Good Afternoon,

I am writing to notify the LPS community that after considerable deliberation and consultation with district leaders and town health officials, that from Monday, November 30 through Friday, December 4, the Longmeadow Public Schools will switch to remote learning for students in grades K-12. This message is being delivered now so as to provide staff and families with time to arrange professional and family schedules. Please note that this decision does not apply to the Integrated Preschool and to the district's special education programs serving our most vulnerable students. These programs, which include LINC, LLD, LLC, PALS, and Life Skills, will continue with in-person instruction. School administrative offices will remain open for in-person service.

A variety of factors were considered in making this difficult decision. Primarily, we are concerned about the impact of holiday gatherings on COVID-19 transmission and positivity rates. The ten days between Thanksgiving and Monday, December 7 will provide the District and town officials time to assess local and regional health metrics. In many ways, this is a preventative measure, one that will allow the community to assess and safely respond to expected increases in exposure and transmission. In our view, a temporary shift to remote learning, puts us in a better position to sustain hybrid, in-person learning through the remainder of the month of December. We want to avoid the possibility that large numbers of students and staff exposed over the holiday break would be in school beginning November 30. Our success in maintaining in-person learning is due to our efforts to limit in-school exposure. The decision to move to remote learning for one week is consistent with this approach and will hopefully position LPS to safely resume hybrid learning on December 7.

While the goal is to resume the hybrid model on this date, district and town officials will continue to monitor regional and community level data. This is a dynamic situation that requires daily attention. As a community, we have been successful in limiting exposure in school. We have had no evidence of in-school transmission and only six positive cases among students. However, our ability to conduct in-person learning on December 7 and every day beyond that relates to our continued, collaborative commitment to limiting exposure and slowing transmission rates. Working with town health officials, we will be regularly attentive to emerging patterns and trends. For information on state, regional and community level COVID data, you are encouraged to visit https://www.mass.gov/doc/weekly-covid-19-public-health-report-november-19-2020/download.

As always, I welcome your questions and concerns.

Sincerely,

Marty O'Shea

Superintendent of Schools

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