LYME SCHOOL

Dear Families and Colleagues,

As you may have heard, the School Board approved the School's request for an additional inservice day on October 8th, so we will have the 8th & 9th to develop solutions for questions identified by the faculty which need immediate attention.  

We understand the fact that this will require planning on the part of families and appreciate your understanding.  

There are efforts underway to investigate ways that our community can assist those families whose incomes rely on the school being open.  If you are one of these families, please contact the school so if plans solidify we can let you know,  please call 795 2125.

After several weeks of school, we possess greater understanding of conditions that exist.  On the 8th and 9th we will be working through many of these.  

As a school we also want to be sure to provide a clear understanding of how health mitigations are playing out.  Masks and our classroom distancing practices are working, students are tolerating masks well, and  pick up and drop off routines are becoming more efficient.  Recess, due to its unstructured nature, is the greatest challenge to help the kids maintain greater distances. This is why we are having them keep their masks on.  We share this because we do not want parents to have a false impression of any expectations they may hold.  We are working on ways that we can reduce the frequency of closer proximity, however it is unlikely that we will be able to eliminate it from happening. ( I have been told by parents that they understand this because they have children and often observe them at play 😁) Nevertheless, we as a faculty, felt it was important to communicate this so there was less stress associated with occasions when kids' urge to play together, offsets their “recollection" of the request that their teachers are making.  As much as anything, we don’t want to feel like we are letting anyone down, so we want to make clear what families can reasonably expect.

We also have a meeting planned for Tuesday, October 13th at 7pm to discuss strategies (such as a period of Planned Remote Instruction) around the holidays to account for the potential of increased interactions or travel.  We understand and value the social / emotional need to maintain family connections and we want to find a way to respect this while also keeping the risk of transmission lower.  (NH travel restrictions require a two week quarantine if you travel outside of New England and a negative test result does not allow you to be removed from quarantine.)  

We have not made any concrete decisions, but want families to be aware of the potential for such a change in time to plan their own lives around the holidays.

Thank you all for the understanding and patience which will help us get through the pandemic,

Jeff

Jeff Valence
DIstrict Administrator, Lyme School District SAU #76
35 Union Street, Lyme, New Hampshire 03768
www.lymeschool.org  |  facebook
Compassion • Integrity • Fairness • Perseverance • Courage• Responsibility • Acceptance of others • Individuality