12/4/20
Dear Families,
We are looking forward to seeing your students back at school on Monday, December 7 for in-person instruction. Please remind them to bring their charged Chromebooks and also their chargers to school.
Congratulations to everyone on making it through the first trimester of school! Your students’ progress reports will be sent home with them next week.
Today I did something a little different and put together a video message that I texted to everyone a short while ago. In it, I shared some personal thoughts about the pandemic and some school news.
Click here to watch the video.
My deepest thanks to you for bearing with us through this challenging week having made a difficult last-minute decision to move to distance learning. I understand the pressure this put on families, and it was done out of an abundance of caution, and with the best of intentions. We have also learned from this decision and are putting additional systems in place that will enable us to make an even more informed decision next time.
If, during this week of distance learning, members of your household were not able to follow the state guidelines, please take the opportunity for your student to get a COVID-19 test or let our school know if your student needs to do distance learning next week. The state guidelines are posted on this website link: https://www.healthvermont.gov/covid-19.
Next week’s school menu is now available. Click here to view the menu.
Regarding the Winter Break, please note that we are changing the schedule to start two and a half days early to provide families and staff with the full Christmas week off. The last day of school will be Friday, December 18th and school will reopen on Monday, January 4th. Any plan we make will be subject to change if our school has active COVID-19 cases or if the overall infection rate changes dramatically, and we need to respond accordingly. Also, if you know your student will need to do distance learning after the winter break in order to quarantine, please advise your student’s teacher and the school office.
I would venture to say the majority of us want school to be open for in-person instruction as much as possible, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for the cooperation and compassion being shown, as we make the choices that will hopefully keep everyone healthy and safe. It is clear that the school cannot function as the COVID police, and we need everyone’s help in following the state guidelines. Being able to trust in one another to do the right thing to care for themselves and the whole school community is what we have going for us.
At school we are continuing to maintain all best COVID-19 health, safety, and cleaning practices; and, we are, on a daily basis, keeping up with the latest information and guidance coming from the Centers for Disease Control, the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Agency of Education.
By pulling together and thinking of one another’s wellbeing, we will get through this. I’m also heartened by the news coming out about vaccines— there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Warm regards,
Tim Newbold
