Good afternoon -
I write today with another update. It is necessary for us to postpone our return to in-person learning until February 1, 2021 and our Athletics until January 18, 2021. There are no changes with regard to our high needs students; they will still return on January 19, 2021. Throughout this pandemic, I have always tried to do what is right for the health and safety of those in our school community. Very difficult decisions have been made along the way, and thankfully, our numbers of positive cases have been low, and certainly within manageable limits. The details that went into this decision are outlined below:
Yesterday, I was given information regarding multiple positive cases of students and families across all three schools. Although we are of course learning remotely, had I had this information at the School Committee meeting on Wednesday evening, I would have recommended an opening of February 1 to ensure no further exposure of those in our school community.
Many parents at both Granite Valley and Monson High have expressed a desire to change the learning model they had originally chosen prior to Wednesday's School Committee meeting. Thus, planning and staffing could prove to be extremely challenging. There is a School Committee meeting tentatively scheduled for January 13 at which a new metric to guide the transition between learning models will be discussed. We plan to readminister the survey following this meeting to ensure parents have all the information necessary to make an informed decision.
I apologize for this postponement, but one additional week will ensure we have everything in place -- staffing, guidelines, protocols -- as we pivot to this new model of in-person learning.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Cheryl A. Clarke, Ed.D.