January 31, 2021 Updates

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 outside of your immediate household. Remember that whenever you are indoors with those outside of your household you should wear masks and maintain six feet of separation, as both are essential to preventing the spread of COVID-19, especially when masks are lowered for activities such as eating or drinking.

Weather

Monday evening looks to be bringing with it a lot of snow. We should prepare for afternoon and evening activities to be cancelled tomorrow.

I am inclined to call a traditional snow day for Tuesday if the accumulation is in the 8-10” range as they are predicting. Students and staff should bring any devices home with them on Monday in order to conduct remote learning this week if necessary due to the continued inclement weather.

COVID-19 Testing

On Tuesday evening, February 2^nd at 7pm the district will host a virtual forum to present updates on COVID-19 Testing on YouTube. Since this event is virtual this will likely be held even if there is no school that day. For those unable to attend at this time please note that this session will be recorded. A brief survey will be sent to everyone following the forum to collect additional data from our staff and families related to COVID-19 testing.

Thank you for your continued efforts to keep our students safe and I hope that everyone stays warm and healthy!

Be well,

Dr. Daly

COVID-19 Testing Updates

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 symptoms.

A few key points:

--Staff and students must continue to stay home when sick. The availability of symptomatic testing should not, in any way, increase the numbers of individuals coming to school who are not feeling well.

--This test is for symptomatic individuals only.

--Anyone who receives a positive results will be treated as a positive test (98.6% specificity)    

     and contract tracing will commence immediately.

--Anyone who tests negative must quarantine and take a PCR test within a specific number of

    days.

--Anyone who does not wish to give consent simply does not complete the forms. If the staff or student comes to the nurse with symptoms he or she will be sent home for quarantine and testing following the same process that has been in place since the beginning of the year.

--Emails with information about providing consent through the Project Beacon account will be sent in the coming days

Pooled Testing

The district continues to explore pooled testing opportunities and the return on our investment for participation. There are six weeks of testing materials that are provided for free from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education but there are additional costs and considerations for our resources (time for testing, time for nurses to administer, time to transport materials, logistics to develop the pools, additional costs, etc.)

If we are to participate the 6 weeks are clearly defined as beginning on February 8^th-12^th and ending on March 26^th. The week of February 15^th (February Recess) does not count as one of the six weeks and there would be no testing that week.

There will be a lot to do to get everything in place for February 8^th and we are considering (if we do end up participating) whether to begin at one school/campus and then expand to others after the break.

We will send out the links for Tuesday’s forum with a follow up email next week.

Thank you for your patience and support as we explore these initiatives for our community.

Be well,

 Dr. Daly

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 other communities. However, we are routinely seeing that smaller gatherings of 3-4 close friends-- where everyone is asymptomatic until one person tests positive and then it spreads within the group—are the most common causes of the spread of the virus. We ask that everyone in our school community commits to avoiding these smaller indoor gatherings and if they do happen that everyone wears masks and remains six feet apart.

Another consideration is to wear masks when carpooling with anyone not in your immediate household. Please encourage this with students much in the same way we encourage them to fasten their seat belts.

Finally, we want to be clear that students should continue to remain home when sick or if they suspect that they could have been exposed to someone who is sick. We do not want to change those behaviors as that has been working well!

However, if a student is not sick and is in cohort A, that student should be in school on those cohort A days. The same goes for Cohorts B and C. In recent weeks more students have been remaining home on days when they should be in person and this was not the intention of the hybrid model. While we do understand and recognize apprehension following the holidays we remind and encourage students to return to school on their scheduled cohort days in order to make our model function as designed.

Our common goals are the following:

1. Continue the provide the opportunities for in person student learning during the school day through our hybrid model

2. Continue to provide the opportunities for students to participate in sports, performing arts, and other extra curricular activities 

3. Identify opportunities for spectators to gather when it is safe (sports, senior events, school functions, etc.)

In the coming weeks I anticipate sharing additional information that we will be exploring related to COVID-19 testing (both for symptomatic and asymptomatic students through pooled testing), any information we receive related to vaccination opportunities for educators and others in the school community, and updated guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education related to our learning models. I truly believe that better days (and a return to something closer to normalcy) are ahead but that we need to hang on and power through this winter.

Thank you to Mr. Loprete for hosting this high school event last evening. Please see this audio file to hear our message and, as always, please reach out to me with any questions and concerns at pdaly@nrpsk12.org.

Be well,

Dr. Daly