Hawk Mask

Hawks, 

Thank you so much for all of the community support and patience as we reopen our schools.  It was so refreshing to see our teachers back at their posts over these past two days.  Our leadership team has done a great job preparing us for so many changes.  

Here is a quick update as we begin school:

- School  Communication

You can find school and program updates on our websites and facebook pages. Please frequent these sites.  Here they are for your convenience: 

HHS Athletics,   HHS FB Page,   HHS Website 

HMS FB,   HMS Website 

PADS FB,   PADS Website,   PADS PTA 

Rec Department FB,  Rec Website

- Home Symptom Screening
Remember to screen your child each morning for any signs of COVID-19. If there are signs please do not send your child to school.  If you are unsure please keep them from school and contact your doctor.

Families and caregivers can help mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 in their school communities by keeping their children home from school if they are sick or have had close contact with a person diagnosed or suspected of having COVID-19. Checking for symptoms each morning by families and caregivers is critical and will serve as the primary screening mechanism for COVID-19 symptoms. Schools should provide information to families in their primary language to support them in conducting this check.

Parents/guardians should screen their children for illness before sending them to school and should not send their children to school if they are ill. The following questions are recommended for screening:

  • Do you feel sick with any symptoms consistent with COVID-19? (such as new cough, shortness of breath, or other)

  • Have you been around anyone who is unwell?

  • Have you been in close contact with a person who has COVID-19?

  • Within the past 24 hours have you had a fever (100.4 and above) or used any fever reducing medicine?

Any student or staff member with a fever of 100.4 degrees or greater, symptoms of possible COVID-19 virus infection, or use of any fever reducing medicine in the past 24 hours should not be present in school

Transportation:  Bus routes will remain the same.  Our drivers have lists of students.  Please go to your regular pick-up locations at the regular times.   It may take a couple of runs for us to iron out any glitches.  You can call your child's school if there are issues.  

We are looking to hire bus drivers.  If you know of someone that might be interested please email or call us. 

-Technology 

The school committee approved the use of federal COVID -19 funds to bring our schools, grades 3-12 to a 1:1 platform.  Staff and students will be happy to know that in September we will distribute MacBook laptops to grades 9-12.  The middle school will receive newer Lenovo laptops per the MLTI program , grades 3-4 will receive MacBooks and grades K-2 will share 40 iPads per grade level team.   This is all part of our REMOTE 2.0 effort to enhance learning for our in-person, hybrid and remote models. 

- PARENTS Opting for Homeschooling during COVID-19

You will be contacted by our Curriculum Connection Team to ask you a few questions about homeschooling and how we can help with your process.  Those families that have chosen this approach might consider working with us to receive our learning standards and specific curriculum while teaching from home.  We are guessing that most of you will be returning post-pandemic so we would like to keep you in our curriculum loop while you choose this model. 

Food Service

We will be serving food for both in-person and at home student days. 

Sign up on the following link for take home meals on at home days::

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAVXuLLUNlmQoSWKYFMW-jBBfDcpbNyvXg4kpVb84AinnjIw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Students will be sent home a weeks worth of meal choices on their first day.  All prices still apply for meals.  Please fill out a free and reduced application by October 22 2020 which will be sent home in the first day packets,. There is also directions on the paper application on how to apply online. 

- What if there is a case of COVID-19 in our schools?

We will immediately enact a 2-day reset period in order for us to have the time required to respond to the situation while not putting anyone else at risk.  We will follow our school plan and communicate with the Maine CDC.   Parents would receive a message much like is done for snow days.  

- Remote Only Families

Thank you for filling out our request forms.  We have a small remote team that will be reaching out to you soon.  Thanks for your patience as we organize and get that component started.  You will be receiving a permission/agreement for FERPA and Privacy Laws which you must adhere to in order to participate.  

- Homeschoolers 

Those families that registered with the DOE for homeschooling, we will soon be reaching out to you in hopes to help provide curriculum materials.

- Most recent Governor Mills letter about COVID-19.  

Governor Mills: One little match can spark a big fire that we might be unable to put out.  

 HERE  

Go Hawks! 

JIm Chasse

Superintendent of Schools
Hermon School Department
31 Billings Road
Hermon, ME 04402-6360
Tel: 207-848-4000