An Important Message
from the
Superintendent of Schools

November 23, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last few updates, I have informed you of the increase in positive cases in our community and our schools. According to our most recent update, there have been 143 positive cases in the town of Stoneham since November 1, 2020. This represents a significant increase as we only had 55 cases in the town of Stoneham in the entire month of October. In addition, we have seen 19 positive cases of students and staff during November. We thankfully have not seen widespread transmission in our schools due in large part to the commitment of students and staff to follow key public health recommendations including handwashing, social distancing, and masking wearing. However, as COVID cases continue to rise in our community and our school there are significant challenges to keeping students and staff safe. 
 Given the upcoming school holiday and reality of families traveling and gathering together we have grown increasingly concerned about a continued spike in community transmission in the town of Stoneham and therefore within the schools. Because of this, I have made the difficult decision to have all Stoneham Public Schools move to the Remote Learning Model for the week after Thanksgiving (Monday, November 30 through Friday, December 4, 2020). During that week we will continue to monitor community and school positivity rates to determine if it is appropriate to return to the Hybrid Learning Model. We will communicate any updated information as soon as it is available.
  You should receive information from your child’s principal and classroom teacher regarding their remote learning schedule for the week. All special education students should refer to their SPS COVID-19 Special Education Learning Plan for links to their IEP services. Please be sure that your child(ren) has their Chromebook(s). If you do not have a Chromebook please contact your child’s principal as soon as possible so we can make sure that you have the technology you need. 
  We want to remind all school community members to use the Stoneham Public Schools COVID-19 Hotline Number -- 781-435-6151. Please call this number immediately to report a positive COVID test for a student or staff member or if a student or staff member has been in close contact with a COVID positive person. After you leave a message on the COVID hotline a Stoneham Public Schools staff member will be in touch with you shortly to discuss next steps. 
  As a reminder, the CDC defines close contact as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to test date).
We also wanted to acknowledge and thank the Stoneham Town Administrator’s Office who we have worked closely and collaboratively with since the start of the pandemic. Their assistance and guidance is appreciated. The town has a new Town of Stoneham COVID dashboard that is updated weekly. 
  These are difficult times for our school community and families. As a school community, we have and will continue to deal with the challenges faced by this pandemic, adapt to the situation, and provide a high quality education for all of our students. I wish all students and families a Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful for your support and patience.

Sincerely,  John Macero, Superintendent of Schools