An Important Letter Regarding Spring 2021
February 28, 2021
Dear Families:
This afternoon, I offer thoughts about the upcoming months. The superintendents met with the Commissioner of Education late last week. It was clear that the state is expecting to mandate the full-time return of K-5 students in early April. Middle and high school will have full return dates that follow. Full-time remote learning will remain an option for families. As has often happened, the districts were given no notice of the announcement or any guidance to accompany it.
Here, we were discussing the expansion of in-person time with better weather and lower virus rates. We are shifting that discussion now to meet the expected mandates. It is important to note that change is going to require a great deal of decision-making, logistics, and planning just as it did last summer. We already spent the late part of last week and all weekend starting the process.
Not unexpectedly, we are hearing from parents as to their hopes. We read every email and are aware of circulating petitions. Since we want to be sure everyone’s voice is heard, we will send a parent survey over the next couple of days and would encourage you to use that as a vehicle to share your thoughts. Subsequent surveys will occur with staff and very importantly, with older students. We have always known that many people want their kids in school more and suspect this will confirm that. The hope is that the survey will also offer insight as to how we accomplish that and what is most important since there will be choices to make.
We completely agree and understand the concerns about student mental health. All of our drive to open and stay open has been because we believe being in school is better for kids than a fully remote environment. We agree that more time in school will offset the impact of isolation and limited social activity. This might lead us to creative approaches to return students so we maximize this need, especially at the secondary level where the alphabetical cohort split has been very difficult.
Any changes to plans will continue to follow the science. Based on the science, we purposefully have the most conservative safety protocols in place. That served us well so far. We opened on September 9 and remained open throughout as a result. Modifying any of those pieces will increase risk. In conjunction, then, there will be more quarantines and possible school closures since we will not be as confident in preventing school transmission. There will need to be a common understanding of that. As reminders of the effectiveness so far, updated data points are included at the bottom of this email.
As the plans are being developed, I share thoughts on what would benefit us the most right now.
- Limit your social events, even with close family and friends
We continue to see positive cases result from small, intimate gatherings of extended family and close friends. We know people are trying to be careful. Please just know that even those you see often could have COVID and you won’t know until after everyone is exposed, often leading to a cluster.
- Enroll your child in the pooled testing
This will be a critical piece in maintaining school safety. The current 25% participation rate is inadequate for significant assurance of limiting asymptomatic transmission. If you have questions, please ask them. I’ll refer you to the FAQ document that we shared earlier.
- Advocate for elimination of the MCAS with those in the Massachusetts State House
We are deeply involved in the preparation for the test since the requirement is still in place. This is a distraction from preparing for the return of more students to the classroom and will take from precious instructional time with little value later.
- Advocate for teachers to get vaccinated with those in the Massachusetts State House
The media statements are true. Teachers do not need to be vaccinated to open school. We have demonstrated that since September. As we increase risk , however, it is a critical part of the elements that will allow us to do so comfortably and safely.
The school year has been a success so far in that we served all students daily, worked collaboratively and collectively, and supported one another. I share a huge appreciation and respect for our teachers and school staff who were determined to bring kids back to school initially, created a plan that was safe and met educational needs, and dedicated themselves to the work it took for the year to be highly productive and effective. Parents partnered with us in an intimate and equally dedicated fashion. As usually happens in Concord and Carlisle, it was clear that the entire community invested in returning students to school offering emotional, fiscal, and structural supports in many, many ways.
The extraordinary relationships have brought us this far. I have no doubt that they will serve us well during this next phase of the journey.
Best,
Laurie
COVID Positive Cases
Since Friday, we learned of 3 student cases as outlined below. None of the students were in school while they were contagious.
1 CCHS student
2 Alcott students
Asymptomatic Pooled Testing
Last week, we tested almost 800 students and 250 staff. All of the pools were negative which helps build confidence in the safety of the school environment. The consent form for this week is closed. Anyone who enrolls through Aspen will be included during the week of March 8.
COVID Dashboards
The District Dashboard is updated as of today with our current total case count at 141 since September.
The DPH Community Dashboard indicates that Concord is in the yellow category and Carlisle is in gray.