principal Damon Pearce had announced yesterday, September 21, 2021 that, “we are hitting the refresh button and restarting the beginning of the school year,” saying that, “This means that most students will shift to remote learning on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week.”

Pearce had said that, “there are some students who have not been able to adjust according to the high expectations we hold at the high school.”

Reports online have appeared to say that there have allegedly been acts of vandalism, theft and even violence by students, with incidents having been allegedly recorded on the social media site, Tik Tok.

But today, Pearce announced a reversal of yesterday’s decision, and return to in-school learning on Thursday, September 23, 2021 and Friday, September 24th.

Pearce apologized to NBHS families, saying, “I want to acknowledge and accept responsibility for the confusion created by my communication last night.”

“These are unprecedented times,” Pearce added, “and our priority is always the safety and security of all students and staff. My promise to you is that I will endeavor to improve my communication practice in the future.”

Pearce said that, “Regarding our plans in the days ahead, I am calling to inform you that we listened to community feedback and will be returning to in-person instruction tomorrow, Thursday, September 23.” He said that,

the entire NBHS team used the opportunity provided by today’s remote learning to address some of the significant student needs that we were observing at the high school. We have a clear plan in place for the days ahead.

At an online town hall event held today by the Consolidated School District of New Britain, Superintendent Nancy Sarra pushed back on comments made online by Republican Mayor Erin Stewart. Stewart said that, “what it comes down to is the fact that there are no consequences for bad behavior, and this is the end result.” Stewart even discussed applying, “help of the New Britain Police Department.”

Serra and other school staff discussed progressive discipline policies employed by the school district, with penalties for student misbehavior ranging from cleaning up messes created by mischief to learning in an out-of-school setting in more difficult cases.

Despite in-school classes resuming on tomorrow, Pearce, said, “we will be operating on an early dismissal schedule on Thursday and Friday to have a little more time to implement our support plan for improving the climate at New Britain High School.”

At the town hall meeting, Pearce said that the early dismissals are to be at 12:00pm.

“We will return to a regular school schedule on Monday, September 27,” Pearce added.