January 4, 2022
Subject: Return to School on Monday, January 3rd, 2022

Dear North Shore Community Members,
I am writing to you now to advise every one of the school district’s plans for next week. As I do so, I am very aware that the health situation is a constantly evolving one, and what I write today could change by Monday. Still, I believe everyone deserves an update and, perhaps, the opportunity to plan. 

Today we surveyed our staff to gain a snapshot of our ability to open on Monday with sufficient staff to allow us to carry on a day of instruction and otherwise supervise students. I am sure you are as pleased to hear as I was that we do have sufficient healthy staff to open and that they report only some ongoing quarantine issues. 
I believe that a live opening is the correct path to follow now, and I do so because I consider schools to be an essential service, one that should be curtailed only when a closure cannot be avoided. 

When we return to live instruction on Monday, we will vigilantly exercise all of the caution we have previously demonstrated, and I will exhort all students and staff to follow and enforce the state’s mask mandate, that masks be worn appropriately and consistently, the opening of windows, the use of outdoor spaces (as weather permits), distancing to the degree required, the use of HEPA filters and otherwise maintain as safe an environment at school as we can accomplish. I also urge all who read this letter now to review the district’s health guidelines as posted on our website. Most important of these: please report all positive cases to school nurses or principals and if your child shows any symptoms of illness, please keep them home. 

Over the past week various changes in CDC and state protocols have been announced and we will examine them all carefully. However, the protocols we open with on January 3 are the same protocols we closed with on December 24. Changes in the quarantine periods, re-entry protocols and the use of home test kits will be evaluated and discussed publicly, just as other measures have been. The Board and I are committed to transparent decision making and I anticipate that these topics will be discussed at our next meeting, scheduled for January 6. 

One note on the much advertised home test kits that the state was to distribute: We have not even received our allocation yet and I am told that we will be able to pick them up from BOCES on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Their potential use will be one of the topics that will be publicly explored and discussed.
Along these lines, I will continue to look to county and state health offices to offer the guidance and leadership that their offices are more expert at. I hope they will play an active role in assisting us to assess our continued efforts. 

We all continue to hope that the health situation will improve. There are those who think this might be COVID’s last gasp and we might yet see better times. Until then, I hope we can stay focused on recognizing COVID as the enemy, and even if we might disagree on how we fight it, that we can all stay focused on beating it and emerging from this terrible situation united as a community. 

I will be ending most of my future correspondence wishing everyone a healthy New Year, as I  know we can all agree on the importance of that variable. 
Should the situation change, you will hear from me again. For now, please accept this notice that the North Shore Schools will reopen in live format on Monday, January 3, 2022.

Sincerely
Dr. Tom Dolan 
Interim Superintendent of Schools