Good afternoon Springfield School District staff, students, and families,
This is your Superintendent of Schools, Zach McLaughlin.
I wanted to take a few minutes this afternoon to acknowledge a coming change in our general approach to COVID-19. Over the last few years, we have settled into following first the mandates and then later the recommendations that have been provided to us by our state level health officials at the Vermont Department of Health.
I wanted to acknowledge that today, the governor announced that the Vermont Department of Health will make a significant change in its recommendations for schools starting Monday, March 14th. The Health Department and the Agency of Education are still recommending that schools that have less than 80% of their student’s vaccinated should continue to mandate masking in schools for the next week; however, they recommend that schools move away from mandated masking as of Monday, March 14th.
This is a significant change for all of us. I know for some this will be a moment of relief and celebration and for others this will elevate your anxiety. Ultimately, the goal for the state is to move our schools away from having different protocols and procedures than we have for all the other parts of our lives in Vermont.
As a district team, we will work on what other aspects of our COVID protocols, beyond masking, will be changing and when. My hope is to communicate about some of those additional details towards the tail end of next week, but we would still move to the removal of the mask mandate starting March 14th.
As always, I continue to appreciate your understanding, patience, and support as we do our try to do our best for the children of Springfield.
Thanks for your time. I hope you have a great rest of your day.