NPS News: Holiday Travel and Operations Updates - 12.18.20


Dear NPS Families,

I hope you weathered the storm safely yesterday. Thank you for your patience as we piloted a shift to remote learning in lieu of a snow day. We will be gathering feedback from our staff to determine if we continue this practice when the next snowstorm arrives. Below are a few operations updates for you as we head into winter break. We will share important updates related to our elementary and high school learning models early next week.

Snow Days

I have been making snow day decisions for many years and even without a pandemic, it’s a challenging job. Please know that all snow day decisions are made in consultation with the Police Department and the Department of Public Works. Safety is our number one priority as we consider the weather forecast, as well as street, sidewalk, and school parking lot conditions. It was made clear to us by city officials that it was not possible to safely open schools today.

We decided to use a traditional snow day today because we do not want to lose more in-person days for our elementary and middle school hybrid students. As you know, we will make up this day at the end of year. Also, the shift to remote learning is a significant challenge for teachers whose lesson plans are tailored to in-person learning and for some of our students who do not regularly engage in remote learning. For all of these reasons, we wanted to avoid two consecutive remote days. Please know that we will consider both options as we continue through the winter, knowing that no option is perfect. In addition, for our hybrid model, we are and will continue to track the number of in-person days to ensure equal in-person instructional time for both cohorts.

Holiday Travel

As our partners at Newton HHS shared at Thanksgiving, and share now again for the winter break (see attached), all families are expected to comply with the Massachusetts travel order. Details are found on this webpage: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-travel-order

In order to return to school after traveling, you must either:
  • Quarantine for 14 days OR 
  • Produce a negative COVID-19 test result (molecular PCR) that has been administered up to 72-hours prior to your arrival in Massachusetts. (The test can be taken upon return, but the individual is required to quarantine until a negative test is obtained.)
  • A test taken prior to leaving MA and returning within 72 hours does not comply with the order. The test must be taken while traveling out of state or upon return to Massachusetts.
  • This travel order DOES apply to day trips to “high-risk” states (visiting family, skiing, etc.). Please note all states except Hawaii are deemed “high-risk” as of today. 

Ventilation Project

We are nearing completion of a comprehensive Ventilation Action Plan in which we have inspected, remediated, and improved the ventilation in all of our school buildings. The documentation of the work, as well as the status of each room in the district, can be found on this webpage: https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/3804. On the “dashboards” created for each building, you will see green and yellow coded circles. Green indicates testing is complete for that particular room. Yellow indicates work is ongoing. For yellow spaces, you will also see notes to indicate specific remediation steps, mitigation measures, and timeline for completion. 

Staff Testing

Our first day of testing for staff was delayed by the winter weather. We are now scheduled to begin our first round of voluntary COVID-19 testing for staff on Monday, 12/21. As we scale up our testing operation, we expect to increase the number and frequency of testing for all NPS staff. This has truly been a monumental undertaking by district staff and I am grateful for the volunteers who have worked to make it happen. 

We are all looking forward to a restful winter break. I wish you and your family a wonderful, healthy, and safe holiday.

Sincerely,

David Fleishman



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