WPS Safe Return to In-Person Instruction
2023-24 Updates to Parameters
revised 7/17/24
7/17/24 School Committee Meeting (agenda): The School Committee agreed to continue to following protocols for our Safe Return to Schools as described in the 3/6/24 meeting. The Board requested additional feedback from the District Physician.
3/6/24 School Committee Meeting (agenda): The School Committee agreed to continue to following protocols for our Safe Return to Schools:
WPS will follow CDC guidelines
Returning to school protocols will be revisited as needed
8/16/23 School Committee Meeting: The School Committee voted to approve the following recommendations from the A-Team and Superintendent regarding Back to School Considerations for the 2023-2024 School Year:
WPS will follow CDC guidelines.
If a student or staff member tests positive for COVID, they need to be out of school for a minimum of five days. They may return to school on day 6-10 masked if they have not had a fever for at least 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medication), and other symptoms are improved.
Nurses will not make the decisions on who stays home and who comes to school; this is the responsibility of the administration.
There will be no remote options.
Day to day masking is an individual choice and will be accepted by all.
Revisiting returning to school protocols will be revisited as needed.
Hand Sanitizer will be provided by the district.(agenda)
8/14/22-8/15/22 Administrative Retreat: Discussion of CDC updates; outline recommendations for SY23-24.
6/15/22 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters; no updates.
6/1/22 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters; no updates.
5/18/22 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters; no updates.
5/4/22 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters; no updates. Superintendent Hodgkin shared that we have received the free COVID home tests and each school is in the process of distributing those to families that want them.
4/27/22 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters; no updates. Discontinuing pooled testing will be on the agenda for the following committee meeting.
4/6/22 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters; no updates. (Watch meeting here)
3/16/22 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. The School Committee voted to remove the requirement to participate in pooled testing for students who participate in spring sports or after school activities. (Watch meeting here)
3/9/22 MASK OPTIONAL IN WINTHROP SCHOOLS BEGINNING MARCH 9TH From: Jim Hodgkin- Winthrop Schools Supt. of Schools
The updated Maine CDC Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) released supporting WPS mask-optional parameter change.
3/2/22 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. Lengthy discussion on moving toward optional masking across all three campuses as a direct result of the federal CDC recommendations and the released DOE Priority Notice. School Committee decision to continue universal masking until as early as March 9th, or as late as March 14th. Awaiting additional edits to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to proceed with motion. (Watch meeting here)
2/16/22 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. Discussed the potential of having a spacial meeting after February vacation if/when Maine CDC guidance changes. No updates. (Watch meeting here)
2/2/22 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters; no updates. (Watch meeting here)
1/19/22 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. Joel Stoneton, Athletic Director, shared the Return to Play protocol for students who return from a less than 10 day COVID quarantine (see minutes). The committee clarified expectations for mask wearing and pool testing for athletics and co-curricular. Update to masking: requires all people at all school-sponsored events, always. The School Committee voted to suspend contact tracing for the Winthrop Public Schools as permitted by the Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC) in their memo dated 1/12/2022. (Watch meeting here)
1/12/22 Winthrop Parents and Community RE: COVID issues From: Jim Hodgkin- Winthrop Schools Supt. of Schools
1/5/22 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. Will continue to follow CDC guidance including the updated SOPs. School Committee plans to implement an additional requirement: Students and staff who are COVID positive can return day 6-10 if they test negative for COVID (home testing allowed). Quarantine requirements, for those who test positive, will not extend past day 10. See correspondence from Superintendent Hodgkin to families (1/6/21). (Watch meeting here)
12/15/21 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. (Watch meeting here)
12/1/21 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. The School Committee voted to increase pay for substitutes. (Watch meeting here)
11/17/21 School Committee Meeting (minutes): Revisited Return to School Parameters. The School Committee voted to make each Wednesday for the rest of the year an early release for the remainder of the school year. The School Committee voted to treat the YMCA Kid's Club under Winthrop Public School’s jurisdiction thus permitting pool-tested kids to be treated as such.The following parameters for winter sports were agreed upon:
1. Everyone is recommended to distance while watching. (Recommend 3 feet).
2. All spectators and bench personnel will be masked.
3. Anyone who refuses to wear a mask will be asked to leave and not permitted to attend in the future.
4. All active participants will be “mask” optional, mean that players on the floor can go without a mask if they desire, but can wear a mask if they choose.
5. All participants will have to participate in pool testing and are encouraged to be vaccinated.
6. Teams may choose to wear masks in lieu of canceling a game or event.
7. Referees are mask optional.
8. Practices are mask optional for active participants.
9. Fans are limited to 300 for the high school and 50% capacity for the middle school and grade school. There will not be a set limit on home or away fans, except for the seating capacity limit. Fans can get tickets at the game, but may not be permitted if the event has reached capacity.
