2/19/2021
Dear Parents, Guardians, and Staff,
I hope you had a restful time over the February break with family.
I write to provide you an update on several important issues from the School Committee and school department.
Meeting updates on elementary and middle school hybrid models:
The School Committee has met with the Belmont Educators Association (BEA) regarding the elementary and middle school hybrid models. As you may remember, in January, both the district and our educators agreed to some incremental shifts in our elementary schedule (live specials) to be in compliance with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Student Learning Time (SLT) requirement and deadline. Both parties agreed to continue to meet to discuss the hybrid plans. The BEA and the School Committee met on Tuesday night, February 9, and Wednesday night, February, 10. The School Committee met on Wednesday, February 17, to work on this task. We are continuing this work with our educators, and our next session will be on Thursday, February 25.
CDC COVID-19 Guidance:
We want to make the school community aware of the updated Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidance on COVID-19. Please see the CDC flyer on school guidance. We will be discussing these updated guidelines at our next School Committee meeting.
Next School Committee Meeting, Tuesday, February 23 at 6:30 pm:
In addition to discussing the updated CDC guidelines, we will be presenting the FY22 budget given to the Warrant Committee on February 11, which looks at the impact of the proposed budget cuts. Please see the agenda and access information to this meeting on our School Committee page on the BPS website closer to this date.
Return to In-Person Learning Working Group:
We would like to thank the parents, guardians, students and community members who have volunteered to serve on the Return to In-Person Learning Working Group. The selection of the members was challenging, as we had more folks ask to participate than seats available. In selecting the members, we attempted to bring a wide range of school and community members together that represented hybrid and remote learning, special education and equity group members, and folks from all schools and with backgrounds that could provide unique insight to the challenges and opportunities that will be discussed. The first meeting of this group will be Monday, February 22, 2021. We look forward to the “rolling recommendations” from the group over the next few weeks.
Respectfully,
John P. Phelan
Superintendent of Schools
Town of Belmont