Return to school update from Milton Public Schools

As announced by Governor Baker earlier today, Jeffrey C. Riley, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, has released his Initial Fall School Reopening Guidance June 25, 2020. During this press conference, it was emphasized that the goal of the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is the safe return of as many students as possible to in-person school settings in the fall in order to maximize learning and address the holistic needs of students. He emphasized that all guidance is based on an extensive review of current medical literature and includes the implementation of a combination of mitigation strategies. We encourage you to review this document, which can be found here.

We will spend the next few days immersing ourselves in this document in order to better understand its contents and the implications for our planning. We will continue to engage with our faculty and staff through existing structures such as leadership teams, grade-level teams, and department teams and with you through the Milton Public Schools Return to School Task Force and regular communication throughout the summer. The RTS Task Force will be sending scheduled community check-ins so that all stakeholders can continue to be heard. We appreciate your willingness to collaborate with us on planning and look forward to continuing that collaboration as we craft three plans (see document) to be submitted to the MA DESE in August- a return to school with restrictions plan, a hybrid model plan, and a full remote learning model plan.

Given the need to begin planning sooner rather than later, we will take the following steps over the course of the next few days:

• Acquire portable sinks for entrances
• Continue to increase our stockpile of cleaning supplies, signage, and personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Apply for/acquire any additional State and Federal funding that is made available
• Identify isolation spaces in each building in the event a child or staff member becomes ill during the day
• Map out each classroom in each building to determine how many students and staff members, given this guidance, could be present in each available space

Again, these are our steps just for the next few days. Once we have had a chance to digest all that is embodied in this guidance document and engage with you, we will have a clearer sense of next steps (such as surveying families and staff about returning to school, laying out steps to craft the plans above, engaging with all stakeholders, etc.).

In the meantime, we thank you for your continued commitment to our students. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. Finally, we wish to remind you that you can find the latest return to school updates on the Milton Public Schools Return to School Task Force website.

Mary C. Gormley, Superintendent

Dr. Glenn Pavlicek, Assistant Superintendent for Business

Dr. Karen Spaulding, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Human Resources