Patrick C. Daly, Superintendent

  Dear North Reading Staff, Parents, Families, and Caregivers, I hope that everyone is having a good school year so far and that you’ve had some time to enjoy this beautiful fall weather.  I’m writing this afternoon to share an update on our school safety initiatives that I described in my welcome back letter in late August. Our school safety team, including North Reading Public Schools administrators, the North Reading Police Department, and the North Reading Fire Department, have worked continuously on a plan to improve the safety and security of our students and staff.  In addition to our School Resource Officer, who has a visible role in each school, we have implemented the practice of having an increased presence of patrol officers in our buildings who routinely visit each school. On several occasions I have seen these officers visiting our buildings, interacting positively with students and staff, and providing feedback to our administrative team.  Our school s...

  Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, I am writing today to share a link to our recently updated  Inclusive Calendar of Events . This is a living document and a work in progress, so if you notice something that is missing please do not hesitate to let me know. For this document we have combined several sources that pull in the heritage months, federal holidays and proclamation days, and a link to the religious observances as shared by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.  Each month we plan to share more information about some of the events for that month as well as include more hyperlinks within this calendar to teacher and parent resources to help celebrate and learn more about the events and topics. While we may not touch on every single event every month we plan to focus on different events each year, as well as continue to add to our calendar that celebrates all. Among the events we celebrate this month are National Hi spanic Heritage Month ...

August 25, 2022 Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, As we enter these last days of August our thoughts begin to return to fall and our return to school. I hope that all of our students and their families have had a wonderful summer break filled with memorable experiences. In recent weeks we have welcomed the return of students for orientations, academies, camps, and athletic sessions and it is wonderful to see our campus active once again. As we look ahead to the start of the 2022-23 school year I offer a few reminders: Wednesday, September 7, 2022 is our first day of school for students (grades 1-12)                      PreK & Kindergarten Orientation is on September 7th and 8th Friday, September 9, 2022 is our first day for PreK and Kindergarten students Please join me in thanking our incredible Buildings and Grounds team who have once again done an amazing job p...

  Dear North Reading Public Schools Community,   For the past two and a half years we have been working as a leadership team to develop the next phase of our strategic plan for district improvement: NPRS 2025. We have gathered information from all stakeholders, including students, educators, administrators, staff, families, parents, caregivers, and community members about what we value in North Reading and what we believe should be a part of our plan.   Last spring we held forums and collected information as a part of the “Back to the Future” visioning protocol and stakeholders shared where we are now and where we hope to be by the spring of 2025. From there our leadership team developed objectives for each school year and identified the “big rocks” that encompassed the work that we will be undertaking as a district.   The three areas that we identified are Student Support Services; Teaching & Learning; and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Under these larger umb...

  Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, I'm writing today with a few important announcements about upcoming events and information. K-12 Action Team On June 9, 2022 at 3:30 p.m. in the Distance Learning Lab at the MS/HS we will be holding a meeting for the K-12 action team. This group, which will meet 3-4 times per school year, will be the umbrella group that oversees many of the subcommittees who will focus on Bullying Prevention and Intervention; Health and Wellness; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Social Emotional Learning, and more. If you are interested in attending or learning more about any of the various subgroups please complete this form:  https://forms.gle/2YbBPzEKQ1i8sVjB7 NRPS  2025 Update In the coming weeks we will be sharing the draft for public comment and feedback of the district's updated strategy for improvement:  NRPS  2025. We plan to present this draft at the meeting of the North Reading School Committee on June 13, 2022 as w...

  Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, This week the Department of Public Health and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education updated the isolation and quarantine guidance and protocols. Full details  can be found here . Isolation and quarantine guidance and protocols Guidance for Children in Child Care, K-12, OST, and Recreational Camp Settings: Quarantine for asymptomatic exposed children, regardless of where the exposure occurred, is no longer required for these settings. Children who are identified as close contacts may continue to attend programming as long as they remain asymptomatic. Those who can mask should do so until Day 10. A test on Days 2 and 5 is recommended, but not required. Children who test positive must isolate for at least 5 days. If they are asymptomatic or symptoms are resolving and they have been fever free for 24 hours, they may return to programming after Day 5, provided: If the child is able to mask, they must do so through Day 10. If...

  Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, I’m writing today to provide a few updates related to COVID-19 and our schools. COVID-19 Cases and Testing Updates For cases reported in the month of January, which includes those positive cases from December 23, 2021 through January 31, 2022, we have a total of  539 cases, including 457 students and 82 staff  positive cases. For February we have  25 students  and  1 staff  positive cases. Please review  the dashboard  for school-based updates and additional information. COVID-19 Testing Updates Today is the first day of our at-home testing program for students and the second day for staff. Beginning tomorrow our nurses will transition away from contact tracing and the test and stay program and focus their attention on symptomatic and positive cases only. Those who are close contacts for outside of school will continue to follow Massachusetts Department of Public Health guidelines. We w...

  Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, I’m writing today to provide a few updates related to  COVID -19 and our schools. COVID -19 Testing Updates Yesterday,  the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ( DESE )  announced a new testing program  that would allow districts to provide weekly at-home testing kits to those staff and students who opt into this program. Districts who participate would also continue symptomatic and/or pooled testing (we would plan to continue with both options) and would no longer contact trace or provide test and stay testing options (as the at-home tests would serve this purpose). There are many reasons for these changes, including the recent  uptick  in cases across the state and the need for all nurses to focus on providing support to those who are positive and the availability of at-home tests for everyone who desires to participate. The district will certainly be exploring this option that would begin l...

  Dear North Reading Public Schools Community, Tomorrow looks to be very cold so please take all necessary precautions and continue bundling up and staying warm! COVID -19 Updates Earlier today the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ( DESE ) extended the mask mandate for schools through February 28, 2022. More information on this update can be found here: https://www.doe.mass.edu/covid19/on-desktop/2022-0110mask-requirement-extension. pdf DESE  also released updated  FAQs  related to  COVID -19 that have been attached to this message. The North Reading Public Schools continue to provide as much distance as feasible during snack and lunch in order to prevent transmission. We continue to offer thorough cleanings of all buildings and  For cases reported in the month of January, which includes those positive cases from December 23, 2021 through January 5, 2022, we have a total of  315 cases, including 261 students and...