May 12, 2020
Dear Parents/Guardians:
I hope this email finds you well. As you heard last week, Governor Lamont, through executive order, announced schools would remain closed for the remainder of the year. Hearing this news certainly creates additional feelings and emotions about the remaining weeks of schools. As we look to conclude the school year, your role in supporting your child's learning is very important and we thank you for all that you have done to accommodate and support your child's learning while at home. This is and continues to be difficult for you, students, and the staff but we can achieve the unimaginable by working together.
Starting next week, and during the next five weeks, the District will facilitate students/parents retrieving personal belongings left in school. Each building principal will communicate with their parents and guardians regarding the specifics of how this will take place. Our District is also considering appropriate and safe ways to honor students for reaching their milestones. In particular, high school graduation, and the completion of elementary and intermediate schools. Anything we plan must adhere to the guidelines/recommendations and directives of our State officials and our local health department.
The District is also focusing on the transition from school closure to re-opening. We regularly participate in state-wide calls and regional discussions about reopening schools. In the immediate, summer programming and extended school year are at the forefront of our thinking and planning. All of this is challenging, and like you, the District would like to have more specificity regarding how we can safely reopen school. Our District is in the process of assembling an Ad Hoc BPS Reopening Committee to consider the many aspects of reopening and returning to school. In the weeks and months ahead more information from State and Public Health officials will be available to direct our thinking and to guide our decisions about school reopening.
Finally, I want to thank you for the amazing work you are doing to support your child during a profoundly complex time in history. What you have done and continue to do is a labor of love and an amazing act of selflessness. We are grateful for everything you are doing!
We make a living by what we get...but we make a Life by what we give - Winston Churchhill.
Warm regards,
Hamlet M. Hernandez
Superintendent of Schools