North Andover Returns 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians,

In anticipation of numerous school reopening communications over the summer, our future “North Andover Returns 2020” updates will be in a short bulleted format to allow parents to quickly scan these emails for important updates.  

Dr. Gregg T. Gilligan

IN THIS EMAIL

• Introduction

• DESE DRAFT Guidance Expected Soon

• NAPS Planning Continues

Introduction

Thank you for working with the schools to support your children’s education during the covid school closure. Please know that our hope is to return to school in the fall in a manner that is safe, supportive, and resembles a typical fall opening as much as possible. We understand that remote learning has been a challenge for many students. As we plan for the reopening, there are many issues to take into consideration including schedules, remote or in-class instruction, transportation, extracurricular activities and the health and safety of our students and staff to name just a few.  

I hope you enjoy a healthy and safe summer. Please continue to check your emails and visit our North Andover Returns 2020 website for updates. 

DESE DRAFT Guidance Expected Soon

• We are expecting draft preliminary fall opening guidance from DESE this week.  

• DESE will also publish updates on their website www.doe.mass.edu 

NAPS Planning for Reopening Continues 

• While we have been collaborating regularly with town officials and our school leadership teams, our newly formed advisory groups will build upon these efforts starting with a group of 36 faculty, staff and administrators kicking off a reopening summit today to look at hurdles, options, and proposed solutions for various issues we will face reopening.

• We will continue working with our PTO presidents group and will finalize and meet with our parent advisory group this week. The role of the Parent Advisory Group will be to meet with the over 200 parents that have indicated they would like to participate by providing feedback regarding remote learning and school reopening. 

• Our goal is to have as many perspectives as possible across schools, programming and levels. These perspectives would provide insight and data as we plan for reopening.

Like so many other school districts, we are faced with many challenges as we plan to safely reopen the North Andover Public Schools for the 2020-21 school year.  We will use survey information, teacher feedback and input, along with information from our advisory groups, to counsel town and school leadership on the best way to reopen schools safely and in accordance with the directives from the Governor, Mass DPH and Mass DESE.