WESTPORT — More than 5,000 students are expected to return to classes today at the town’s public schools for the start of the 2021-22 academic year.

After a school year when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted just about every aspect of teaching and learning in local schools, officials — and parents — hope the full return to in-person classes will restore a sense of “normalcy,” as Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarise said in a recent statement.

However, the spread of the contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 prompted administrators recently to adopt a detailed set of health and safety protocols to ensure classes and other school activities proceed with as little disruption as possible.

Here’s a short summary of those protocols:

• All students and staff will be required to wear masks in school buildings and on school buses.
• Teachers and other school staffers are required to be vaccinated.
• Pausing for now earlier guidance that would allow teachers, who are vaccinated, to instruct classes without wearing their masks.
• Visitors to schools — restricted to educational or business purposes — will be required to show proof of vaccination.
• Students will eat lunches outdoors, under tents, as long as weather permits.

In other developments related to the school year’s start:

• The Board of Education learned last night that unexpected growth in elementary school enrollment — 88 students — has required hiring six more teachers.
• Supt. Thomas Scarise told the school board that despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the schools’ teachers and staff are excited and ready to get back to classroom instruction.
• Details about other aspects of the 2021-22 academic year are featured on the school district’s newly redesigned website:  westportps.org