Superintendent's Weekly Update 11-4-21
Hello,
Last night our Middle School hosted a DMS/PTO Art Show highlighting and showcasing the various talents of our students. I left the event with a tremendous sense of pride and joy. This event was a full school and community event and highlights who we are as a school and a community. We had art on display from students at our elementary, middle, and high schools. Community artists also were in attendance and had their artwork on display. Members of our middle school and high school music departments performed for everyone. The halls of the middle school were filled with community members, students, parents, and teachers. It truly was a great event for our entire community. Thank you to Mr. Aronian, our PTO, teachers, students, and everyone that helped make this event a success and reality.
COVID Resource Guide:
Thank you to our nurses who created this COVID Resource Guide for families. This guide contains contact information for our schools and nurses, testing services, what to do if your child is ill, is COVID positive or is identified as a close contact. Click on the link for more information
Safety Drills:
Last week, a meeting was held that included myself, building principals, the facilities director, the fire department, police department, and building inspector to discuss several of our safety protocols within the Douglas Public Schools. As part of this meeting we discussed our plans to conduct a practice lockdown drill at all four schools. This particular drill will consist of an internal lockdown. It will not involve busing the students to an alternative location. A lockdown of this type would be conducted if a threat were determined to be a hazardous occurrence within the building that would necessitate students, faculty, and staff remaining locked down within their classrooms or other secure locations within the building. We want to ensure that everyone will be aware of what they need to do when a lockdown of this type is put in place. This drill will be helpful for us going forward in carefully reviewing our policies, procedures, and practices in our school buildings to ensure that we are doing everything possible to maximize our preparedness for emergency situations. While this drill is being practiced, there will be no access permitted to the buildings. We are grateful for the strong safety network we have in place here in Douglas, consisting of teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, psychologists, police, fire, and other community members. The safety of our students, faculty, and staff is of paramount importance. Principals will be meeting with staff over the next few weeks to review the plans with them so that they can in turn meet with students and prepare them as well. This practice drill will take place from the middle to the end of November as we want to give staff and students enough time to review our protocols and prepare. Please let any of us know if you have any questions.
COVID Dashboard:
Attached is a link to our COVID Dashboard that will be updated weekly. Unlike last year where I sent our letters every time we had a COVID positive case, I will not do that this year. This Dashboard will provide you with weekly numbers by building. We will continue to reach out to close contacts and also to families if they have been exposed to a presumptive positive student.
Respectfully,
Paul Vieira, Ed.D.
Superintendent
