Good Afternoon Parents & Friends of Marblehead Community Charter Public School,

We continue to follow the fast-developing information regarding the Coronavirus/COVID-19 and the possible impacts to our communities and schools. Please note that as this situation is rapidly evolving, we may send out other information on short-notice regarding possible impacts on our school. 

We will keep the school open until there is an elevated concern within our community or receive guidance from public health officials. We are monitoring the situation closely and will update the community as the situation evolves. Once again, these events are changing by the hour and we are monitoring things closely. 

We want to provide you with up-to-date information. You can help us do that by:
  • Making sure we have your most recent contact information (email, phone). If it has changed recently, contact the school via email (Katherine Koch: KKoch@marbleheadcharter.com) to update it. 
  • Checking your email and the MCCPS website (https://marbleheadcharter.org) daily for updates.
  • Contacting the school regarding student absences.


Here are some important updates for our community. 

CANCELED EVENTS :
  • Our Exhibition of student learning scheduled for the evening of Thursday March 19 has been canceled. We are planning for an alternative method for students to showcase their work. 
  • The 25th Anniversary Celebration Event scheduled for the evening of Saturday April 4 has been canceled. We are planning an exciting online auction in April.
  • The Destination Imagination competition that many of students were scheduled to participate in this weekend has been canceled.
  • The Charter Cup basketball tournament has been canceled.



CHANGES IN PROCEDURES :
  • If your child is experiencing any health-related symptoms, please err on the side of caution and keep your child home from school. These will be recorded as excused absences.
  • Please notify the school if your child will be out and share the symptoms with us, so that we may track this information.
  • While we have prided ourselves on being a school that welcomes parent visitations at breakfast for community meeting and at lunch, we are respectfully requesting that you limit your visits to our school so that our learning environment is more contained in the short term to faculty, staff, and students. We appreciate your cooperation with this request. 



KEEPING THE BUILDING CLEAN & HEALTHY :
  • Staff/Faculty members have all been instructed to stay home if they have any flu-like symptoms. While they will utilize their allotted sick days, they will not be penalized for going over their number of days out during the month of March. 
  • The facilities department and cleaning crew have increased the frequency of sanitizing the school’s door handles, sink handles, toilets, tables and desktops. 
  • We have provided classrooms with hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes so that informal cleaning can take place throughout each day.
  • We have urged students and staff to discontinue hugs, handshakes, and high-fives. While we are a tight-knit community, we will avoid these interactions. 



HOPE FOR THE BEST, PLAN FOR THE WORST :
  • Friday March 13 is an early release day. The faculty will spend the afternoon putting in place plans for learning should we be mandated to close the school for an extended period of time.
  • One component of a learning plan if the school will be closed for an extended period of time will include digital (distance) learning via our Google Classroom platform. If you do not have access to a computer/laptop/tablet or wifi, we will work with you to access any lessons/activities we ask students to complete. Please let us know if you do not have this access. Contact Matt Cronin mcronin@marbleheadcharter.com
  • Reading is the best thing that students can do. Every student should be reading for 30 minutes per day every day, not just during this health scare. 
  • The school is currently assessing possible changes/cancelations to upcoming field trips including the 8th grade trip to Washington, DC, the 6th grade trip to Nature’s Classroom, and the 4th grade field trip to the Peabody Essex Museum. We will share decisions on these trips as soon as possible. 

Peter Cohen, Ed.D
Marblehead Community Charter Public School
Head of School