Updates from Commissioner Riley about In-Person Learning

 Dear North Reading Public Schools Community,

Today at a press conference Governor Baker, Education Secretary Peyser, and Commissioner Riley shared their thoughts about the next steps for the public schools in Massachusetts.

Commissioner Riley shared the following:

Looking ahead, with the extensive mitigation strategies in place and as state health metrics continue to improve, at some point districts and schools will need to shift away from remote and hybrid learning models and return to a traditional in-person educational format. At today’s meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), I indicated that in March, I will request that the Board grant me the authority to determine when hybrid and remote models no longer count for learning hours. This would be part of a broader plan, to be released in March, to begin returning more students to in-person learning this spring, assuming our state’s health metrics continue to improve.

If granted this authority, I will pursue a phased approach to returning students to the classroom, working closely with state health officials and medical experts. Ideally, my initial goal is to bring all elementary school students back to in-person learning five days a week this April. Parents will still have the option for their children to learn remotely through the end of the school year. There will also be a waiver process for districts who may need to take a more incremental approach (for instance, to first move to a robust hybrid model if they are currently fully remote).

In preparation for returning more students to school this spring, DESE recommends the following initial actions, with more information to follow in March:

• If districts and schools are currently open in an in-person or hybrid model, they should remain open and consult with DESE’s COVID-19 operations team before making any changes to in-person learning.

• Furthermore, if not already underway, districts and schools in fully remote models should plan for an in-person return for elementary students in either a robust hybrid or fully in-person model, regardless of community prevalence. 

• To support this planning and accommodate as many family preferences as possible, we encourage districts and schools to survey families about their interest in both hybrid and fully in-person models. Some families may prefer fully remote learning through the end of the school year. As such, districts and schools may be able to accommodate the remaining students interested in attending school fully in-person this spring, while maintaining physical distance between students.  

• We continue to encourage districts and schools to sign up for DESE’s pooled testing initiative.

As we look ahead to this potential phase in plan I wanted to update you on a few important details and provide an update on DESE’s recommended actions.

• We are have been in a hybrid model since September and due to the tremendous efforts of our teachers, staff, students, and families this model has been as successful as it could be given the challenges we have faced. We will continue to follow this hybrid model and schedule until further notice and following updates on the DESE plan.

• In recent weeks we have been working proactively with our administrators and district union leadership to ensure a smooth transition back to full in-person learning for whenever that comes to fruition. This has allowed us to begin thinking about some of the challenges that we will face and design solutions for the future.

• We will be designing and sending surveys home to families in the coming weeks that will allow us to gather more information about the number of students ready to return to full in-person and the number hoping to remain in full remote. This data will provide us with critical information to inform the design of our plans.

• We have enrolled in DESE’s pooled testing opportunity and we are prepared to begin that roll-out this week and into next week. Please be sure to complete the registration process that was sent to you via email and if you have any questions please check here to identify some common errors.

We thank you all for your continued support of our schools and the important part that each of you has played in making this year as successful as possible for our students. We will be discussing this topic more in the coming weeks and I will continue to communicate any relevant updates.

Thank you,

Dr. Daly

Return to School Updates

 Dear North Reading Public Schools Community,

As we look forward to returning safely to school next week I want to remind everyone of the continued importance of completing the daily health screener and staying home whenever you are sick or have any symptoms.

In order to return to school after travel we require that everyone follow the MA-Travel Order and provide a negative PCR test result before returning to school. This applies to any travel to any state or country other than Hawaii, North Dakota, or Puerto Rico.

Furthermore, if you did travel, you should also consider additional safety precautions as recommended by the CDC, especially if you participated in any of the following activities that could put you at a higher risk for COVID-19:

• Going to a large social gathering like a wedding, funeral, or party.
• Attending a mass gathering like a sporting event, concert, or parade.
• Being in crowds like in restaurants, bars, fitness centers, or movie theaters.
• Taking public transportation like planes, trains or buses or being in transportation hubs like airports.
• Traveling on a cruise ship or riverboat.

Suggestions for additional safety precautions can be found here and can be discussed with your school nurse or building administrator if you have any questions or concerns: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/after-travel-precautions.html

Also, as we look to continue to improve the health and safety of our schools please complete the consent forms for both the Symptomatic and Pooled Testing. These instructions and links were sent to you from your building administrator via email previously.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will be establishing a deadline after which you will not be able to participate in the pooled testing so please be sure to complete the consent forms ASAP if you intend to participate.

Please note that vaccinated staff should still participate in pooled testing. Those who have been positive for COVID-19 should not participate.

In closing, please continue to follow all of the safe behaviors that we need for our community and schools to have less positive cases including maintaining six feet of distance whenever possible, wearing masks when with anyone not in the same household, and washing hands frequently.

Enjoy the weekend! We look forward to welcoming students back to our hybrid model on Monday!

