Superintendent's Weekly Update August 21, 2020

Newsletter Highlights Include:

Student Cohorts

Douglas Learning Academy

Informational Zoom Meeting from Email Principals and Nurse

Bussing

Sports

Flu vaccination, Masks, and Safety Protocols

Hello,

I hope everyone has had a great week. It is hard to believe that a week from Monday is the first day of school for faculty and staff and we are 3 weeks away from having students back. This week, we started our summer learning program and it has been awesome seeing kids and teachers back in school. I may not be able to see their smiles through masks, but you can clearly see it in their eyes. It was evident and made me happy. My newsletter is lengthy this week so thank you for taking the time to read through all of it.

Principals are working to finalize which cohort your student will be in for the 2020-2021 school year. This information will be sent out next week from each school. Once cohorts have been established, principals will work on assigning students to teachers. This will be available the week before students return to school.

For families that are selecting to stay fully remote, we will be able to offer the Douglas Learning Academy. Students will be taught by Douglas teachers in grades K-8 and in grades 9-12 it may be a combination of Douglas teachers and a 3rd party platform. Surveys from families were completed this week and as we gather the final information we will be able to better understand the needs of our students in grades 9-12. We will send specifics on the DLA over the next few weeks.

I have asked our Principals and Nurses to host weekly meetings to share information with families. These will start next week. Included in these meetings will be information on cohorts, the hybrid model, the Douglas Learning Academy, PPE, masks, mask breaks, safety procedures, and back to school information. The live platform will allow for questions to be asked as the start of the school year is different than any other. Be on the lookout for Zoom links and dates.

Thank you to everyone that completed our bussing survey. We have been working with Tellstone on creating bus routes. Just as a reminder we will only be able to do one stop per family, all students will have assigned seats, and we will only allow one student per seat. Information on bussing will come out prior to the start of school.

I do not want to oversaturate families with Zoom meetings, therefore for the next few weeks I will not host my weekly zooms. Between the nurses and building bases Zoom meetings, I do not want to add another Zoom to your schedule. I will resume these in a few weeks. As always if you have any questions, just email me.

The MIAA and the State have approved for schools to start sports in the fall. This is great for our kids! I have a meeting next week with our Athletic Director and High School Administrators and they will be communicating information with everyone. To be clear, sports will look different this year than in previous years, with shortened seasons, more rules, and different safety protocols but at least the kids can play. 

This week, Governor Baker along with The Department of Public Health has mandated that all students in PreK-12 have a flu vaccine by December 31, 2020 in order to be able to attend schools. We are still awaiting guidance on what this looks like and how we will track it, but I wanted people to know this is coming. Attached is a link to a document that not only highlights the new flu vaccine information, but also protocols for keeping students at home when sick, when we will send a student home from school, and masks. Thank you to our nurses for creating this.

Thank you again for all the help and support. Enjoy the weekend.

Best,

Paul