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11/13/20 Superintendent & COVID Tracking Updates

11/13/20 Superintendent & COVID Tracking Updates
Posted on 11/13/2020
November 13, 2020
Dear Natick Families,
I hope you had a pleasant week. I share this statement that I joined with Metrowest Superintendents to write based on recent statements from the Governor and the questions many of you have asked me over the week relative to return to school. In collaboration with our Natick Board of Health, this letter reflects our current orientation to school attendance and decision-making.
In light of the recent public statements urging schools to reopen full-time for in-person instruction, I am writing to share with you some important information. My guess is that we’re all experiencing the unrest spawned by messages that support full-time reopening, even while cases climb across the state. And, my second guess is that this letter, like most information promulgated during the Pandemic, is not likely to surprise anyone, but is likely to disappoint some individuals as well. 
While the goal is certainly to get students back into school full-time, the notion of doing so at this point presents a number of challenges, including those related to safety, as well as to the financial cost of fully opening our schools. Very simply, using minimal in-school transmission of the COVID-19 virus as the sole criterion to favor full-time, in-person learning leaves a host of other issues unaddressed.
To start, since June 25th, each school district has been asked to develop its own unique plan for reentry, submitting that plan for approval from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). While other states set requirements for instructional time or for assessments of their students, Massachusetts did not. Essentially, every community worked as an independent contractor, of sorts, developing an educational plan that served in-person, hybrid, remote, and high needs students, with limited funding and too few educators in place. Even for positions that we have been able to fund, and with significant outreach and advertising, we continue to see jobs go unfilled due to a severe lack of applicants. Now that we’re in our own home-grown learning plans, it would be costly, challenging, and perhaps staffing-prohibitive to bring about quick revisions.
Back in June, district leaders, through surveys and through scientific research, found that six feet of social distancing would be most prudent in designing hybrid learning plans. Therefore, to offer in-person learning, only 50 percent of students could physically fit into our classrooms, lunchrooms, and school buses at a time. Consider what happens when you take a single teacher's classroom students and put them into two different venues: one brick and mortar and for other children, their living rooms. Essentially, you still have one teacher but two “classrooms.” Thus began the very costly process of cohorting, which could only be achieved when the hybrid at-home learners were required to learn largely independently, essentially without their teachers on their at-home days. 
Certainly, bringing all students back would improve instruction, but that was not feasible in June and it is still not feasible at this point. Positive COVID cases in Massachusetts have risen to well over 1,000 daily. To return the students would mean to relax the standard of six feet of social distancing. This begs the question: have the schools not proven to be the “superspreaders” we imagined they’d be simply because of the safety protocols we’ve put into place? If that’s so--and we don’t have the science to disprove it--to undo those protocols feels premature at present. It should not matter whether a district is gray, green, yellow, or red; six feet of social distancing remains the CDC guidance.
And, then there is the issue that each district, at DESE’s suggestion, has negotiated a unique Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with its local Teachers Association. Many aspects of these MOAs, including their significant attention to safety protocols, preclude a full return to school, albeit each district’s MOA is different. 
Beyond the MOA, districts’ hands are tied as teachers must be out while they await COVID-19 testing or while they nurse the common cold or while they tend to their own sick children, who cannot attend school. Because of the Pandemic, it’s not only challenging to find teachers to hire, but it’s even harder to unearth substitute teachers for day-to-day coverage. This leaves our school children without teachers in front of them, which is more than challenging in the hybrid model, and, as cold and flu season approaches, is likely to shut down the hybrid model for many districts, at least temporarily. It’s hard to imagine reopening and closing simultaneously, but the boots-on-the-ground picture is one without enough teaching staff.
Some have suggested that ongoing and frequent testing is the answer. The school districts that have put out RFPs for testing have bids in hand of several million dollars. As the CARES money dries up, any additional school nurses, custodial staff, substitute teachers, and hand sanitizer must fall to school districts’ operating budgets. With all of these costs on the table, COVID-19 testing with regularity falls outside the reach of the budget.
Please know that we recognize the immeasurable value in having all students in our schools, and it is truly our goal to see their return as soon as it is feasible and safe. However, given the challenges that we are presently facing, I hope this letter helps to explain the reasons that are preventing a full and immediate return to school at this time. I know that this perhaps renders disappointment for those who want a full-time return, and perhaps brings relief for those who wish to carry on with remote instruction. 
I will continue to update our community as more information becomes available and will continue to refine models and move our educational experience according to health levels--all shared at public meetings with the school committee. 
Please do not hesitate to reach out directly.
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.
"I got my flu shot" graphic with a green bandage.
FLU SHOT REMINDER
(all students Pre-K through 12, Live, Hybrid, and Remote)
We will be sending reminders via email and/or text message with flu shot information from our Health Services (nursing) staff.
Please visit the NPS Health Services page (bit.ly/npshealthservices) for more information about sending your verification to your school nurse.
REMINDERS
Thoughtexchange
Our Thoughtexchange survey closes today. If you want to provide your feedback, please use the links below:
 
Focus Groups/Office Hours
The superintendent and School Committee have been hosting focus groups/office hours to hear directly from families. The last focus group is next week.
  • November 16 at 4:00pm: Student Work Load (Zoom link)

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