Press Release:
For Immediate Release- July 6
RSU 71 Task Force to Safely Re-Open Schools
DRAFT Plans for Safe Return to Classroom Instruction
Greetings, RSU # 71 Students, Families, Staff, School Board and Community Partners!
I’d like to start by extending hearty thanks to the 59 members of the RSU # 71 Task Force to Safely Reopen Schools to Classroom Instruction who answered the call to service, which I’d asked for in a May Update. We met as a whole task force and in many subcommittee meetings 2 throughout the month of June. On June 11, the Maine Department of Education released its first draft of a framework Maine Schools Return to Classroom Instruction Framework to assist schools in developing plans and capacity to meet guidelines set forth by CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). We have used this framework and many other resources to guide our work. We started with the premise that as a school district we would need to have a three-tiered plan, one that would allow for a full return to classroom instruction (Green Light), a partial return (Yellow Light) and, in the event that there were a local spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths, a return to an improved remote learning plan (Red Light). The advice of our school district’s physician, Dr. Joseph Anderson of Belfast Pediatrics, RSU # 71 parent Dr. Jeffry Cheskin, the American Pediatric Association, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has led nation-wide efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus all agree: we must find a way to get our students safely back to school in-person. As Dr. Fauci said: “The question is: how can we prudently, with sensitivity to the safety of the kids, get the children back to school” while also “protecting the teachers (and staff) and making sure that they have the capability?”
Read the complete document here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NYfNse1rND-gIgT1BF2DiF4UjnCEgL9F/view?usp=sharing