Letter

November 19, 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians:

I hope you are all staying healthy, managing well, and getting and providing much needed support as we move forward day by day in this seemingly never-ending Corona Virus crisis. As summer gave way to fall, and as we now look towards winter with no end to this crisis in sight, we have all realized that we are settled in for the long haul. I want to thank you for all your efforts and understanding during these most difficult times.

I want to take some time to reflect on the issues of the day and to look forward and prepare for the days ahead. I see the Corona Virus cases increasing daily in our communities. We are monitoring it very closely and, even though we have had cases all around us, we have not had a positive case within our schools yet. It is getting very close and we have had numerous cases of exposures to exposures. To try and slow down the eventual inevitability of Corona in our schools, I am closing all our schools for the next week. To be clear, we will not have school from Nov. 23 through Nov. 27.

This extra two and a half days away from school will give us nine total days closed. Hopefully, this will be enough time to slow the potential spread within our schools, enough time for everyone to take a breath and enjoy some time at home with their families, enough time to take just a little bit of the stress and anxiety of Corona out of your lives, enough time for our students to catch up with their work (if they have any work they are behind on), maybe do some review and get ready to come back to school on Monday, November 30. There will be no school on these days, neither in school nor remote. Students will not be expected to work from home on these days other than any make-up work they may have or review work that they may choose to do.

I know that everyone has been working hard to maintain our school year, to support our students, your children, in the most stressful of conditions. Our School Board and I want to thank you for all that you have done and continue to do. So please take this time for you and your children to relax, reflect, and recharge and be ready to come back to school when we reopen on Monday, November 30. I hope that this decision to close next week does not add more stress and create more problems for you and your family than it solves. I know that for many families it increases the burden of finding childcare and for that I apologize. We are hoping that this short pause will allow us to avoid a much longer shut down in the future.

I wish everyone this short time of rest and relaxation and time to be with your family. We are all in this together, together we will move forward and together we will prevail. Take care of yourself and those around you.

Sincerely,

Ronald C. Ramsay

Superintendent of Schools

MSAD #37