Principal Newsletter 3/11/2021

Thursday, March 11, 2021

 

  • Parent teacher conferences will be conducted virtually on Thursday, March 18th and Friday, March 19th.  These are half days with a noon dismissal. If you haven’t already scheduled your conference, please reach out to your child’s teacher.

  • Wednesday, March 17th there is a Friends of Sheffield (FOS) meeting virtually from 4:45-5:30.  Please contact either Lesley Cogswell at lescogs@gmail.com or myself at melissa.pitrat@gmrsd.org if you’d like an invitation to this meeting.

  • Wednesday, March 17th there is a free Internet Safety Presentation by the Northwestern District Attorney’s office from 6:00-7:00 pm.  The flyer will be sent out separately, so be watching for it.

  • Every year we provide a letter sharing our district report card.  This will be sent out tomorrow.

  • The Governor has directed Massachusetts elementary schools to go back to full time in-person learning starting on April 5th.  Students will be seated in their classroom 3 feet apart, rather than 6 feet, and they will continue to eat both breakfast and lunch in their classrooms.  Our arrival and dismissal procedures will remain the same at this time.  There may be some classroom changes due to the increased number of students in a room and the need for them to be 3 feet apart.  Many of our staff have received vaccinations or are trying to acquire one.  Please consider sending your child/ren back to school full time, including Wednesdays.  The district will be sending out a survey soon to hear your intent for April 5th.

  • I will be sending out again the consents to test your child with the BinaxNow and Pool testing for COVID 19.  It is important to have everyone participate and complete the consents as this is another layer of mitigation and protection against the virus.  Those that do not provide consent in the program will be required to quarantine if a positive test result is in their pool group.  Those that participate in this program can continue in school if they receive a negative test by the BinaxNOW rapid antigen test kits we currently have in school.

  • Now that most students are back in school I’m going to request that if the classroom is cool/cold that students can wear their coat or a winter hat, but not baseball caps or hoods in class.

  • With full days ahead, we are planning on having Ms. Hopp, our technology teacher, continue her role of assisting the IT department at least through the end of the year.  We are currently advertising for a Science teacher to be our fifth Specialist teacher.

 

With Sheffield Pride,

Melissa Pitrat