February 11, 2022 Dear Newton Families, As you are aware, Governor Baker and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announced on Monday that the current mask mandate in school buildings will expire on February 28, 2022. At that time, the decision will then rest with local school districts to determine their own masking policy. I want to outline the steps, together with a timeline, that the district will take to determine if any changes will be made to the current masking policy approved by the School Committee prior to the start of the current school year. Please see below for details: – Tuesday, February 15: The Medical Advisory Group (MAG) meets to discuss whether and when there should be a change to the current masking policy. – Friday, February 25: The Medical Advisory Group (MAG) finalizes its written recommendation to be shared with the NPS community. – Tuesday, March 1: The School Committee holds a special meeting to discuss and review the MAG recommendation. – Monday, March 7: The School Committee will vote on any recommended change to the district masking policy at their regularly scheduled meeting. As you can see from the timeline above, there will be no change to the current masking policy prior to March 7. I know and understand that there are a range of opinions from our families, faculty, and staff on whether and/or when to rescind the current mask policy. I do think this is an issue for which thoughtful, reasonable and well informed people have different perspectives. We will be sure to keep you well-informed through the decision making process. Sincerely, David Fleishman If you need this information translated, please copy and paste it into Google Translate. The link to Google translate is http://translate.google.com/ Korean: 한국어이 정보를 번역해야하는 경우 Google 번역에 복사하여 붙여 넣으십시오. Google 번역 링크는 http://translate.google.com/입니다. Portuguese: Português Caso precise traduzir esta informação, por favor, copie-a e cole-a no Google Tradutor. O link para o Google Tradutoré http://translate.google.com/ Spanish: Español Si necesita que se le traduzca esta información, por favor, copie y pegue en Google Translate. El enlace de Google Translate es http://translate.google.com/ |