10. Tickets will be sold electronically and will be available in advance when possible.
11. No concessions and no outside food or drink will be permitted in the gyms.
11/12/21 Vaccination Clinic for children ages 5-11 at Winthrop Grade School
11/10/21 Emergency School Committee Meeting: The following MEMO was shared with the public, comment was allowed. The School Committee decided to make 11/22 and 11/23 non-school days to be made up at the end of the year. (Watch the meeting HERE)
11/4/21 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters, no additional recommendations. Discussed community versus school spread guidelines. Discussed modifying the calendar/schedule, which will be brought up again at the next committee meeting as a motion. (Watch the meeting HERE)
10/20/21 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters, no additional recommendations
10/18/21 Superintendent Hodgkin shared Dr. Shah Meeting Notes with staff and School Committee. It was also posted publicly on the website.
10/12/21 Pooled testing begins across the district
10/6/21 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters. Discussed President Biden's guidance to require weekly testing for unvaccinated staff. No changes or additional recommendations (Watch the meeting HERE)
9/15/21 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters, no additional recommendations (Watch the meeting HERE)
9/10/21 WINTHROP SUPERINTENDENT SHARES INFORMATION ABOUT QUARANTINING, ASKS FOR COMMUNITY HELP Submitted by Jim Hodgkin- Superintendent of Schools
9/3/21 News Release WINTHROP SUPERINTENDENT EXPLAINS MASKING DECISIONS AND OTHER DECISIONS ABOUT RETURNING TO SCHOOL Submitted by Superintendent James Hodgkin
9/1/21 School Committee Meeting: Revisited Return to School Parameters, no additional recommendations. (Watch the meeting HERE)
8/19/21 News Release WINTHROP SCHOOL COMMITTEE VOTES ON “RETURN TO SCHOOL” PARAMETERS Submitted by Superintendent James Hodgkin
8/18/21 School Committee Meeting: Public discussion on our Return to School. School Committee voted on opening parameters, and shared plans to reassess/revisit at every School Committee Meeting. (Watch the meeting HERE)
8/4/21 School Committee Meeting: Meagan White presented the ARP ESSER projects; Superintendent Hodgkin presented the recommendations for the Safe Return to In-Person Instruction for SY 21-22. (Watch the meeting HERE)
8/3/21-8/4/21 Administrative Retreat: Discussion of CDC updates; outline recommendations for SY21-22
6/12/21 School Committee Meeting: Superintendent Hodgkin shared a draft Recommendations for the Opening of School for the 2021-22 school year as prepared by the Back to School Committee. The plan was posted on the district website a week prior to the meeting to allow for public comment. (Watch the meeting HERE)
5/26/21 Administrative Team Meeting: ARP ESSER fund requests/recommendations (see below)
5/19/21 Back to School Committee Meeting: review draft, discussion of CDC updates
5/12/21 Back to School Committee Meeting: discuss staff/union survey data
5/9/21 Back to School Committee Meeting: identify areas of need/concern
4/28/21 Administrative Team Meeting: ARP ESSER brainstorm
2020-21 Updates to Parameters
2/3/21 School Committee Meeting: Remote Learning Presentation
12/2/20 School Committee Meeting: Relief Fund Update
11/18/20 Letter from Superintendent Hodgkin
11/18/20 School Committee Meeting: Review COVID positions
11/6/20 Letter from Superintendent Hodgkin: travel updates
11/4/20 School Committee Meeting: Relief Fund Update
10/21/20 School Committee Meeting: Relief Fund Update; Gap Assessment Presentation; Remote Learning Presentation
10/13/20 Letter from Superintendent Hodgkin: updates to WPS plan
9/16/20: Long form revision
8/19/20 Short form revision
8/12/20 School Committee Meeting: Review and invite comment for the Safe Return to School 2020-21 (Watch the meeting HERE)
8/4/20 Letter from Superintendent Hodgkin: Plan details for reopening
7/31/20 Letter from Superintendent Hodgkin: Reopening our schools
COVID Relief Funds- Use of funds plan (revised School Board 3/6/24)
Federal Grants: American Rescue Plan (ESSER III)
Winthrop Public Schools has chosen to obligate the majority of our most recent federal grant funds to providing additional supports for our students. Through discussions with our Back to School Committee and the Administrative team, survey data from our staff and teachers, along with recent NWEA assessment data we have chosen to focus on evidence-based strategies to help mitigate the negative impact that COVID-19 has had on our students' social, emotional, and academic wellbeing.
Outlined Projects:
Covid Impact Services- Academic Component (completed): 3-4 CIS Teachers to support students and provide high-quality tutoring for identified students for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years.
Covid Impact Services- Social/Emotional Component (completed): WGS School Counselor and additional district-wide social worker for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years.
Covid Impact Services- Additional Support (completed): 3 Educational Technicians for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years (1 in each school).
Catch Us Up Summer School Program (completing July 2024) : 5-week program to support 6-12 students summer of 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Middle School Math/Science Position (completed): Maintain appropriate class size which allows for safe spacing for a large grade level.
District-wide Pool Testing (completed): At the guidance of state and federal CDC, Winthrop Public Schools will be developing and implementing pool testing district-wide for the 2021-22 school year. This project will allow us to hire additional staff and provide necessary supplies, to support each building.
