Dear School Community,
A brief Friday update with two important items:
School Transportation and Driver Shortages
There has been much local, state, and national media coverage on shortages of school bus drivers. In the last week, Massachusetts called on the National Guard to assist with the shortage.
Currently, the district(s) have a limited number of drivers. One or two driver absences make regular school service challenging, will cause delays, and may force combined routes. While there are more drivers in the employment pipeline, this process takes time and full relief is not expected for at least six weeks. When there is a route issue, the schools will communicate to families.
The shortage is also heightened with the looming Executive Order 13G from Governor Lamont which goes into effect on September 27th. This law requires all education staff to be either vaccinated, or weekly tested or they may not be on school premises. This may have further complications for our transportation.
I ask for your patience and acknowledgment of drivers who are doing their best under these circumstances.
Quarantine and Remote Learning
After a review of the first three weeks, case data, and quarantines, we are making the following adjustment to instruction for quarantined students.
1) Effective Monday, September 20th, each school will provide a morning and afternoon check-in for students that are quarantined.
2) LHS, LMS, WAMOGO MS, and WAMOGO HS, will provide a remote link for extra help between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.
3) The district is actively searching for educators to provide live daily remote assistance to quarantined students between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and noon. Our hope is to open this option during the week of September 27th.
My best to everyone for the weekend.
Chris