Good Afternoon, Reading Public School Families,
First and foremost, I hope that you had a great holiday with your family and you are getting some time to relax.
We have been monitoring the number of school COVID cases for both staff and students since school ended last week to determine if we needed to make decisions regarding the opening of school on January 4th. Since December 24th, we have been informed that there have been 21 positive cases, including 8 at RMHS, 2 at Coolidge, 3 at Eaton, 1 at Barrows, 1 at Killam, 2 RISE, and 4 staff. This is on top of increases from the week before which caused the High School to go remote. This past week represents 5.6% of all of the cases that we have had since September.
Given the increase in the number of cases this past week and the increase in positive cases across local communities, we will be going fully remote next week for all students, including high needs, kindergarten, and RISE Preschool. In addition, all in person extra-curricular activities and athletics have been cancelled until further notice beginning tomorrow, December 31st. We realize that this may create some challenges for families so we wanted to give you as much lead time as possible to prepare and make any necessary arrangements.
We are asking all families to please follow all necessary health and safety protocols to help reduce the spread of the virus. This includes wearing masks, keeping 6 foot distancing, and maintaining proper hand hygiene. Many of the cases recorded for our staff and students is when these precautions have not been followed.
We will closely monitor the situation and communicate updates when needed. Your building principal will be sending out additional information in the next few days.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please be safe and have a Happy New Year!
John Doherty
Superintendent
Reading Public Schools
82 Oakland Road
Reading, Massachusetts 01867
781-944-5800
The Journey-The Next Chapter 