Stoughton Public Schools: Update To Families From Interim Superintendent Ford (August 17, 2021)

Press release from the Stoughton Public Schools:

August 17, 2021 - 11:22am

Dear Parents/Guardians,

On Tuesday, August 17th, at 7:00 PM the School Committee will meet and select a new Superintendent of Schools.  The meeting will be broadcast live on SMAC - Comcast 6 and Verizon 26 in Stoughton. The meeting agenda can be found here: School Committee Agenda 08-17-21

The District has sent out a survey on face coverings that will remain open until noon on Tuesday, August 17th.  A single, personalized link was sent to each family, as well as each student in Grades 7 – 12. There has been some confusion related to the survey, as the software utilized by the District inadvertently identified the sender as “Helpdesk”, as opposed to the Stoughton Public Schools.  If you overlooked the email, please take the time to pull it up and complete the survey. The District has already received over 1250 responses.

I would like to remind parents/guardians that the Stoughton Public Schools is working with Transformative Health Solutions to provide a COVID-19 vaccine clinic to those who are 12 and older.  The clinic will take place at Stoughton High School on August 26th, from 10am to 3pm. The link to the registration form is as follows: https://bit.ly/SPSClinic

Based on the most recent data provided by the Commonwealth, approximately 56% of those ages 12 – 15, and 71% of those ages 16 – 19, who are living in Stoughton are currently vaccinated.  The vaccination rate of our students will absolutely have an impact on the learning environment and the District’s ability to keep everyone in school this coming year.  If you haven’t already had your student(s) vaccinated, I would strongly encourage you to do so.

There are ongoing conversations in the community about the merits of students wearing face coverings at school.  When making a decision on issues such as this, the District relies on recommendations provided by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Department of Public Health.  Once the recommendation is received, its evaluated to determine whether it meets the needs of this particular community and our students.  In this case, local vaccination rates, incident rates, and community input are evaluated while taking into consideration the District’s ability to mitigate the impact of the virus through strategies such as social distancing, symptomatic testing, pool testing, and “test and stay” protocols.  The District also has to factor in how its decisions will intersect with its responsibility to conduct contact tracing, identify close contacts, and to quarantine students.  Leading up to setting expectations on this issue, I believe it’s important that families know that the District is putting in the time to fully understand how all the pieces fit together, and is committed to doing what’s best for this community. I will be presenting the District’s plan to the School Committee on August 24th.

On a final note, the District’s new website should be up and running by Monday, August 23, 2021.  Additional updates will follow from this office as we continue to prepare for the first day of school.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Ford

Interim Superintendent 

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