Good Morning, Reading Public School Community,

I wanted to give you a few updates as we continue along during this unique and challenging school year.  We appreciate your patience and feedback that we have received as we navigate through these turbulent waters.

• Videoconferencing tool-As I mentioned in a previous update, we will be adding Zoom as a videoconferencing tool.  The purchase order and student privacy agreement for a one year subscription was given to Zoom several days ago and we are still awaiting for their approval.  As with all purchasing right now, everything is happening at a much slower pace than normal.  We will continue to monitor this situation.

​

• 2020-2021 School Year Opening-Over the last two weeks, I have been part of two videoconferencing calls with Commissioner Riley from DESE on a variety of topics, including the opening of school in September.  Commissioner Riley has indicated that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will be sending out very prescriptive guidance in two weeks that all school districts will be following for the opening of school.  In both calls, he indicated that most likely we will begin the school year in a hybrid model, which means that we will be reducing the number of students who attend the physical school building on any given day.  In this model, approximately half the students will be attending school following proper CDC/DPH guidelines (i.e. social distancing, wearing a face covering) and the other half will be doing remote learning at home.  There are different types of schedules that could be set up including an alternating day model (M/W or Tu/Th) or an alternating week model.  The schedule most likely will be determined by the state.

I wanted to inform the community that we have been working on these contingency plans for several weeks and have been preparing for a hybrid opening. We have four committees that are preparing for the opening of school.These committees will consist of teachers, administrators, and directors and will be meeting over the next few weeks to develop and implement plans in the following areas:

• Continuity of Learning
• Special Education
• Social Emotional Learning and Student/Staff Transition
• Communication and Operations

Over the next few weeks, we will be updating the Community regularly on our plans moving forward and getting input on the areas that we will have flexibility.  There will be more to come in this area.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or your building principals.

Thank you.

John Doherty

Superintendent of Schools