Dear Parents, Students and the Roxbury School Community,
Welcome back after a long period of remote instruction. It will be so nice to see our kids in the building.
We will have only 9 in-person instructional days before the April break.
Please make sure we keep everyone safe and the building open by ensuring that, if your child displays any symptoms, you alert the nurse and keep your child home. Common Symptoms: Fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, headache, muscle or body aches, loss of taste and/or smell, congestion, runny nose and/or sore throat.
Our CROP after-school program and Homework Help program will begin on Monday, March 22, 2021. These after-school programs will run from 3:00-4:30pm. Transportation will be provided for both after-school programs.
Our plans for the Spring Sports season are underway. We plan on beginning athletic conditioning on Wednesday, April 14th, with the regular season beginning Monday, April 19th. Students need to make sure they have a current physical on file and are in good standing academically.
We have made a small change to our school calendar. The RCMT half-days that had been scheduled for March 26th and May 21st have been cancelled, and they will be full days of in-school instruction.
We know that with the April break upon us and the warm weather coming, thoughts of a vacation and getting away are occurring in our community. Just a reminder that should you plan on taking a trip, please make sure you are following the health department guidelines on travel outside of New York.
After April break we will have remote instruction on Monday, April 12th and Tuesday, April 13th, with a return to in-school instruction for all students on Wednesday, April 14th. Our goal is that these would be the last days of remote instruction for the remainder of the school year. We plan on moving to 5 days a week of in-school instruction for all students starting on April 19th.
With each day that passes, we feel the increasing weight of the toll this ongoing pandemic has taken on our community, our families and our schools. It’s clear that our remote learning models are no substitute for full in-person instruction. We clearly understand the challenges you faced with ensuring your internet was up to speed, balancing your work with your child’s work, the collection and distributing of work, meals, etc.
Since last March, when this new instructional model started, we have continually sought ways to meet the needs of all students in spite of the many challenges we faced. It has fallen short of addressing the increasing numbers of students who are struggling with mental health needs, true lack of socialization, and increased at-risk behaviors that have resulted from our remote-only models despite our relentless efforts. It goes without saying that in-person schooling is critical to maintaining not only academic progress but in building social/emotional skills, mental health, and resiliency.
As previously mentioned, as of April 19th, we will be returning to 5 days a week of in-person instruction. Our goal will be to ensure that we not only provide academic support for our students, but also support our students with social emotional learning activities. We will provide more information as we are continuing to develop these plans.
Thank you for your continued support as we strive to do our very best for our community’s children. They deserve it, and we simply cannot do this important work without you.
We look forward to seeing you and your children soon.
Jeffrey J. Bennett
Superintendent