Andover Public School's Interim Superintendent's Response To Community Letter For February 4, 2021

Press release from Andover Public Schools:

February 4, 2021

Dear Parents,

"I am writing this letter to our APS community to assure our parents that I share your concerns and your desire to have your children back to pre-COVID schooling. In several recent meetings with parents, I have said that students, teachers and parents all want to return to school fully in-person. Perhaps my recent letter failed to communicate my strong commitment to that goal, and if so, I offer my sincere apologies.

Maybe I did not clearly state that our principals and their staffs, along with our Central Office administrators, are planning for STAGE 2, and STAGE 3. We are working now to move through these stages, because frankly we may have a Presidential mandate or a change in DESE or CDC guidelines to have all our students back in-person five days before the end of the school year. That means we need to plan for this real possibility. The President could change expectations, or so could DESE or the CDC but until then we are working towards late April as our marching orders.

I have made changes to the chart below, because I see that some information in the boxes was confusing or unintentionally misleading, for example the term “herd immunity,” I’ve deleted those words. I’ve added two phrases (in bold ) to the original graph to reflect the planning we now are doing and I deleted the bottom row.

STAGE 1 - Now

STAGE 2

STAGE 3

YELLOW:

Staying with the Hybrid model & Virtual Academy

YELLOW:

Implementing small increases for in-student learning in schools, according to each school’s capacity

GREEN:

Implementing a full return to pre-COVID in-student learning, before the end of this school year, per the President’s possible mandate or a change in DESE or CDC guidelines

RED:

But returning to full remote, if necessary

RED:

But returning to yellow or even Red in Stage 1, if necessary

YELLOW or RED:

But returning to STAGE 1 at yellow or red, if necessary

Timelines for each STAGE

Timelines for each STAGE

Timelines for each STAGE

February to when surge begins to ebb

STAGE 2 to STAGE 3

STAGE 3 GREEN, to respond to a mandate or change in guidelines

I know some might want STAGE 3 to happen sooner than late April, and so do we. I honestly don’t know how feasible that goal will be if we don’t receive stimulus funding and a relaxing of our current mitigation protocols especially social distancing of 6 feet during lunch/snack times. And, I still must ensure, as many of you have urged me to do, that the health and safety of our students, teachers, and staff be our first priority as we proceed. So, the chart reflects that should there be a sudden surge because of the more contagious deviant strains or some other serious issue, we will step back to a previous stage.

Even so, all our schools are putting together plans to move to STAGE 2 as soon as possible. Each step we take at each school will move us towards STAGE 3 more quickly and smoothly. As one of you said, this is a complicated process, and so we must proceed with care, and we ask for your patience as we do this work. I will continue to provide updates and continue to ask for your engagement via Google Meets or a similar virtual platform. I always will listen respectfully to your suggestions. In fact, some suggestions from parents I’ve passed along to our schools, and they are seriously considering them. I look forward to working together with you."

Sincerely,

Claudia L. Bach

This press release was produced by the Andover Public Schools. The views expressed are the author's own.