LETTER TO FAMILIES FROM SUPERINTENDENT- Kelly MacFadyen

DATE:  11-5-20

RE:  Maine Counties’ Risk of COVID-19 Spread for Schools

Our District has remained “Green”, or low risk since the beginning of the school year.  We have been very fortunate to be able to have in-person instruction for our students.  I would like to express my gratitude to staff, students, families and the community for the collaborative effort it has taken to make this a success.  However, we are all aware that new cases of COVID-19 have been increasing and more counties have been classified as “Yellow”, or of an elevated risk of COVID-19 spread. 

We have made plans for a transition to hybrid or remote learning if the risk becomes elevated in our county and/or our school community.  Many of you attended our informational sessions before the start of school and heard information on in-person, hybrid and remote learning.  I would like to share some more details with you at this time in case we need to transition to hybrid or remote learning in the near future, as follows:

  • You will receive an all-call from the school stating what our risk level is and what the instructional setting will be, for example:
    • “Yellow”, hybrid or increased restrictions, such as, 6 ft distancing for students instead of 3 ft.
    • “Red”, remote
    • Building Principals will let families know what cohort your child will be in if we move to hybrid.  Principal Wright will be sending you this information as soon as possible so that families have some time to plan for childcare, etc.
    • We have made every effort to keep siblings and blended households on the same cohort day.
    • In hybrid learning your child will attend school in-person for two days and receive remote learning for three days, for example:
      • Cohort A: In-person on Monday and Tuesday, remote on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
      • Cohort B:  Remote on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, in-person on Thursday and Friday.  
    • For families who want food service on remote days there will be two delivery days as follows:
      • Monday for students in remote learning on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
      • Wednesday for students in remote learning on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
    • If we have to transition to hybrid or remote, students will be sent home with a two day “emergency pack” to work on.  Staff will have two days to prepare for the transition. 
  • Snow Days: We considered having remote instructional days instead of snow days.  However, we ran into some obstacles when considering this plan.  If we have an instructional day we have to provide food.  We do not want food service staff or families on the road in inclement weather to offer food.  The prep time involved to prepare meals to send home ahead of time has not been budgeted for, and if the snow day did not end up occurring we would need to charge for two days of food.  We are also concerned about the potential of losing power and this would make it difficult to provide instruction.  The DOE has agreed to waive student days when necessary during these unprecedented times at least until January 15th.  We also felt that with all of the extra stress on staff, students and families it makes sense to allow everyone a break on a snow day. 
  • If you have specific questions or concerns with these transition plans as we move forward, please contact Principal Keane at 876-4625 if your child attends PCSS or Principal Wright at 876-4301 if your child attends PCES.

Sincerely,

Kelly MacFadyen

Superintendent