Belmont Public Schools: Belmont Public Schools January 3, 2022 Return To School Update

Press release from Belmont Public Schools:

12/31/2021

Dear Belmont parents and guardians -

We will open school with a one-hour delay on Monday, January 3rd. This will give the district time to provide all staff with the KN95 masks provided by the state and update them on the new COVID-19 guidelines. If the tests provided by the state arrive in time, we will provide them to staff to test before students arrive on Monday. This will also give our school nurses time to review emails from families with health questions. If you have emailed the nurse with a question about a COVID scenario, please keep your student home until you receive a response from the nurse.

As you may have seen on the news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed the guidelines for isolation (when you are infected with COVID-19) and quarantine (when you are a close contact/exposed to COVID-19) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education have adopted these updated guidelines for all school districts.

Our Belmont community has done a great job since September monitoring symptoms and staying home when sick. Your conscientious adherence to the guidelines has allowed us to keep schools open. Following the guidelines will be even more important in the coming days and weeks as we face the increase in cases due to the Omicron variant.

Here are reminders and recommendations:

This year it has been our primary goal to open safely and to remain open. We remain committed to this goal through our multiple mitigation strategies, which include universal masking, air purifiers in all classrooms, strict adherence to monitoring symptoms and staying home when sick, participating in pooled testing, and getting vaccinated and boosted when eligible. We are reviewing protocols for all aspects of the school day, especially lunch and snack, in order to maximize social distancing.

We are in the process of updating our website with the latest information from CDC, DPH, and DESE, and will send updated FAQs to you as needed.

While these next few weeks might be challenging, we are confident that with our collective commitment to keeping all students safe and in school, we will get through this.

Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year.

Respectfully,

John P. Phelan
Superintendent of Schools
Town of Belmont

This press release was produced by Belmont Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.