TENANTS HARBOR — St. George MSU Superintendent Mike Felton released the following letter late March 12. 

Dear Families,

The situation with COVID-19, or the “coronavirus,” continues to rapidly develop. The first presumptive positive test in Maine was announced earlier today. Governor Janet Mills, based on the advice of the Maine Center for Disease Control (Maine CDC), advised that non-essential large, indoor gatherings of 250 attendees or more be postponed in order to delay a potential coronavirus outbreak and substantially reduce its spread. The Maine Department of Education (Maine DOE), released new guidance this afternoon recommending that schools plan to, among other things,

• Limit (cancel or postpone) mass gatherings that are not essential

• Postpone any non-essential out-of-state or international travel

• Reduce group sizes within your schools where you can: examples include classroom-based lunches, postponing assembly, cancelling or rescheduling concerts and celebrations

At this time (9:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 12), we plan to keep school open. We recognize the disruption that school closure will cause for families, working parents, and our community. However, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and any decision to close school will be made after consultation with the Maine CDC, Maine DOE, and local and state officials.

I want to share again some important resources that provide information about the coronavirus and actions public health agencies are taking to monitor, contain, and respond to the virus

• U.S. CDC – includes information on what people need to know about the virus and provides national and international updates

• Maine CDC – additional information on the coronavirus and updates specific to Maine

• Maine CDC Fact Sheet – provides quick answers to common questions about the coronavirus

Based on this latest guidance from the Maine CDC and Maine DOE, discussions with other superintendents, and monitoring of rapidly developing situation, St. George School is taking the following steps in addition to the steps described in the Friday, March 6 notice to families:

• Parent conferences scheduled for Friday, 3/13 are cancelled. As planned, students will be dismissed at 12:30 p.m. Staff will use the afternoon to receive training and continue to develop plans to provide instruction to students in the event of an extended school closure.

• Pandemic Instructional Response Plan. Teachers and staff have already invested substantial thought, time, and effort, designing ways to deliver instructions and services to students if school is closed for an extended period of time. You can find our Pandemic Instructional Response Plan here. Teachers will be sending more detailed information home to families over the next week. Our Pandemic Operational Response plan is here. Both plans will be updated and adapted to meet the needs of our community.

• All staff trips to off-site workshops, trainings, and conferences are cancelled until further notice.

• All field trips are cancelled until further notice.

• All school-based events involving large crowds are postponed until further notice. This includes Math Night, 8th Grade March Madness, and the Mussel Ridge Basketball Tournament. The school will reschedule Math Night and March Madness and the Parks & Recreation Committee is working to reschedule Mussel Ridge.

• Most grades will each lunch in their classrooms. Lunch will continue at the regularly scheduled time, but most grades will eat lunch in their classrooms. Larger classes, will eat lunch in the cafeteria (e.g., 2nd grade, one of our larger classes will eat lunch in the cafeteria while 3rd grade, which is smaller and usually eats with 2nd grade, will eat in their classroom). This will help keep our students spread out and reduce the amount of time they are in large groups and gatherings.

• Recess will continue as scheduled. There are no changes to recess at this time. The advantages of getting kids outside for their physical, mental, and emotional health outweigh other concerns at this point.

• We are planning to offer St. George School students breakfast and lunch in the event of any extended closure. Families will be able to sign up for breakfast and lunch 1 week at a time using an online form or by calling in. More details on menus and sign-up procedures for breakfast and lunch in the event of an extended school closure will be shared soon. If school is closed for an extended period of time, we are planning to deliver breakfast & lunch to students’ homes using our buses and vans. Food will be left outside of the house. Any St. George student can sign up for breakfast and lunch. This delivery system could also give us the ability to deliver work packets to students. Students will not hand in any worksheets delivered to their homes. However, they could take a picture of the worksheet using a mobile phone or other device and send that picture to their teacher.

• We will communicate with families regularly through email and the school website. Please make sure that the school has your most up-to-date contact information.

• Keep your child home if they are sick. This has never been more important. Based on available evidence from the U.S. CDC, children do not appear to be at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults. While some children and infants have been sick with COVID-19, adults make up most of the known cases to date. However, we want to do everything we can to prevent the spread of the virus should it reach our community and protect students, staff members, and – especially – children and adults with underlying medical conditions.

• School-wide Behavior Interventionist Amy Hufnagel, School Social Worker Stephanie Simmons, School Nurse Autumn Belajonas, and Instructional Administrator Adam Bullard will work with classroom teachers to support students who are experiencing anxiety about the spread of COVID-19. Some parents have shared that their children have expressed fear of attending school or being around other students. We need to counter fear with information, facts, and - above all - a message that we are all in this together and will do whatever it takes to care for our children.

• We are in this together. That is the most important message. We are community. We don’t run or turn inward in fear during challenging times. We rise up and take care of one another. It is in times like these that you learn the true character of an individual, a community, and a people. Our school-community will rise to this challenge, take care of one another, and - above all else - care for our children. That is our mission and that’s what makes us Dragons

Sincerely,

Mike Felton, St. George MSU Superintendent