Good Evening, Reading Public School Community,

Throughout this pandemic, our focus in returning back to school has always been the health and safety of our staff and students while providing the best learning environment possible given our current situation.  As described in our Fall Reopening Plan, the measures that we are taking include satellite rooms to allow for six foot physical distancing, proper wearing of face covering, practicing proper hand hygiene, having parents self-check children at home for symptoms, ventilation filter enhancements in our buildings, and increased and enhanced cleaning and disinfecting.  Our learning environment includes additional remote learning tools, learning platforms, adequate laptop supplies for our students, and high end cameras for improving learning in our satellite classrooms.

For our plan to be successful, we need to make sure all of the above components are in place and operating effectively before we can safely implement the hybrid model.  Unfortunately, due to the impact of COVID-19 on all areas we have experienced several logistical and staffing challenges that have delayed the implementation of the plan.  Our challenges include filling staffing vacancies due to an increased volume of leaves of absences and accommodations for our staff who are unable to work in person, delayed delivery of technology devices, the challenge of scheduling and retrofitting classrooms with the appropriate amount of furniture and technology infrastructure and effectively implementing our learning platforms.

Due to the above challenges, we are going to need to change our phase in hybrid plan to reflect a later in person start date for most groups of students.  This delay will allow us to hire and train staff for the vacant positions, receive and appropriately set up the technology and learning platforms, and set up the classrooms for an effective hybrid model of learning.  We will still provide in person instruction for our high needs, RISE Preschool, and Kindergarten students beginning on September 15th.  All other students will start the school year in a remote model.

At the August 27^th School Committee meeting, we will provide a revised phase in plan which will reflect the above changes.  At the School Committee meeting this evening the Committee will defer public comment on this topic until the next meeting.

We apologize for the timing of this notice and we realize the frustration that this will cause for families in trying to secure additional child care.  However, we felt it was important that you received this information as soon as possible.  We appreciate your patience as we revise our plan.  We are looking at all options to address the concerns.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at john.doherty@reading.k12.ma.us.

Sincerely,

John F. Doherty

Superintendent of Schools