Dear Families,

It's been a terrific week in terms of our infection data. We are fully consumed with arrangements for both teacher vaccination and implementation of pooled testing. We have been matched with a Dept. of Education (DESE) vendor for the free 6-week trial. They have advised us, in direct opposition to what I said last Monday, that they didn't want us to distribute consent forms yet until we had initial meetings with our vendor. Those meetings are forthcoming. I am pleased to say we were able to organize to become involved with this. It's a key step toward a gradual return to normal and will help us in the coming weeks and months. We will update the community as soon as we can with substantive updates.  

Updates on planning for new rounds of activities, after school activities, senior events and next round athletics are also in the works. We will provide regular updates as we make progress in arranging implementation. It is important for families to understand that no changes to the state pandemic mandates around chorus/singing/theater, special subjects like PE, sports indoor and outdoor gathering expectations or busing have been allowed by the state at this time.

Have a terrific weekend and stay warm; next week looks like there may be some weather events--be sure to have students dressed warmly every day--layers are needed for indoor and outdoor warmth. Check our expectations for remote snow days. If we have a snow day event, Cohort A is live in the building and a first weather day would be a full traditional snow day for both live and remote students. If we have a subsequent snow day due to a weather event, then remote learning will be executed. For an in-depth reminder about what a "snow day" means, read here: Updates to Learning Models.