Digital Learning Technology (completed): KAMI and Google Workspace for Education Plus were both purchased with COVID Relief Funds for SY20-21 to with virtual teaching and learning. This year, these same tools will assist as we plan for the possibility of going remote, support our students may need to quarantine, and create opportunities to submit work and interact digitally.
Additional Computer Technician (completed): Supports the technology expansion PreK-12. This project is a continuation from ESSER II into FY23 and FY24.
SIS Utilization (completed): The impact that COVID19 has had on our students' academic achievement and mental health has been enormous. As we navigate gathering and disseminating student data, both academic and social/emotional, to provide intervention and additional services for our hardest-hit we have found that Powerschool, our student information system (SIS), is not being utilized to its full potential. We would like student testing data (progress monitoring, state and local) to be accessible virtually, be able to track appointments with counselors and social workers, identify students who are in high-need demographics and monitor them more closely, etc. All of these needs are amplified- and applied to more students- because of the impact of COVID. We would like to hire a consultant to audit our system for applications we are not utilizing but could be, and identify add-ons or customizations that allow us to work with student data more flexibly in our SIS. This would also create paper-free, robust files of student supports and historical data.
In addition, we would like to expand our local knowledge-base by providing training opportunities for at least 1 district employee. This would help us to build our resources so that we can keep our system updated on our own, as well as be able to prepare for future applications for our SIS if remote instruction were to become necessary again.
WHS vacation remediation sessions (completed): This project will fund 2, short credit recovery programs during February and April vacations. The fund will primarily be used to pay certified teachers to work with students who failed classes previously, or are in danger of failing courses. Regular classroom teachers will refer based on their regular assessments as aligned to their determined curriculum and/or syllabus. These same educators will develop a plan, work/activities, and assessments for our credit recovery staff to administer to students. As this is a short, week-long program, progress can be evaluated through these materials. To be run February and April of 2023.
Vaping Sensors (completed): Since returning from COVID we have seen a huge up-kick in student vaping on-campus at our middle and high school. In response we have worked with Healthy Communities of the Capital Area to provide PD for our staff around the dangers of vaping and identifying features, as well as starting to expand into student presentations at our HS level (2022-23). We believe that more action must be taken to identify students vaping in our buildings so that we have a safe environment for all students. We would like to purchase and install vaping sensors in our bathrooms and locker rooms so that we are able to appropriately take action. We believe that this, partnered with support from HCCA, can help to decrease vaping in our schools and hopefully overall teen usage in our community.
Tier1 Literacy Instructional Materials: We need to provide an evidence-based tier-1 reading and writing program for all of our students that includes intentional phonics and phonemic awareness lessons which is not a part of our current program. Recently we also did a Maine Learning Result/report card alignment and found that at nearly all grades any word study, grammar or vocabulary was entirely teacher-created and/or supplemented. This creates inconsistencies from class to class. There were similar issues with comprehension. The pandemic compounded this issue as students missed out on in-person instruction the spring of 2020, and were 80% during the 2020-21 school year. Students both missed instruction at important, foundational years and were also being taught using a program that we now have determined to be unaligned with the science of reading. These funds will be used in their entirety to support the purchase of tier-1 program materials that are aligned to the science of reading and other evidence-based strategies. Wonders (McGraw-Hill) and Collaborative Literacy are both comprehensive, research-based, programs that develop foundational skills alongside comprehension. These programs focus on knowledge building through the integration of reading and writing and differentiates/teaches phonics and foundational skills to mastery. Winthrop is utilizing the Literacy Grant from the DOE ($43,375.61), the local budget ($27,237.60), and these ARP funds ($19,640.57) to fund materials that will support long-term implementation over the next 6 years.
PUBLIC COMMENT: New project was introduced at the 7/17/24 School Board Meeting; public comment form will be open until 7/30/24 for additional feedback.
SIS Utilization project was introduced at 11/16/22 School Board Meeting in the Director of Teaching and Learning admin report; Form for additional invited feedback will be open until 12/1/22
Prior public comment form: Please submit by 8/18/21; public comment is currently closed, thank you for your feedback. Projects were discussed in greater detail at the 8/4/21 School Committee Meeting
Federal Grants: ESSER II
Outlined Projects and Percent of Funds Allocated:
Building Envelope Improvement (85%): Repair and improve the building envelope at all three schools. Fall 2021 all project completed.
Additional Computer Technician (11%): Supports the technology expansion PreK-12.
Director of Teaching and Learning (4%): Teacher and student supports for the 2021-22 school year.
Federal Grants: CARES ACT (ESSER)
Outlined Projects and Percent of Funds Allocated:
Transportation (63%): Additional cleaning and bus runs to allow for adequate spacing for the 2020-21 school year.
Catch Us Up Summer School Program (11%): 5-week program to support 6-12 students summer of 2021.
Director of Teaching and Learning (24%): Oversee remote instruction for the 2020-21 school year.
Accounts Payable (2%): additional work/hours to invoice for emergency relief funds.
Funds have been fully expended as of SY21-22
For more information, or to report fraud, waste, or abuse of federal funds, please click here.