October 16, 2020
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DISTRICT NEWS
SCHOOL COMMITTEE

NEXT MEETING is
October 19, 2020

TOPICS INCLUDE:
Pool Testing,
Lilja Prinicipal Entry Plan,
Parent feedback plan for current learning models,
COVID funding updates.
You can email the School Committee with any questions, concerns, or comments: 
KENNEDY BUILDING PROJECT
COMMUNITY NOTICES
COVID-19 RESOURCE SITE
TECHNOLOGY REQUESTS

Technology Requests are Being Addressed on a Rolling Basis. Mr. Roche, our Director of Technology, is notifying families of pick up and (in some cases) doing mobile delivery.

As more Chromebooks become available, we will continue to call families.
COVID TESTING FAQs
(click to enlarge image)
ACADEMIC HELP DESK IS HERE TO HELP!
Natick's Academic Help Desk is designed to offer support to students who are working remotely in grades K-12. The help desk is staffed by Natick Public Schools teachers and available to all students in the hybrid and remote learning models every Monday through Thursday.
Dear Natick Community,

It was a terrific week and we are excited to share sneak peeks at the new KMS through our social media platforms — where, after five years of planning and working and building — we had our first day of staff training in the building, which was very exciting!

We are looking forward to tours for the community and an opening ceremony soon. We open new KMS to students after the Winter Break.
Picture of outside the new Kennedy Middle School
NPS STUDENT IN TOWN-WIDE LEADERSHIP
We are pleased to announce NPS student NHS senior, Nora Elbasha, as the school committee representative on the Select Board's Task for on Equity and Diversity. Ms. Elbasha will join me on this important town board as we seek to make our community a more anti-racist, inclusive, and diversity-supportive one. Ms. Elbasha is a leader at NHS and an advocate for this work. Congratulations!
OPEN HOUSES/CURRICULUM NIGHTS
It is our pleasure to be able to present virtual open houses and curriculum nights broadcast right into your home with flexible nights and hours available to parents to ensure no conflict of events and ample time to visit all the virtual content provided by teachers and principals.

Many have occurred last week, but here are the TIMES FOR CURRICULUM NIGHTS & OPEN HOUSES (View Here)

I would like to hear family feedback on the experiences you had at virtual open houses. This will help us to know if it was a positive experience or not. email [email protected] or the Speak Up, Natick! portal on our website.

SPEAKING OF FEEDBACK
How's Hybrid / Remote / Live Education going?

NPS is a learning organization and we want to continuously better our educational model delivery. No matter how your child(ren) are attending school this year, we will be seeking feedback from you in the coming weeks. A thought exchange will be conducted for staff, students, grades 7-12 and parents for all models, with particular questions for those receiving special education services.

OFFICE HOURS
In addition, the superintendent and school committee will run office hours with targeted topics for you to pop in and give us feedback. Links for each session will be shared in next week's blast. Please join us to give us feedback on:
  • 10/26: Special Education service delivery/experience, 5pm
  • 11/4: Office Hours and Remote Learning (both fully remote and remote portion of hybrid) Experiences, 5:00pm
  • 11/10: Student Supports , 5:00pm
  • 11/16: Workload for Students, 4pm
FREE AND REDUCED LUNCH APPLICATION

While currently, the federal government is allowing all students to obtain free breakfast and lunch, this will extend until December 31, 2020. If you intend to apply for free and reduced lunch for the second half of the school year, please submit your application now.

COVID UPDATES
In conjunction with the Natick Board Of Health, the following overview of Virus Thresholds and COVID Closure and Communications Procedures. This is a guiding framework for use in the coming months as we work to keep schools healthy.

For your ease, we will update the NPS COVID dashboard every week with the Board of Health. The Board of Health will work with Dr. Nolin, the superintendent, to make decisions about virus impact to classroom, school and district closures or openings.

The Board of Health has some latitude within aspects of the framework relative to virus clusters (i.e. high rates of nursing home infections should not dictate the closing of schools but would create higher overall community reflection rates). Each Friday, we will also indicate any schools who have quarantined cohorts and overall confirmed cases. However, a three week window of data for the community as detailed in the above memo will be the indicators used by the Board of Health to decide our open/closure rates. Classes and individuals who must be quarantined will be notified by both our nurses and the Board of Health. Rigorous contact tracing and COVID notice procedures will then ensue.

All individuals directly affected are contacted personally and in writing. Here are our communication procedures. Cases are tracked by the BOH, NPS nursing staff and the Department of Education Mobile Virus Response Unit.
REMINDER: FOR ALL HYBRID & FULL TIME LIVE STUDENTS
ALL STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO RECEIVE A FLU SHOT BY DECEMBER 31, 2020.

FLU CLINICS WILL OCCUR IN COMING MONTHS

Please call your school nurse office or email your proof of vaccination prior to December 23, 2020 (Start of Winter Break). Click Here for Contact/Place to Send Completed Vaccination

FYI: TRAVEL ADVISORY BELOW
Have a nice weekend,
Anna Nolin
WEEKLY SCHOOL UPDATES
NATICK HIGH WEEKLY UPDATE
KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST ON WHAT'S HAPPENING AT NHS
Read the weekly Redhawk eblast by clicking on the button below!
CLICK BELOW UPDATES FROM THE
FEATURED UPDATES
Virtual BOKS Natick 
BOKS is Back and it is FREE!! We have gone virtual and are excited to have FUN and get you moving!
BOKS will run on MWF, 10/14 through 12/18, from 7:30am-8:00am for live classes OR you can go into our Google classroom and pick which workout is right for you! Please use the link below to log on:

GOOGLE CLASSROOM CODE
Code: cusysvu

GOOGLE MEET CODE
Code: natickboks

Hope to see you at BOKS - The BOKS Team
Want Advice On purchasing a Laptop? Email the Tech Help Desk.

Please know that personal laptops or other devices cannot be used at school on the school network, but you can certainly use them at home
ACTION REQUIRED
Annual Laptop/Chromebook Fees and Damaged Device Collection
If you have any questions or concerns please let email [email protected].

Technology Device Request or Repair Procedure
Effective immediately, all Technology Device Requests must be submitted to the Parent Support email: [email protected].

In addition, Parents/Guardians are discouraged from emailing Dr. Nolin, principals or school committee directly for technology device requests, as it severely delays submission time to the Technology Services Department.

Thank you for your cooperation!
Instrumental Music Lessons
Now, more than ever, we need the fine arts! The Natick Public Schools is happy to announce that we have opened registration for instrumental music lessons for grades 4-12.

For information and to register, Head over to 
Need Care for your Teen on Their Remote Weeks?
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