I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank our incredible clerical staff across the district for the amazing work they do everyday, but particularly over these past months of the pandemic.  It was the clerical staff who kept families and staff informed and updated and kept their offices open and running smoothly, all while handling all of the innumerable things they take care of in a typical year. The District simply could not function without their expertise and they are much appreciated! 

This week I have a few important updates to share with you on different topics.  First, I want to encourage our Amherst elementary families to mark your calendars for September 21 when the Amherst School Committee will host a public forum on the topic of whether to move the Amherst sixth grade students to the middle school.  Your voice is vital to the discussion around this important topic so I hope you will share your thoughts. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30.

I also want to update all of our families on the ways in which we will share information about any positive COVID cases in the schools.  Based on revised guidance from DESE, we will return to the practice of sending an email to all staff and families within any school building that has a positive case.  As you have probably noticed, contact tracing has usually been completed already when the letter goes out, so you would most likely have already received a call if anyone in your family was a close contact.  In addition, we will continue to maintain our District COVID dashboard to track cases, at least until DESE has their tracking dashboard up and running.

Finally, we are actively planning our open houses for each of the schools.  The dates that are set are October 7 for ARHS, October 13 for Pelham, October 14 for Crocker Farm, and October 21 for ARMS.  The current plan is for these to each be remote.  We will update you once the dates are set for the other schools.