The holiday season is upon us, and I know we’re all excited to spend time with family and friends and enjoy celebrations and traditions that were put on hold during the pandemic. We have had a wonderful start to the school year, and I am grateful for having students and staff back at school and life returned to campus. As you are probably aware, the COVID numbers are starting to increase in Essex and Manchester. The good news is our layered mitigation efforts have been successful at minimizing in-school transmission; however, like other communities, we are experiencing an uptick in the number of external student and staff positives and close contacts. Our priority goal for the year remains maintaining in-person learning and minimizing risk to the health and safety of all in attendance. To help us meet our goal, I ask your assistance in continuing to be diligent in using COVID precautions (masking and distancing) at home and to complete the MedBot screener each morning before school.
MERSD Layered Mitigation Plan
- Current COVID
procedures
- MERSD/DESE has extended its indoor masking requirement
through January 15th.
- The Manchester Essex Regional School District will be
continuing its use of MyMedBot to
screen MERSD community members for potential COVID symptoms and exposure
each school day.
- Each
day you will be prompted to complete a very brief survey prior to sending
your child(ren) to school. This should take less than a minute. We
strongly encourage you to set a routine for yourself. PLEASE
complete the app at home at least 30 minutes prior to your
child’s school start time.
- If you
do not complete the survey, you will receive a reminder prompt.
- All
parent/caregiver emails on file will be linked to each student account,
allowing any parent/caregiver to complete the survey. If the survey has
been completed on one device, it will reflect in the app for all family
members.
- If you
have multiple children to report, they will all be linked in your account
and will display together on your conclusion window.
- If you
are told to stay home, please contact your school nurse by phone for
further instructions.
- Memorial
School: Joanne Seaman - seamanj@mersd.org
- Essex
Elementary: Nicole Grasso-Correnti - Grasso-CorrentiN@mersd.org-
- Middle
High School: Cyndi Aldrich - aldrichc@mersd.org
- This year positive cases are reported through our COVID
Dashboard. The data is officially updated on Wednesdays in preparation
for the filing of our state report. As always if you have
been identified as a close contact, the nurse will reach out to you
individually, and quarantined students will be contacted by the school
regarding procedures for managing work while absent. In the event
we should have a spike in the number of positive cases that impact a
classroom or team, I will send a notice to the MERSD
community. Quarantined students will be contacted by the school
regarding procedures for managing work while absent.
In addition to mitigation efforts, vaccination is a critical component
of our safety plan. I ask that you please vaccinate your eligible
children to help us keep our staff and students safe at school.
Thank you for your cooperation and have an enjoyable and safe Thanksgiving
holiday.
Sincerely,
Pamela Beaudoin
Superintendent
Manchester Essex Regional Schools
