Update from David Fleishman, Superintendent of Schools – March 4, 2020

Dear NPS Families,

Following our email to you on Sunday evening, we received many inquiries and requests for additional information related to COVID-19 and our schools. We wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with up-to-date information and share new resources with you.

The Newton Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has developed a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document, which can be found on their website at: www.newtonma.gov/COVID19. The FAQ covers a variety of topics including:

• People who have traveled and returned to Newton and household members
• Cleaning public buildings, including schools
• Personal prevention measures

Items to note

• School nurses continue to work with teachers and students to emphasize good hand hygiene and illness prevention strategies.
• Our school buildings are regularly cleaned and disinfected, including high touch surfaces. Soap and hand towel dispensers are refilled regularly.

Siblings/Household Members

The Department of Health and Human Services has been very clear on guidance related to household members of students returning from our high school exchange program in Italy. It is as follows:

Household members of students who recently returned from Italy are in no way considered to be a risk for community transmission. Someone who is in contact with someone who is exhibiting no symptoms of the COVID-19 virus is no more likely to be a carrier of the disease than anyone else.

We know this is an unsettling time for many in the community. Please be mindful that the lives of some of our students and their families have been significantly disrupted. We must work together as a community to support each other and to resist the temptation to discriminate or stigmatize groups of people in any way. We are a wonderfully diverse school community with students, staff, faculty, and community members from around the globe. Continuing to support each other is more essential now than ever.

Because the COVID-19 information is changing rapidly, we do want to remind you that credible, accurate, and Newton-specific information will come from the Newton Health and Human Services Department, the superintendent’s office, or your building administrator. Should you hear information circulating in the community, please be sure to check its accuracy with one of these sources.

We will continue to provide you with information as it becomes available from our City health partners. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,