Superintendent's Weekly Update 9/3/2020

Newsletter Highlights Include:

Cohorts

Back to School Information

Nurse Video

Tracking Data

Remote Professional Development

DLA and Remote Days

Bussing


Hello,


It has been great this week to have teachers back in the buildings. I had the opportunity to be in each of the buildings daily and finally meet many of our teachers. I can say that they are excited to have students back in school. They have been working on setting up classrooms, going over new policies and procedures, learning about different SEL strategies to make students feel safe and welcomed, understanding how to build robust remote lessons, and preparing lessons. We are all excited and eager to welcome students back on September 16th. 


Cohorts: Last week we shared cohorts with you. There were two lists that went out; the first was the list to see which cohort you are in Cohort A (Monday and Tuesday) or Cohort B(9 Thursday and Friday) and the second was to see which day you will come to school as part of our phased in roll out. If you need the list, feel free to reach out to each building and they will send it to you. Class lists will be finalized next week and will be sent out as will schedules for middle and high school. Just as a reminder for dates:


September 16: This is the first day for students and this will be a full remote day. Parents and students will receive information from principals and teachers via email and Google Classroom as to expectations for this day.


September 17, 18, 21, 22: For these days we will only have 25% of the students in school. This list went out earlier today. The purpose of these days is to slowly have students come back to school. This will allow for teachers to make connections in small groups with students, review new norms and expectations, review PPE guidance, review the schedule, and work with students. 


September 23: This will be a fully remote day for students.


September 24: This will be the first day of our 2-1-2 hybrid cycle.



Nurse: Our nurses have put out an informational video on guidelines for masks and student safety. Attached is a link to the video. https://youtu.be/BSc-5Aq7mXs


Tracking Data: I would like to share a few data points that I track on a daily and weekly basis to determine the safety of staying in school. These are just a few data points that DESE and the State have recommended for schools to track. 


  1. State Positivity Rating: The recommendation is for schools to stay open if the positivity rating is under 5%. As of September 2 the State is at a 1% rating. 

  2. Community Level COVID-19 Data Reporting: The Commonwealth is reporting enhanced community-level data on key COVID-19 metrics as part of the Baker-Polito Administration's efforts to partner with cities and towns to slow the spread of the virus. Based on the average daily cases per 100,000 residents, each city or town has been designated as a higher risk (red), moderate risk (yellow), or lower risk (green) community. Communities with fewer than 5 cases are not given a designation. As of this week Douglas has a 3.04 daily incident rate which places us in the gray category or a lower risk community.

Remote PD: All teachers have attended the Catlin Tucker webinar on remote instruction. This is the model we will use to build our remote lessons around. I am confident that you will see significant differences from last year. Here is a link to her webpage if you would like more information. https://catlintucker.com/


DLA and Remote Days: Building principals have been meeting weekly with families to discuss what our Douglas Learning Academy and Remote Days will look like for students and families. If you still have questions make sure you attend one of the sessions next week or feel free to reach out to them. Again, we will be sending out more information on this next week.


Bussing: We are finalizing our bus lists and will have that information to you next week. Thank you for your patience with this.


Over the next few days we will send out a one page "must know" document for back to school. This will make it easier for parents to have all the information in one place.


Best,


Paul

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