Patrick C. Daly, Superintendent

Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, COVID -19 Safety As we head into February I’m writing to remind everyone how important it is to continue to follow our safety guidelines and maintain physical distancing of at least six feet, wear masks, and wash your hands frequently. We continue to report a number of recent cases of positive staff and students but it’s important to clarify that we are still seeing very little evidence of any transmission in our classrooms or schools. What we are seeing is transmission within the same household and among those participating in outside activities such as youth sports and dance. Please remember to use the same measures to prevent transmission when gathering with anyone outside of the household, including wearing masks when carpooling and limiting or avoiding small gatherings as well as larger gatherings with friends indoors. As we look to the  Superbowl  next weekend we strongly encourage everyone to avoid gatherings with anyone outs...

COVID -19 Testing Updates Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, As an update to our exploration of the  Binax  NOW antigen test and the Pooled Testing options I wanted to share the following information.  We will be hosting a forum for staff on February 2 nd  at 7:15 a.m. and one for families at 7 p.m. and the sessions will be recorded . A brief survey will be shared after these presentations in order to gauge interest and information about our participation in the pooled testing. Symptomatic Testing ( Binax  NOW) Our nurses have completed their training and we are in the process of sending out the consent forms to all staff and families in the coming days via email. This process will involve creating an account for Project Beacon (you may already have such an account if you’ve registered for a test at a local site.) This will allow you to provide consent for yourself or for students in our system so that we may begin to administer to test to those with s...

Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, I’m writing to you this morning to share  the audio presentation  from last evening’s North Reading High School Parent forum as I think much of the message applies to our entire district. As the number of positive cases remains high in the town of North Reading we are continuing to see a large number of students who are also testing positive. While we still seeing very low evidence of transmission in our classrooms there are a growing number of concerns based upon the overall numbers as well as a palpable fatigue with respect to all aspects and information related to COVID-19. The next six weeks are critical for us as a community . There is a light at the end of the tunnel and we need to redouble our efforts and not lose focus on those behaviors that will continue to ensure that we will be successful in our hybrid model. Fortunately, we have not seen evidence of the large parties or gatherings that have led to school closures in oth...