Dear Friends,
It has been an interesting start to our school year as our district continues to operate through COVID conditions. As most of you are aware, EHPS has been operating in a remote environment since 11/30/20. Over the past 27 instructional days, we have been so impressed at the consistency, effort and focus of our students, faculty and community. In East Hartford, we have certainly learned how to make lemonade with any lemons we’ve been given. Our most sincere thanks!
In this column, we wanted to echo an important district communication previously sent updating our community reminding our families of our plan to bring In-Person Learners (IPL) back to school on January 19th as a component of ReOpen 3.0. In this model, all Remote Learners will continue to receive five virtual days of instruction/week at home. Please take the time to review the overview of our plan that is posted in the News Stories at www.easthartford.org.As we have worked hard to “follow the data,” we continue to closely monitor three separate factors that will continue to influence the decision to return students and staff to our school.
- 1) Health of our district students
- 2) Health of our district faculty
- 3) Public transmission data
Last week, we received data from the Department of Public Health marking the rate of new COVID-19 cases/100,000 population at 80.7. This data reflects cases from 12/20/20 – 1/02/21. While we had seen significant decreases from the post-Thanksgiving surge, we will continue to monitor this data carefully. Notwithstanding, we wanted to remind you of our current plans for 1/19/21 and assure you that if things change, we will let you know. As we look forward to bringing our students back in person, we will continue to work together to be safe, incremental, and adaptive.
Over the next week, in partnership with the East Hartford Department of Public Health, we will carefully monitor the factors impacting our decision to bring students back in our buildings. If changes are necessary to protect the health and wellness of our community, we will notify you immediately. We appreciate your continued support and flexibility.
If we can be of service to you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us at your convenience (Mr. Hall– hall.br@easthartford.org, Mr. Quesnel – 860-622-5107 or quesnel.nd@easthartford.org.
Thankfully with Great East Hartford Pride!
Bryan R. Hall, Board of Education Chairman, Nathan Quesnel, Superintendent, East Hartford Public Schools
