Important Updates: School Start Times Forum and Pooled Testing

 Dear North Reading Public Schools Community,

I'm writing today to provide two important updates on our work related to school start times and pooled testing.

School Start Times

The School Start Times Committee, which has been actively exploring the research-based advantages for high school students starting school no early than 8:30 a.m., will be presenting a parent/guardian forum on April 6, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

This group, made up of representatives of parents from all grade spans, a North Reading School Committee member, administrators, and a teacher representative have spent many hours discussing schedules, impacts to afterschool programs, considerations for childcare etc. and will address many of these concerns at the forum. The group has a website that also contains helpful information as well as the history of our exploration of this concept for our schools.

In addition we are also collecting any additional questions or concerns so that we can share that information as a part of our presentation that evening. Please complete this brief survey prior to April 6th so that we can address as many concerns in our presentation as possible.

Pooled Testing

I’m hoping to have more information next week about the possibility of continuing our pooled testing program beyond the current end date of April 18, 2021. We have heard from both the parents and staff involved in the program that they are very pleased and would like to see this continue, if feasible. 

We did have our first pool return positive this week. Nurses and school administrators were made aware of this and followed our procedures so that none of the staff or students in that pool took the bus or arrived on campus today. Those students and staff in the pool arrived at a later time and the nurses followed the protocol for the BINAX Now test in order to identify the individual who was the true positive in the pool. That individual started in isolation immediately and we contact traced for that positive individual in the same way we have been all year.

As always, our nurses came together as a team and did an outstanding job this morning. This is evidence that the pooled testing is working and helped us to further prevent the spread of COVID-19 by identifying the asymptomatic individual and allowing us the head start on the contact tracing process.

Thank you to all of the parents and students involved in this process today and every day for helping to make our schools as safe as possible.

This also serves a good reminder for everyone to continue to follow all distancing requirements, continue wearing masks, and practice hand hygiene procedures. 

Have a great weekend,

Dr. Daly