Image adapted from wikimedia. Photo of SHS by John Phelan
Recently, Superintendent Adam Steel released a statement to the town regarding the school district’s plan for segment 6. In the statement, Superintendent Steel made clear that students will have the opportunity to return to in-person learning.
Steel also made it very clear that, “these decisions are controversial” given a variety of developing factors such as surges in cases, the safety of staff and students, the concern of community members and the expenses accrued from such a model. However, Steel remains confident that students and staff can return if they maintain mask-wearing, proper hygiene, and disinfecting practices.
According to the Nixle statement, Steel asked the community to abide by following rules:
1. Acceptance and support for mitigation efforts, even if personal objections to them. Including masks wearing, social distancing, and hand hygiene.
Continued notification to the school district of all positive tests through the email covidalerts@sau39.org.
Parents/Guardians must complete a daily COVID screening before sending students to school each day. Parents/Guardians will be contacted to pick up students who come to school without a completed screening. The COVID screening is located in the PowerSchool parent portal (on a browser).
The school district encourages you to make good decisions outside of school. Be mindful that choices outside of school can impact the on-going success of our in-person model.
With this information, families need to make a decision based on their personal comfort and safety by the end of January 11th. Segment 6 will be two weeks long beginning on January 19th and ending on the 29th. In an email exchange, Steel stated, “I want all Souhegan students to know I understand how hard it is to be home and the value of our school.”