Hanover Public Schools Fall 2021 Opening Update 8/5/21
We continue to prepare for opening our schools in just a few weeks, and we are very excited to be back in school full-time with as much normalcy as possible. As you may know, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) issued guidance last week around COVID-19 safety issues for the opening of school. This guidance addresses wearing masks in school, quarantine procedures, vaccinations, and COVID-19 testing options and recommendations. We encourage you to review the DESE/DPH guidance to be fully informed on these issues. At this time, no decisions have been made about the approach Hanover will take regarding this guidance.
These are challenging and important issues for all of us, and we ask for your ongoing patience while our School Committee, school administration, and Hanover public health and safety officials evaluate all of the options available to inform the decisions that need to be made in the weeks ahead. Over the past year and a half, we have received frequent guidance and feedback from the CDC, Governor Baker, and DESE/DPH based on the trajectory of COVID-19 and state and local conditions. Throughout the pandemic, guidance from these agencies has changed frequently. Before any final decisions are made, it is important that we take the time that is necessary to ensure that there won’t be changes to this current guidance, and we need time to make informed and reasonable decisions on how best to resume the educational practices and experiences that our students, staff, and families need and deserve.
The School Committee will meet on Monday, August 23rd at 6:00 pm (in person and on Zoom) to discuss and evaluate these issues. Any required action on these issues will be taken at this meeting. We will keep this line of communication open to inform our school community of any decisions that need to be formally voted on by the School Committee. The agenda and Zoom links will be posted in advance of this meeting. If new guidance is released (or new information becomes available) that will impact these decisions, we will arrange an earlier meeting. In the meantime, we are taking comments on these issues through the Feedback Forum on our website that will be shared with the School Committee, and we welcome your participation.
Thank you for your attention to this important message, and please enjoy the rest of the summer!
Sincerely,
Matt Ferron
Superintendent