7 January 2022
Dear Families,
For a week that turned out to only be four school days long, there was a lot happening at Wellesley High School.
Of course we returned from a break people really needed. We came back on Monday as numbers from Covid rose and we worked hard to get test kits and masks from the state to our staff. We separated eating areas for lunch and increased our reminders to students about staying masked whenever they are in our building. We’ve been taking in a lot of information about the best ways to manage things. These times certainly don’t come with a manual. The physical and mental well-being of our community sometimes seems to be in conflict with each other. I appreciate all the continued help as we work through these trying times together.
One welcome sight came on Tuesday as our athletes were able to return to their winter teams. We are keeping close watch on all our extracurricular activities because they are easy spaces for students to feel the masking rules aren’t as important. I know our advisors and coaches have been reminded repeatedly and are being diligent with the enforcement of our policies to keep everyone safe and in school.
Wednesday marked our 2nd intervention time on a half day this year. The feedback we have on this day from teachers and students is wildly positive. We feel like we’ve created something important for all our students to have time during the day to meet with their teachers. Because of all the attendance challenges we’ve had lately, the time for makeup seemed to dominate the work, but there were also students who came in looking to deepen their understanding in some of their classes, or just find some less structured time to connect with their teachers. Thanks for helping support this.
Our Wednesday afternoon PD was focused on planning for how to manage the numbers of absences by students and staff. We hope this work is mostly proactive and is mostly not needed. However, the staff found it really valuable to have some time to be planful about how they would support students who might need to miss time.
The administrative team at the high school has been working hard this week to creatively cover absences for teachers who may need to miss time. It has been a hard couple of years to find substitute teachers and I know there have been several pleas recently for people willing to come in and do this substitute work. We’re hopeful our plans are going to work out just fine.
After all this in four days, today was our first snow day in two years. I want to share with you that the energy in the building on Thursday was really special. So many students asked me my opinion or if I could influence Dr. Lussier to call the day today. While I have nothing to do with snow day decisions, I was really happy for the kids to get one. I hope everyone got plowed out ok today and stayed safe.
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Jamie
