Greetings RSU # 71 Students, Families, Staff, School Board & Community,
At Monday night's school board meeting the board approved:
- Our 3-Tiered Green-Yellow-Red Plan to Safely Return Students to In-Person Instruction (see here). If the trajectory of the coronavirus changes and there is an increase, or if there is a positive case of COVID-19 in our RSU # 71 community, we may quickly need to move from green/yellow to red.
- K-8 students will return to school full time (GREEN) on the usual schedule. Students in grades 9 - 12 will be on the YELLOW tier of the plan, back in person two days per week on the usual schedule, and learning remotely during the other three days per week. Parents may choose to have their children continue to learn remotely instead of sending them back to school in person. (There are some families whose members have underlying health conditions that put them at risk. Others are wary that until we have a vaccine that is accessible to everyone, there is no 100% guarantee of safety.)
- The first day back at school for K-12 has been pushed up to Wednesday, September 2 so that Open Houses for K-5 students and families and Orientations for 6th and 9th graders can take place. Among other things, we need to have everyone trained in the safety protocols required by the state of Maine.
I hope that you are all doing well and taking care. I am taking a couple of days for a silent and solitary retreat at the Transfiguration Hermitage in Windsor, Maine. It is a monastic community in a beautiful setting, and the Sisters are fabulous cooks!! It is a wonderful place for thinking and reflection and has elicited in me profound gratitude for our fabulous RSU # 71 community, which has truly come together to creatively collaborate and solve problems during a civil emergency of gargantuan proportions.
Sending you thoughts of faith in our capacity to beat the pandemic and love,
Mary Alice