Good Afternoon, Reading Public School Families,

We wanted to provide you with additional updates on Fall Reopening and Extended School Year.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at john.doherty@reading.k12.ma.us or schedule a virtual meeting during one of my office hours by clicking on the form here.

• Kindergarten-We wanted to let our incoming kindergarten parents know for planning purposes that kindergarten students will be going through the kindergarten screening process over the first several days of our in person school model.  What this will mean is that kindergarten students will not have regular sessions until most likely the second week of classes.  We are currently working on a final schedule and will share it with you later in the summer.

• Out of State Travel-In one of their previous communications, DESE has informed us that if your child is travelling out of state within two weeks of the start of school, he or she may not be allowed to enter a school until they have been quarantined for two weeks.  This requirement may change as we get closer to the start of the school year, but we wanted to let you know as you plan summer travel.

• Technology Capacity and Bandwidth-As part of our review process of remote learning, we are assessing the minimum requirements needed at home for devices and internet connections in case we need to go back to that model during the school year.  If you are thinking of purchasing a device for your child this summer, we recommend getting a Windows or Apple computer, tablet, Chromebook or phone with all security and driver patches installed.  In addition, you may want to purchase a headset or earphones to minimize noise pollution.  The Internet Connection is critical to successful videoconferencing and should have a minimum of 30 Mbps down and 30 Mbps up to conduct online sessions.  In addition, each additional student in a single online meeting will require additional upload bandwidth.  If Internet bandwidth is insufficient to support classroom size or audio and video streams, the quality of both will be affected.  For example, on an HD video call, bandwidth requirements increase 0.6 Mbps when going from 2 to 5 participants, and an additional 0.8 Mbps when increasing from 5 to 10 participants.

• American Academy of Pediatrics Guidance-Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics released guidance for school reentry.  A copy of this guidance can be found here.  As part of the guidance the AAP states, “the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”

• DESE Comprehensive Summer School Guidance-Yesterday, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released Comprehensive Summer School Guidance.  This information is primarily for our students in Extended School Year Programs.  We have been working very closely with families who are attending ESY to educate them about our program this summer.  If you have a child in the ESY program and you have any questions, please contact Director of Student Services Jennifer Stys at Jennifer.stys@reading.k12.ma.us or Assistant Director of Student Services Allison Wright at Allison.Wright@reading.k12.ma.us .

Thanks and have a great fourth of July weekend!