Covering a wide variety of news for the week ending Friday, February 26
Women’s History Month
March is Women’s History Month. March is dedicated to the contributions of women to the History of the United States. The celebration of Women’s History Month grew out of a weeklong celebration of women’s contributions to culture, history, and society and was first organized by the school district of Sonoma California in 1978. For more information about Women’s History Month please navigate to one of these websites https://womenshistorymonth.gov/ or History.com Women’s History Month
Dollars for Scholars
CSF of Bedford Dollars for Scholars will be conducting a Mail-a-thon Fundraiser in March 2021. The Mail-a-thon fundraiser is designed to gather support for the scholarships our high school seniors will need more than ever. Bedford residents will receive personal letters in early March asking for their continued generous support of CSF of Bedford Dollars for Scholars. All contributions are awarded as financial scholarships to seniors heading off to college or pursuing other education.
Online donations can be made at https://bit.ly/DollarsForScholarsMail-a-thon2021 All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. If paying by check, please make payable to “CSF of Bedford” and mail to CSF of Bedford Dollar for Scholars, PO Box 585, Bedford, MA 01730. Thank you as always for your support of our students.
DESE Commissioner’s announcement
On Tuesday Commissioner Riley announced that he will be asking the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for the authority to remove the emergency regulations that are currently in place regarding time on learning and educational models. We expect that the board will meet within the next few weeks.
The announcement can be found at https://www.doe.mass.edu/covid19/on-desktop.html Please look at the piece titled: Initial Information on Expanding In-Person Learning This Spring.
Continued Return of Students to In-Person Learning
On Tuesday night the School Committee voted to bring back Lane School students four days a week as soon as possible. Principal Ackerman and his team have set a date of March 15, 2021, for Grade Three students. We are grateful to the faculty and the staff of the Davis and Lane Schools for all of their efforts to bring back entire grade levels into our schools.
Pool Testing
Our Nurse Leader Ms. Tracy Fernald and our nursing staff are working with DESE, CIC Health of Cambridge, Abbott BinaxNOW, our medical advisor, and the Bedford Department of Health and Human Services to finalize the Pool Testing Protocols. We were encouraged to learn from Commissioner Riley yesterday that each district would receive six weeks of testing at no cost regardless of when the testing begins. We are excited to add this seventh safety protocol to our health and safety protocols within our schools.
Emergency Licensure
DESE also extended the Emergency Licensure program through the end of the 2021-2022 school year. This extends emergency licenses for an additional year and will apply to new applicants as well. DESE will also count the time towards professional teacher status.
Educators who are Military Veterans Accepted to VA Vaccination Program
The Commissioner also announced that the Veterans Administration will make an exception and will welcome educators into their federal vaccination programs. More information will be given directly to educators who are veterans and are therefore eligible for the program.
Vaccinations for all Educators
There is no update for us at this time but the Commissioner assured everyone that he is working to keep educators at the forefront of the Phase II priority list.
Community COVID-19 Dashboard
The Bedford Board of Health Bedford COVID-19 Dashboard contains data related to case counts, active/recovered cases, case demographics and school case data. The majority of the data on the Dashboard will be updated Monday through Friday, with some data tables and charts updated on a weekly basis. We invite you to view the new dashboard at www.bedfordma.gov/covid-stats.
Teaching Assistants, Educational Assistants and Building Substitutes Needed
If you would be interested in joining the Bedford Public Schools as a teaching assistant, an educational assistant, or a building-based substitute please check out our openings on our website at BPS HR Website, and thank you!
Technology
If you have questions about this or any other technology issue or concerns please contact [email protected].
As always, thank you for your patience, your participation, and your continued commitment to our schools.
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