Superintendent's Letter

Dear Lebanon School District Students, Staff, and Families,

Since the school year ended, we have been busy preparing for the upcoming fall, and on Tuesday, Governor Sununu announced NH Grades K-12 Back to School Guidance.

The next step in our planning process is to receive input from the community, and we have developed a Lebanon School District Reopening Survey to collect the data. The questions posed are based on the NH guidance and present options related to the upcoming school year. Your answers to the questions do not represent final decisions for the fall but are written to help our planning team and the School Board get a sense of what decisions our families will make regarding learning in-person vs. learning remotely.

We greatly value and would appreciate your feedback so we can move forward with finalizing plans for the fall. The survey will close on Friday, July 24th at 4:00 pm.

Here is the link to the survey.

At the Lebanon School Board meeting Wednesday, the School Board made the following decisions that follow the NH Grades K-12 Back to School Guidance regarding returning to school this fall:

1) We would like to offer a schedule where students attend school five days per week, with the same start and end times as the 2019-2020 school year. To be able to offer this schedule, we will need as many parents as possible to drop off and pick up students each day because the number of students we can have on each bus is very limited.

Regular start and end times for each school:

MLS 8:00-3:05

HSS 8:00-3:05

LMS 7:22-2:35

LHS 7:30-2:35

2) For all students and staff, Prek-12, masks will be required, with the understanding that there may be a medical condition that may impact an individual's ability to wear a mask. If there is a medical exception for a student, please contact the school nurse and the school principal.

3) In our accordance with the NH guidance, we plan to maintain a minimum of three feet of distance between students and will maximize spacing wherever possible, in each of our four schools.

4) Students riding buses will wear masks and have assigned seats; one child per seat with the exception of family members being able to sit together.

5) A family can decide not to have their child(ren) attend school in-person and chose the option to learn remotely for health or other reasons. We will do our best to support families who make this choice with the primary focus being on in-person learning. Other parents who feel as though they can educate their child(ren) at home with limited support can choose this option as well.

At this time, we are looking into having classes live-streamed via web cameras. This technology will be new to the District, and we know that there may be challenges with this model. For example, not all classes will be able to be live-streamed, and homes must have internet access to receive live-streaming videos or recordings. The platform used would allow students to interact by ‘raising’ their hands, but monitoring students learning remotely while teaching in-person may also be a challenge for the teacher.

Challenges aside, we do see this as a way to continue to support students by connecting them with teachers and other students.

We have not yet determined how assignments will be delivered or graded in the remote learning model. There are many factors that will determine this such as grade level and the number of families that choose this option per grade. If this option is chosen, we will have a teacher and/or support staff member assigned to each student to check-in and provide educational support on a regular basis.

In New Hampshire, parents also have the option of homeschooling. Please visit the NHDOE website for more information regarding homeschool requirements.

For families who do not have internet access, please contact your school principal and our Tech Team (603) 790-8501 or techsupport@sau88.net. We will work with you to see if there is a way to provide internet access and notify teachers that you may need instructional materials and assignments sent via paper-form directly to your home.

I would like to thank the members of the Fall 2020 Proactive Planning Team for all of their hard work and efforts. Since June, the planning team has kept the health and safety of our staff and students a priority while developing a plan for our students to return to school or learn remotely. Thank you!

Note: The Lebanon School District Fall Reopening Concept dated July 17, 2020 is attached below this letter.

Summer Meal Delivery

For those interested in Summer Meal Delivery please visit our SAU88 website www.SAU88.net. The July bagged meal delivery schedule is listed under News and Announcements. To sign up for bagged meal delivery please contact Dennis Samuel at dsamuel@sau88.net or (603) 448-1538.

In closing, please continue to follow practices for staying healthy such as social distancing, wearing masks, washing your hands often, and staying home if you or a family member is not feeling well. Every single step we take now to help mitigate the pandemic will bring us that much closer to having all of our students return to school sooner.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

Dr. Joanne Roberts

Upper Valley Strong

Upper Valley Strong is a group of organizations who come together in times of emergency to help our communities.

Under the UV Strong umbrella, over 20 agencies and community representatives work together to respond to urgent needs in our region. The organization was first launched in 2011 in response to Hurricane Irene. In March 2020 UV Strong was reactivated to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UV Strong’s purpose is to connect people in need to services, coordinate resources, and share expertise. In response to COVID-19, UV Strong is focused on issues including child care, housing, support for seniors, food access, and transportation.

We are your neighbors helping neighbors. At our core, we support agencies you already know, such as the Upper Valley Haven, LISTEN, and many more. We know that by working together, we will achieve more than we ever could alone.

• For people who want to volunteer - VolunteerHub link: http://vhub.at/uvstrong
• For groups and organizations with needs - Google form link: https://forms.gle/cjwe9tnMvLp4PL5H9
• Check out UV Strong on Facebook @uvstrong.org

Women's Health Resource Center. The Resource Center provides feminine products, baby diapers, and also has some baby formula available at this time. Contact information: Phone- 603-650-2600; Email- whrc@hitchcock.org. The Resource Center is located at 9 Hanover Street, Lebanon next to Three Tomatoes.

Links to further information:

City of Lebanon https://lebanonnh.gov/1350/COVID-19

DHMC https://www.dartmouth-hitchcock.org/patient-education/coronavirus.html

DHHS NH Department of Health and Human Services

CDC CDC-Prevention and Treatment and CDC-Know The Facts

NHDOE https://www.education.nh.gov/news/doe-dhhs-helping-schools-prepare-covid-19

Upcoming School Board Meeting:

Wednesday, August 5, 2020 via Zoom video conference call.

Please visit the SAU #88 website for further information.

Link to Board Agendas and Minutes

Zoom tutorials are located here​​​​​​​.

The Lebanon School District, in partnership with the community, is committed to providing a challenging, positive and safe learning environment that CARES:

• Cultivates curiosity and collaboration
• Achieves academic excellence
• Respects and values diversity
• Encourages responsible citizenship
• Supports the needs of every learner

Website: www.sau88.net
Location: 20 Seminary Hill Road, West Lebanon, NH, USA
Phone: 603-795-8500