Update: Social Distancing, Food, Internet Access, Illness, Extended Closure

Good Evening Families,

I hope all of you are doing well. Please see the following updates:

Important: Social Distancing:

Although we do not have a "shelter-in-place" order from Governor Sununu, we all need to do our part to stop the spread of this virus. We are now learning that our younger population is vulnerable too, after seeing new cases in children and young adults. As testing becomes more readily available, the number of confirmed cases will increase dramatically throughout our state and local community. We will see a significant spike in confirmed cases in the next couple of weeks. In order to help ourselves and our community, we need to practice social distancing. This has been a challenge for parents, including myself, who are trying to explain to our kids that they should not be getting together with their friends. Social distancing means that families should be keeping to their homes as much as possible. Kids should not be bouncing between friends' houses. Kids should not be coordinating events with a group of friends like playing basketball, hanging out in the neighborhood or other areas. If you need to get together with anyone, avoid groups, stay at least six feet apart, and preferably be outdoors. All of us will have to use FaceTime, Skype, Google Hangouts or other means for communicating and staying in touch with friends and loved ones... at least for now. 

Food:

Pick-up and delivery of meals will continue. Please refer to the email I sent out last Friday with the subject line "Food Pick-Up/Delivery Information". In order to minimize exposure to our staff, families, and students, we are planning to reduce the number of days for pick-up and delivery. This does not mean that you will receive fewer meals. This means that you will receive multiple days of food in one pick-up and/or delivery. I will keep you posted with any schedule changes in a separate email.

Internet Access:

In addition to the information sent out in previous updates, Verizon and AT&T are offering the following:

Verizon:  Will waive overage charges and late fees to support customers who may be financially affected by the COVID-19 crisis  Announces two months waived internet and voice service charges for current Lifeline customers and new internet option for low-income households  Adds 15GB of high speed data for wireless consumer and small business customers to be automatically applied with no customer action necessary  Verizon provides first responders with priority and preemption abilities for voice and data  Consumer and small business Fios and DSL broadband internet plans have no data caps. 

AT&T: AT&T has lifted all data caps for a 60 day period from March 13th. They are considering going further. The customer does have to affirmatively call 611 and ask for the data cap to be lifted for it to take effect.  

Other Internet Service Supports: Click on this link Internet Support

Illness:

Students and staff will likely require time to recover from illnesses as well as potential COVID-19 related issues. Counseling, Nursing, and Administrative staff will work with parents, guardians, and students to help resolve any issues or provide any assistance we can. Teachers will be flexible with their response to students encountering such issues. We ask in the strongest terms that you communicate health issues to school administrators and/or school nurses as soon as possible so we may provide appropriate support.

Extended Closure: 

Currently we are closed through April 3rd. However, both the Commissioner of Education and the Governor have publicly stated that there is a strong potential that this closure will extend well past April 3rd. The Governor is going to "re-evaluate" the extended closure on the day of or prior to April 3rd. I will keep you posted immediately with any updates.

I want to reiterate my sincere appreciation to all of you for all of your efforts. Please contact me with any questions or concerns. I will respond to you in a timely manner.

Michael

Michael J. Tursi

Superintendent of Schools

Shaker Regional School District

"Engaging All Learners to Succeed in Their Ever-Changing World"

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