Superintendent’s Report to the School Committee
March 24, 2021
Thank you!
A HUGE shout out and thank you to our custodial staff and facilities department, who have been working tirelessly throughout this last year and continue to do so as classrooms are being prepared for students to return. Unsung heroes!
Thank you to the parent volunteers who have already committed to assisting with the bins and materials collection at the elementary schools!
Ventilation Report and Update:
The “purple rooms.”
Twelve rooms (elementary and middle school) were retested.
Of these 12 rooms, 7 of them have come back online and are no longer “purple.” 2 at Clarke, three at Stanley, and two at the middle school.
The other five rooms have shown improvement but remain purple, which means they CAN be used, but 6ft of distancing should stay in these spaces. 2 at Hadley, three at the middle school.
This information has been critical to building administrators to plan for lunch schedules and staffing needs.
Stanley Project Update:
The ventilation project at the Stanley School is scheduled to be completed by this Friday, March 26th.
Mrs. Huntley has drafted a transition plan for our Little Stanley students and will be sharing it with faculty, staff, and families in the coming days.
Students will NOT be transitioning for next week.
Survey Results:
Return to In-Person Learning:
Except for the High School setback, we are moving ahead with the schedule outlined at our last meeting.
MARCH 29th
Preschool 8:30 am-2:00 pm (5 days) and bringing in more students.
K & 1: 8:00 am -12:15 pm (5 days) Teachers will be available to Zoom with remote students at 1:15 pm.
Middle School (all grades 5-8) 8:00 am - 12:30 am (5 days).
APRIL 5th
Kindergarten-Grade 4 - (5 FULL days) with lunch.
High School (all grades 9-12) (5 FULL days).
APRIL 12th
Middle School (all grades 5-8) (5 FULL days) with lunch.
Attendance:
As we return to in-person learning, we will be returning to our previous attendance policy. If you have committed to in-person learning, your student will not have access to Zoom, and teachers will mark them absent.
Our teachers have been challenged during hybrid learning with students staying home or going away for long weekends and signing on to Zoom when they are supposed to be in-person. This practice will no longer be allowed.
Parent Emails Re: Football:
I received two emails questioning the decision to pause football until April 5th.
Some clarification:
We follow the state's guidelines as the Department of Public Health (DPH)/ Community Tracing Collaborative (CTC) when it comes to quarantine and or isolation, not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
DPH/CTC does allow individuals to test out of quarantine at day 5 and or day 7; however, individuals need to continue to monitor for symptoms for a full 14 days.
Individuals can become positive and or symptomatic at any time up the 14-day window.
This decision was not made in isolation but made in consultation with the Swampscott Health Department.
As of 3/23, we still did not have test results from more than half of the football team.
Football is not being treated any differently than any other sport or our student body returning to school.
Football is considered a high-risk sport concerning COVID, and close contacts need to continue to monitor their health.
This decision isn’t to be punitive. It is to protect the health and safety of our students, families, teams, and community. We based our decision on the residual risk of spread that could occur if we allow students to play any sooner. The Swampscott Health and School Departments decided based on the maximum risk reduction because there are so many individuals involved.
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