Hello Heath School Families,
The Brookline School Committee's Ad Hoc Remote Learning Task Force met on June 12, 2020. Here are the main summary points from the meeting:
- BEEP - Brookline’s Early Education Program (BEEP) administrators presented plans for opening in the fall at Thursday night’s School Committee meeting. BEEP is mandated by state law to provide services to students with special educational needs after their third birthday, and so will continue to do that. Given public health concerns, the number of spots for tuition-paying students will also be available but will be considerably more limited than in typical times to ensure that all classrooms have no more than 12 people in them at one time.
- School Reopening Planning - The central administration’s working groups for school reopening are continuing to meet and plan both for the summer and for the fall. The summer programs are likely to be largely remote, although some in-person services and programming will be provided to those with individual needs. The working groups are eagerly awaiting soon-to-be-released guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to make sure that guidance is incorporated in our district plans. The working groups will present their draft plans to the public at the upcoming June 18 School Committee meeting.
- Expert Advisory Panels - Two of the School Committee’s recently-constituted expert advisory panels met for the first time yesterday: Panel 2 on Support to Address the Whole Child Experience and Panel 4 on Public Health, Safety and Logistics. The panels are expected to meet on a weekly basis and the panel co-chairs will provide updates to the Remote Learning Task Force at our Friday meetings, so I will be able to report more on their discussions in next week’s summary. It’s important to note that these expert panels are advisory, and so don’t have decision-making authority. Instead, the intention is for them to be utilized as a resource for the School Committee and for the Central Administration as they conduct their planning
The Remote Learning Task Force meetings are from 9:30 - 11:00 AM on Fridays, with the next meeting scheduled for June 19. The agenda and virtual meeting links for all School Committee meetings—including regular School Committee meetings, subcommittee meetings, Remote Learning Task Force meetings, and now also the Expert Advisory Panels meetings—are published on the Town calendar (https://www.brooklinema.gov/calendar.aspx?CID=110) and are open to the public. So if you can, please do listen in and submit comments or questions.
As always, if you have a perspective that would be relevant to the Task Force, please do reach out to me by email (esilk@me.com) to share your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Eli Silk, Heath School Parent Representative
** NOTE: Remote learning—and today’s home, school, and work environment more generally—presents a range of unexpected challenges that are unprecedented in our lifetimes. All stakeholders in our school district are working hard to serve our students as best they can, but the challenges are complex and the situation is continually evolving. The latest Remote Learning Task Force meeting was 90 minutes and included substantive discussions on a range of topics, but because the Heath PTO wants to keep you informed while respecting that you have many important issues seeking your attention, this summary is necessarily brief and simplified. If you would like to learn more, additional links are provided below. **
Want to dive in further? Here are some useful links:
