CELEBRATING THANKSGIVING SAFELY
With Governor Baker's recent changes to travel orders, it is important for families to understand their obligation during Thanksgiving.
Travel to restricted states and towns is problematic since quarantine and testing take time to weed out if you are eligible to attend schools--thus taking away precious learning time. Please note that if we do not reach the student critical attendance number at each building, we will have to close school; so, too is the case if we do not meet the day of minimum attendance at our schools--we will have to be forced to say that a "day of school" does not count if enough children do not show.
While some districts are indicating they are closing/moving to remote learning only around Thanksgiving in order to address this, the DESE Commissioner came out with a memo forbidding that since closure and totally remote learning is reserved for a specific set of criteria--a district with clustering infections with in school and a town in the red for more than three weeks.
Therefore, while I cannot control any of this, I am asking that you do your part to keep school open and ask that you not travel to restricted areas. Without sufficient staff or students to hold live school, I will be forced due to cancel it. The daily Ruvna has been amended to indicate these expectations and travel restrictions. Fines will be leveraged for those who travel and are not honest about their destinations. Also, not traveling to restrict areas is part of our community compact with each other to keep our community safe.