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Reopening Update: Transportation Needs

9/22/2020

Dear North Smithfield Families,

I want to commend the kids for the way they have committed to keeping their classmates and teachers safe by wearing their masks and adjusting to new routines. I also want to thank our teachers for juggling the diverse learning needs of students both at-home and in-person simultaneously. Finally, thank you parents for all of your patience as we get used to this new reality and make adjustments and improvements.

I know extending our reopening beyond the Hybrid model is on everyone’s mind. Towards that goal we are assessing instruction, transportation, classroom space, movement of students, and general operations and protocols. In order to do this, we have some COVID-related capacity reductions and bottlenecks that we need to address, such as:

Transportation
Arrival/Dismissals
Maintaining social distancing within classrooms and other spaces
Cafeteria seating and breakfast and lunch services

Transportation Survey

As per the Rhode Island Department of Health regulations, school bus capacity will be restricted to 50% capacity or a maximum of 36 students. We need to know if we will exceed this limit and on which routes.

Below is a transportation survey form for those who absolutely require AM and/or PM bus transportation and have no other means to get to or from school.

If you are able to individually, or by carpool, drop-off and/or pick-up students every day, both morning and afternoon, we thank you, and you do not need to fill out this form.

We understand there are some days when bus transportation is not used such as when students remain after school for seasonal athletics and activities. We still need you to indicate that PM transportation is required as athletic seasons change and there will be days when afterschool activities are be canceled, yet we still need to be sure that we do not exceed the new bus capacity limits.

NSPS Transportation Survey Form link: https://forms.gle/7Ee3MVurGNDRxNBz5

We will close the survey Sunday night on Sept. 27th.

Thank you,

Michael St. Jean, Superintendent

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Reopening Update: Welcome Back!

9/11/2020

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Dear North Smithfield Families,

I wanted to take a moment to welcome everyone back to a most unusual and challenging of new school years and give you a few updates.

Transportation

Bus routes are now posted at https://www.dattcoschoolbus.com/my-childs-route/?did=6.
Most of our buses can seat 77 passengers, but we are limited to 36 maximum
Students must wear masks on buses and windows will be open.
Students can double up in a seat if they are from the same family.
During our Hybrid “soft opening” we should be able to accommodate all riders. However, I have instructed the bus company that if they reach the 36 student maximum, and there are a few stops remaining along the route, they can temporarily exceed the cap. We will not leave students at the bus stop and will rebalance as needed.
Busing restrictions are one of our major impediments to expanding beyond the Hybrid model. I will be posting a survey in order to identify those who absolutely need AM and/or PM bus service and who can rely on parent pickup/dropoff or rideshares.

Instruction

Our teachers this year have a major challenge balancing at-home, in-person, and hybrid instruction.
We have new systems, procedures, and methods to meet our diverse learner academic and social-emotional needs.
Attached are two curriculum slide decks used during teacher orientation and training.

Facilities

Over the summer we have updated, serviced, and tuned our HVAC systems and have passed inspection by the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH).
RIDOH also reviewed and approved our cleaning procedures, PPE, supplies, isolation rooms, and procedures.
Under the Hybrid, all classrooms can maintain 6 feet of social distancing between students.

Concerns

These are potential issues I have shared with the School Committee during the past few meetings. Our goal is a Full Return, but in order to realize this we will have to address and weigh the following concerns:

With a 36 student limit on a 77 seat bus, we will not be able to transport all students and will have to rely heavily on family and rideshare transportation to and from school.
To maintain 6 feet of social distancing within our classrooms, based on the average square footage of our classrooms, we are limited to 14-16 students per room. Under a Full Return model (minus the at-home learners), we will not be able to maintain the recommended 6 feet of social distance between student seats. While the RIDOH allows for as little as 3 feet of separation in a classroom, this is certainly not ideal.
Under Full Return, maintaining social distancing during arrivals, dismissals, cafeteria/meal services, and during the general movement of students, becomes exceptionally challenging.
As I expressed at the school committee meetings, staffing is a concern in that we do not know who may have to go in and out of quarantine and there is a lack of substitute teacher coverage statewide. We will have to be very creative and flexible.
Our student and staff safety is paramount. We must emphasize full compliance with mask-wearing and hand sanitizing. This is crucial to mitigate risks and permit expanding to Full Return where 6 feet of classroom social distancing is no longer possible.

The Hybrid start will allow us to assess conditions and further organize based on the new reality and not on conjecture. It will allow students and teachers time to acclimate to the new processes and procedures. As I mentioned at the beginning of this email, while I am confident that North Smithfield is up to any challenge, this one will take a whole community effort.

Michael St. Jean,
Superintendent

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superintendent's updates

Reopening Update: Transportation Needs

Reopening Update: Welcome Back!

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