Dr. Daly

February 10, 2021 Updates

 Dear North Reading School Community,

I’m writing to provide a few important updates related to COVID-19 Testing and Communication.

COVID-19 Testing Updates

Families and staff should have received a reminder today for the consent form for the symptomatic testing from your school principal. Tomorrow you should be receiving a new link that would correspond to the pooled testing opportunity. This will also be sent by the school principal and will require a separate consent from you for this distinct testing opportunity. Those who do not wish to consent can disregard the email.

As I have previously shared we have been working closely with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) to implement a free COVID-19 pooled testing program for students and staff at our school.

Following our COVID-19 Testing information forum I received many good follow-up questions about videos and supports to help to explain to children about testing and additional information related to this initiative. DESE launched this website today that contains many great resources for parents and staff and I highly recommend exploring these tools and sharing them as you see best.

Pooled testing involves mixing several individuals’ test samples together into one “pool” and then testing the pooled sample for COVID-19. This approach increases the number of individuals that can be tested at one time and allows us to regularly test our school community for COVID-19.

The pooled tests will be performed as frequently as possible (hopefully at least once per week) with a shallow nasal swab for all participating students and staff members. Schools will receive the pool results within 24-48 hours. If the result of the pool is negative, then all individuals are presumed to not have COVID-19. If the result of the pool is positive, then all individuals in the pool must be retested individually. Because pooled testing does not give individual results, you will only be notified if you (staff) or your child (families) requires follow-up testing. Our school will be providing the Abbott BinaxNOW Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Tests for follow-up testing, so that students or staff in a positive pool can be tested as soon as possible and receive individual results in 15 minutes.

Our incredible nursing staff has been thoroughly trained on how to administer pooled testing, as well as the Abbott BinaxNOW Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Tests, if they are needed for follow-up testing.  Your school will call you if your child is part of a positive pool and requires follow-up testing. Your school will report all follow-up test results to DPH and continue to provide positive follow-up test results (without names or other identifying information) to DESE's Rapid Response Help Unit.

To give permission for your student to participate in the COVID-19 Pooled Testing Program at our school, including consent to transmit student information via the pooled testing technology platform, consent for any necessary follow up tests, and consent to share the test result information with the Department of Public Health and Project Beacon (an organization contracted to compile consent for testing and to share test results), please follow the directions sent from your school principal tomorrow with the link and code to provide consent.

For those interested in participating in pooled testing it is essential that you complete and return the consent forms as soon as possible in order for us to design the pools for implementation when we return from February break.

Communication

As mentioned last week the North Reading School Committee discussed the district’s communication about COVID-19 positive cases and unanimously supported the idea of continuing to send the messages as we have been doing. In response to my email last week we heard from several families who appreciate the consistent updates and figures and for those who want to receive the information we believe it is important to continue to share this with the district and not just at the particular schools where that day’s cases occurred.

We are certainly concerned with COVID-19 fatigue and do not want to oversaturate your inbox but we are also aware that this is very important information to continue to share with the school community.

I will make some updates to the notification to also include the link to the live dashboard that is on our website that contains the figures to date and a breakdown by school. I’ve also added the current month to the main tab so that it’s easily viewable for those looking to explore the information in greater detail.

It’s also important to share that overall our schools continue to be safe despite the continued positive cases that we are reporting. However, we have seen some evidence recently of transmission in school and those entire classes and programs have been in remote for a number of days in order to maintain the safest environment. When students and staff are maintaining six feet of distance, wearing masks, and washing their hands frequently we continue to have a great amount of success in our hybrid model.

As always, thank you for your continued support and cooperation as we role out these initiatives and plans related to COVID-19.

Thank you,

Dr. Daly

Important: Weather and Dismissals 2.1.21

 Dear North Reading Public Schools Community,

Due to the very latest information on this storm we will be cancelling all afternoon and evening activities in the North Reading Public Schools.

We will also be dismissing the High School and Middle School early, as they are typically the later schools to dismiss. Elementary schools will follow their scheduled dismissal times for today. The YMCA after school program will remain open but they will be encouraging families to pick up their children as soon as possible this afternoon. 

North Reading High School will begin dismissal at 1:00 p.m. and North Reading Middle School will begin dismissal at 1:30 p.m. Those secondary students whose lunch period is impacted by the early dismissal will have the option to take a grab and go lunch with them at dismissal.

The Batchelder dismissal will remain at 2:00 p.m. and the Hood and Little dismissals will remain at 2:20 p.m.

As always, our grab and go lunch program will be available for all families for pick up today from 11am-12pm for both today and tomorrow. This service will not be provided tomorrow due to the incoming storm but two meals will be provided today.  This service is for all families and takes place at the middle/high school campus.

Thank you for your patience and understanding today. More information will be forthcoming about tomorrow.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Daly

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