Superintendent's Weekly Update---October 20, 2020
Newsletter Highlights Include:
Calendar Change
Close Contact Definition
Phases of learning
DPS Weekly COVID Dashboard
Important Documents
Hello,
I want to take this opportunity to complement our staff on a wonderful two weeks of open houses. I was able to attend parts of the open houses at the Middle and High School this week and I spoke with all principals as well. Their presentations to you were incredible and showed their dedication and passion for students and their profession. Thank you!
As many of you are aware of, we have seen a significant spike in cases not only locally, but across the Commonwealth. Our goal is to stay in school for as long as possible and we will continue to monitor the data. We are also asking for your help in staying open for learning. Some of the most recent data that we see indicate that people are being exposed at family gatherings and small social events. We must continue to follow all of the procedures and protocols, like wearing face coverings, staying socially distant, and hand washing to keep our hybrid learning plan moving forward and keep all of our students, parents, and faculty safe. I ask that you assist us in being mindful of this.
Over the last two weeks we have collected data from parents and teachers about what is and isn’t working in the hybrid model. Over the next few weeks you will see some changes implemented to better the experience for students, families, and teachers. Some of these small changes include changing expectations with student attendance on zooms, when assignments are due, holding students more accountable for work, allowing for more 1:1 time for DLA students, and creating smaller groupings for when students are on zoom sessions. Principals and I will share everything with you, along with timelines next week.
We have also been working as a leadership team planning for 2 very different scenarios. The first are some long term solutions to the hybrid model. We are in the process of implementing some short term solutions, but we know there are additional things we can do to be better. These take some more time to plan and I will communicate them with you over the next few weeks. The other is what will we do if we need to close schools for an extended period of time. Next week, I will share that plan with you so that you can be prepared and understand expectations if we do need to go into a fully remote model.
I would also like to provide everyone with some clarity on Wednesdays and make sure that everyone is clear on expectations on these half days. Every year, schools need to meet a minimum amount of content hours, this is referred to as time on learning. In order for us to be able to meet the minimum time on learning requirements students need to be in school for 180 (170 this year) days for a full day (6 ½ hours) of school. With this schedule, we do go over the minimum hours each day, however once you take into consideration lunch, passing times, assemblies, and scheduled half days we have very little wiggle room left to meet the minimum amount of hours. Therefore while on Wednesdays students follow a traditional half day schedule, they still need access to a full day's worth of content to meet time on learning requirements. During the morning portion of the day the following are the options that are expected of all teachers in the Douglas Public Schools. Based on the needs of the lesson and students, teachers may provide synchronous instruction to students and/or asynchronous instruction to students.
This will vary from teacher to teacher, grade to grade, lesson to lesson, and week to week. However regardless of which option that is presented each week, every teacher for every period and class must make themselves available to students in some "live" format. This can include but is not limited to direct instruction, office hours to students via zoom, office hours via email, small group check ins, extra help sessions, or messaging through Google Classroom. For the second half of the day, in order to meet time on learning, students will engage in pre planned activities by teachers. I hope this clears up any questions people may have on what Wednesdays look like.
Calendar Change:
At the School Committee meeting last week parent teacher conferences were moved from November 19 and 20 to November 16 and 17. This was done to create a better balance between the amount of time Cohort A and Cohort B students are in school. Principals will send out more information on Monday. You will also see a change to how our Middle School offers conferences. This is being done to better meet the needs of families.
Change in “Close Contact” Definition:
The CDC has changed how they define a close contact. Please see the “new” definition:
The CDC had previously defined a “close contact” as someone who spent at least 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of a confirmed coronavirus case. The updated guidance, which health departments rely on to conduct contact tracing, now defines a close contact as someone who was within six feet of an infected individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period, according to a CDC statement Wednesday.
This week's data show:
Douglas's Average Daily Case Rate: 6.84 per 100,000
Douglas's 14 Day Percent Positivity Rate: 1.97%
MA Positivity Rate - 1.8%
Last week's data show:
Douglas's Average Daily Case Rate: 5.3 per 100,000
Douglas's 14 Day Percent Positivity Rate: .94%
MA Positivity Rate - 1.3%
Important Documents
Here are links to 3 documents. The first document provides information to families on what to do if your student is sick. The second is a link to our mask protocol along our guidelines for when we will change models.
Mask and Change in model guidance
Just a reminder to turn your clocks back this weekend and to please practice social distancing, mask wearing, and hand hygiene during Halloween; we want to stay open for everyone.
Thank you,
Paul
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