Thursday, November 5, 2020
Good Afternoon MHS Families,
We have decided to move the closure of Martinsville High School one day forward to Friday, November 6th. The number of staff absences due to quarantining continues to rise and we have no choice but to make this move for the supervision safety of all.
Again, Martinsville High School will be eLearning or on the Red Stoplight from Friday, November 6 through Friday, November 13. At this point, all extracurricular activities are continued as planned with safety measures in place.
Families, our focus when changing colors on our stoplight plan is to give you as much notice as possible. We know moving from in school learning to eLearning is a challenge for many families. We understand families may have to make arrangements for childcare, work, and meal planning for children. We strongly encourage you to be proactive now and make plans. We are not making these decisions lightly, however, our options are becoming more and more limited on how we can operate in a safe manner.
As we’ve taken steps to move Martinsville High School to RED tomorrow, we are watching the numbers of state cases continue to rise. Local community spread is now starting to impact us. In the last few days, several positive cases have been linked to activities outside of our school community. We are all in this together, and we too are hoping for as much normalcy as possible this year for our students. As a gentle reminder, please keep students at home if they are showing symptoms.
As we monitor cases and review quarantine needs, please think about what arrangements would be necessary for your family if we would need to change to eLearning (RED) for the entire district. If our trajectory as a community doesn’t shift soon we will find ourselves in this position sooner rather than later.
Please do your best to stay well,
Dr. Jay Arthur
Superintendent
MSD of Martinsville
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Good Morning MHS Families,
We are moving to our RED Stoplight for the week of Monday, November 9th through Friday, November 13th for students at Martinsville High School only. Staff absences due to quarantining have been on the rise, and we are approaching the point with the spread that we need what I hope is a quick reset.
We understand that this might challenge some families. As I promised, we’re attempting to give families as much advance notice as possible.
Families, for the week of November 9 – 13:
-All high students will participate in eLearning from home.
-All high school athletics and after school activities will continue as scheduled but some restrictions to numbers of attendees may be imposed based upon the venue. For more information, please contact your student’s coach or club advisor.
-Teachers will be available for eLearning the entire week. They will work offsite on Monday and Tuesday; then at MHS Wednesday through Friday.
-On Thursday, November 12th – we will reassess the numbers of both students and staff who are quarantined and make a decision about the following week. Based upon protocols we have in place for contact tracing, social distancing, mask-wearing and cleaning, we are focused on the goal of returning to MHS after only a five day eLearning period for our students.
Families, our Food Service team will have breakfast and lunch options for students. They will contact you soon with specific details.
At this time, we are happy to share that all other schools are relatively unaffected in comparison. The decision for MHS next week in NO way impacts students in grades preschool through 8th. All schools, preschool through 8th grade, will remain on schedule and will stay in GREEN.
Families, thank you for understanding this necessary reset as we hope to be back to a green stoplight at Martinsville High School as soon as possible.
Dr. Jay Arthur
Superintendent
MSD of Martinsville
