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 will continue to accept new opt-in applications for the “at-home” testing program. If you are interested in adding your child(ren) to the “at-home” testing program please complete this form (students only) for inclusion in the next distribution cycle. At-home participants will take a test weekly on Thursday and report only positive results to the school.
Our pooled testing programs will also continue on Monday (Hood/Little) and Tuesday (Batchelder/MS/HS) each week.
DESE Mask Mandate Update
At the most recent meeting of the North Reading School Committee we heard from parents who were concerned about the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) mask mandate and we addressed several questions related to this requirement. As a reminder, this mask requirement from DESE is not optional for districts to choose to implement.
The current mandate extends through February 28, 2022 but the district does have the ability to apply for a waiver for any school that meets a threshold of an 80% vaccination rate.
As a reminder, the middle/high school is considered one campus for this purpose, and the middle school would be at least at 75% when viewed independently within a campus that is overall above 80%.
At this time our middle/high school is very close to the 80% threshold and I will be applying for this waiver as soon as this is possible and will then present this recommendation to the School Committee and notify our local Board of Health.
I will keep parents, guardians, and caregivers as well as students and staff informed of these steps as well. As clarified at our School Committee meeting, the recommendation for that school(s) would be aligned with the updated DESE language that would make mask wearing a choice:
"If a school demonstrates a vaccination rate of 80 percent or more of all students and staff in the school through an attestation form submitted to DESE, then vaccinated individuals in that school would no longer be subject to the mask requirement. In alignment with statewide guidance, unvaccinated students and staff are highly recommended to continue wearing masks."
I certainly recognize and appreciate the concerns that have been shared with our School Committee about mask wearing from those on both sides of the discussion and we do hope that it will be safe enough to allow mask wearing to be a choice when the data are reviewed in late February (and sooner for the MS/HS campus if we hit the 80% threshold prior to February 28, 2022).
In addition, I would also like to share the updates from the Centers for Disease Control that now includes recommendations for well-fitting masks, including KN95 and N95 masks. There are no longer supply shortages and there are reports that the federal government will be providing free distribution of these masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, specifically recognizing the recommended changes in light of the omicron variant.
Thank you to everyone in our school community, including students, families, administrators, educators, staff and nurses, for their continued efforts to keep everyone safe!
Thank you,
Dr. Daly
