Wednesday's Words
February 24, 2021
Dear Parents,
I hope you all enjoyed the February vacation and had a chance to enjoy some time with your families. We certainly didn’t have the best weather, but are hoping that we have seen the last of the snow for this school year! As you are aware, the district continues to work on plans for bringing students back to in person learning beginning in April. It is our goal to return students to in person learning as quickly and safely as possible.
In order for our district to move forward with these plans, we will have to decrease social distancing in our classrooms to less than six feet. While we are able to accommodate this in the classroom, the Massachusetts Department of Education and the Department of Public Health continue to require a minimum of 6 ft. of social distancing among students during lunch, snack and mask breaks. This presents a significant challenge for our district due to physical space limitations at both school buildings. The H. Olive Day School is already at capacity and we have no open space. We are currently working on creative solutions to expand the capacity of the H. Olive Day School cafeteria in order to allow us to accommodate approximately 60 students at a time for lunch while adhering to the social distancing requirements. We will need at least 2 lunch periods per grade level and time to clean and sanitize spaces between groups. The Freeman-Kennedy School cafeteria can accommodate slightly more students (approximately 80) but will also require multiple lunch periods at some grade levels.
In order to adhere to the minimum safety guidelines, we will also need to access outside space to support snack and mask breaks for our students. Our cafeterias will be in use for the vast majority of the day and, unfortunately, our classrooms don’t accommodate students with the required 6ft. distancing. The district is currently evaluating the best way to leverage outside learning areas, including considering bringing back tents like the ones we leased in the fall for this purpose. Unfortunately we can not do this until the snow melts and the winter weather is over. Additionally, to protect the health of students and staff members in the classrooms with decreased social distancing, we will need to increase ventilation and adjust our HVAC systems to elevate the amount of outside air that is brought in. We are not able to do this with temperatures in the 30's, as our heating systems can not handle this increased load.
At this time, the district continues to aggressively work on all of these required changes and operational plans so that we will be ready to move forward as soon as conditions allow. We also continue to work on plans for hosting a vaccine clinic for all Norfolk Public School staff, once the state opens the program to educators. We were pleased to see that Massachusetts has released new safety guidelines for school transportation, as this will greatly support our planning efforts. Next week we will be sending a survey out to parents to determine if families will be changing their transportation choices as we transition into Phase III. We will also be asking parents to confirm whether or not they intend to send their children back to school once we adjust the safety protocols. Please keep an eye out for this survey, as your responses are critical to our plans as we revise bus routes and assess educational spaces.
Enjoy this week’s warmer weather and let’s hope it is a sign that Spring is approaching!
Ingrid Allardi
Superintendent
Budget Public Hearing
In accordance with Chapter 71 (Section 38N) of the Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) a public hearing, for the purpose of discussion of the proposed FY2022 Annual School Budget, will be conducted by the Norfolk School Committee on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, commencing at 7:00pm, in the Norfolk Town Hall, Room 124, located at 1 Liberty Lane, Norfolk, MA. This meeting shall be physically closed to the public to avoid group congregation. Alternative public access to this meeting shall be done through NCTV. This application will allow users to view the live meeting. During the public comment segment, the meeting will be open via the following link:
Meeting ID
Phone Numbers
(US)+1 518-897-9090
PIN: 577 028 391#
Budget documents will be available for review and/or public inspection in the office of the Superintendent of Schools during business hours (8:00am to 4:00pm) on Monday, March 1, 2021 and Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Any questions may be directed to Dr. Ingrid Allardi, Superintendent at 508-528-1225.
Go Guardian
The Norfolk Public Schools issued a Chromebook to every student in grades one through six this year. To help keep your child safer and on task online, we are using online monitoring and filtering services provided by GoGuardian.
We have chosen GoGuardian Admin and GoGuardian Teacher services to:
● Help protect students against harmful and inappropriate online material
● Help students stay on task and more focused when learning online
● Help assess students’ progress towards class assignments
● Facilitate communication between teachers and students during class time
Grade 4 Kindness Community Service Project
Term 2 Report Cards
As part of our continued effort to reduce paper and limit our environmental footprint, the district will be implementing a new 'Parent Portal' called iParent, where parents will be able to access information about their child's school attendance, as well as view his/her/their report cards. We will not be sending home hard copies of report cards for Term 2 (T2), but will make the report cards available for you to review through iParent. If you do not have access to a computer or internet, hard copies will be made available upon request, by calling the H. Olive Day School office at
508-541-5475 or the Freeman-Kennedy School office at 508-528-1266.
If you have more than one child in the district you will get multiple emails/connect-eds with your student/s ID.
Please make sure you only create ONE iParent account and register ALL your children who are currently attending Norfolk Public Schools at the same time.
Please click on the link below to register for your iParent account and set up your login and password.
You can create your own user id and password.
Your user id cannot contain any spaces.
Your password has to be a minimum of 6 characters long.
Please refer to the Connect-Ed message from February 4th for your student's ID#.
New Quarantine Requirements
As a result of the declining Covid 19 case counts both locally and across the state, and consistent with guidance from the CDC, the Norfolk Public Schools will be further reducing the current requirements for quarantine for individuals who are close contacts of a Covid 19 positive individual. Effective immediately the district will reduce the length of the quarantine period to ten days for close contacts who have not experienced any Covid 19 symptoms. Students may return to school on day 11. Testing is not required for close contacts who have shown no symptoms. Close contacts will be required to actively monitor for symptoms and take their temperature daily through day 14. If symptoms arise, the close contact must immediately self-isolate and should notify the school nurse and be tested for Covid 19. To view the updated guidance issued by the Regional Public Health nurses over the February vacation, please click on the link below.
How to Navigate I Parent to Access Your Child's Report Card
Third Grade Remote and Hybrid learners Play Math Games in Breakout Rooms
Norfolk Public Schools
Email: allardi@norfolk.k12.ma.us
Website: www.norfolk.k12.ma.us
Location: 70 Boardman Street, Norfolk, MA, USA
Phone: 508-528-1225