Dear School Committee Members, Superintendent Provost, and School Principals,
We want to thank you all for the enormous effort and long hours you have put forth on behalf of our community. You must be flooded with people’s ideas, questions, feelings, and demands. We’re reaching out today not because we are advocating for hybrid or remote, but because we are concerned that communication from the district is not as clear, transparent, and accessible as is needed for families to make informed decisions at this critical time.
In an effort to offer some possible solutions and not simply critiques, we’re sharing an idea we think might be broadly helpful for NPS families: a spreadsheet that one of our members started initially to help the Bridge Street School principal collect and share answers to the many questions families were asking her. Considering many families have children in more than one school, making all information available in one document strikes us as particularly useful.
The first tab of the spreadsheet links to all documents we have been able to access about the shift in schooling plans for the district and individual schools, as well as information we have been able to gather about the town hall meetings scheduled this week and next. The next tabs are for information specific to the elementary, middle and high schools, in an FAQ format. As you’ll see, there are many questions to which we don’t (yet) have answers. We also acknowledge that there may be errors in the information included and we welcome your clarifications and corrections. In addition, we know that bargaining with NASE this week may change the plans.
You are welcome to adopt and adapt this document if you find it helpful, and we would be happy to partner with you on completing it and keeping it up to date as plans change. Please let us know if you would like to do either of these.
We want you to know that we will likely share the working document ourselves within the REAL community, via our email listserv and social media platforms, as our own members are struggling to understand the choices they have in front of them now.
We offer you our best wishes and solidarity as you continue to navigate this incredibly complex and challenging time.
Sincerely,
The REAL Team
REAL 