A Message From Your Superintendent

July 25, 2020

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July 25, 2020 Letter to the Community

Dear Melrose Students, Families, and Staff,

I hope you are enjoying the summer break. As we prepare to reopen school this Fall, I write to you about our Melrose Return to Instruction plans. These plans were designed in alignment with the guidance documents published by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and with input and collaboration from various members of our school community.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to our daily lives, our community, and our society. The impact on our children has been exasperated by our inability to maintain in-person attendance. It has forced our educators to re-evaluate and change almost every aspect of our safety, operational, and instructional practices.

We commend our students, staff, and families for their incredible commitment and strength during these uncertain times. Our MPS Return to Instruction planning teams began gathering data in May 2020. We have researched and evaluated plans from around the world. We have reviewed scientific research and analyzed a plethora of feedback from our community. We understand that our MPS Return to Instruction Plan must be flexible and responsive to our local context and the changing conditions of the global pandemic. Over the past 18 days, since my official start on July 1, the Leadership Team has devoted over 50 hours of collaboration, brainstorming, critical thinking, and problem-solving into the development of this plan. Our approach takes many variables into account and provides a framework for what a safe return to instruction looks like in Melrose. Our MPS Return to Instruction Plan will continue to be refined and evolve as we hear receive feedback from students, staff, and families.

We aim to provide you with a high-level overview through the Executive Summary, and more details in this preliminary document. We believe that this plan will answer many of the questions you may have regarding our MPS Return to Instruction; however, we also know that you will have many questions about specific details, routines, and protocols.

After reading this plan, reviewing the Executive Summary, and watching our presentation to the School Committee on Tuesday, July 28, we ask that you take some time to provide us with your feedback. Your comments and suggestions will inform the next interaction of our MPS Return to Instruction Plan, which will be shared publicly on August 7, 2020. We look

forward to your feedback.

Kind regards,

Dr. Kukenberger

MPS Preliminary DRAFT Return to Instruction Plan

Below you will find three (3) documents:

Executive Summary of MPS Preliminary DRAFT Return to Instruction Plan
> A high-level overview of our return to instruction plan

MPS Preliminary DRAFT Return to Instruction Plan
> A comprehensive document containing more details related to our return to

instruction plan at this time

Feedback Form

> We want to hear from you! What's missing in this plan? What do you need more

information about in order to be operated to make a decision about the Fall?

Safety First

Our primary focus will be on relationships, routines, and resilience as we work to build our academic stamina.
When in-person, student workspaces will be a minimum of 6 feet apart, seat to seat.
All students and staff PK-12 will be required to wear a mask when possible.
Mask breaks will be provided.
A compressed schedule, 8:30 AM-12:45 PM, will allow for additional cleaning hours, teacher lunch, and common preparation and planning time.

A Phased Approach

Phase I: August 31-September 3 - Professional Development and Training; this time will allow all staff to effectively plan for the implementation of our MPS Hybrid Learning Model described later in this document.

This will require a waiver of the 180-day school requirement. The DESE Commissioner has indicated he may reduce the requirement to allow for the additional staff training needed to prepare staff for the return for instruction.

Phase II: September 8-11 - Relationships, Routines, and Resilience; during this time we will begin to support the return to instruction by establishing routines for learning and distributing materials.

Opportunities will be created for our youngest learners in grades PK-5 and those in a transition year, grades 6 and 9, to meet their teachers, see their school and classroom, and connect with classmates in a safe and appropriate way.
Students in grades 7, 8, 10. 11, and 12 will engage virtually.

Phase III: September 14: Full Implementation of the Schedule; on this date, we will launch the full implementation of the Hybrid Learning Model for all students.

We will continue to focus on relationships, routines, resilience, building stamina, and community connections.

Phase IV: TBD: New Normal; during this phase, we will return back to in-person instruction with increased health and safety measures in place or transition to full remote learning for all. Both scenarios are dependent on our local context.

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Community Feedback on the Preliminary DRAFT Plan

All members of the Melrose School Community are encouraged to read the executive summary and comprehensive document and provide feedback to the District.

Your feedback will be essential in ensuring that we are providing you will all of the necessary information you need to make decisions that are best for you and your family.

The feedback form will be open from Saturday, July 24, 2020, through Wednesday, July 29, 2020.

We are intentionally collecting feedback separate from preferences about learning models so that families can process and discuss the plan before making initial decisions. The District will distribute a Learning Model Preference form to all staff and families on Wednesday, July 29 - Friday, July 31, 2020.

This data along with the feedback data will inform our next steps and strategic decision making.