Click here to watch the Oct. 28 Superintendent update. Highlights include:
Pandemic
- Pandemic metrics continue to trend in a very encouraging direction, and positive cases in RISD schools have declined dramatically.
- Districtwide, active positive cases of COVID-19 have declined 95% since peaking eight weeks ago.
- A vaccine for students ages 5-11 is widely expected to be approved in the coming days. RISD has plans in place with a providing partner to schedule vaccination opportunities for younger students in each learning community once approval occurs.
- For these reasons, RISD is changing its mask requirement for junior highs, high schools, and central buildings starting Nov. 3, after the student holiday. Masks inside secondary schools will return to being encouraged and optional on that date.
- The CDC recommends universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older) staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.
- The element of personal choice for families is important, and the district feels we’ve reached the point to be able to safely provide that choice for older students and at central locations.
- While RISD is very encouraged with the direction of the data, the mask requirement at elementary remains in place, as those younger students do not yet have the option to become fully vaccinated. RISD will continue to regularly assess the remaining mask requirement at elementary and is hopeful of being able to move quickly as a vaccine for younger students becomes widely available.
- While trends continue in a positive direction, if things reverse and an outbreak occurs with substantial transmission at a school or in a classroom, mask protocols could be revisited on a classroom-by-classroom basis as a temporary mitigation tool if it becomes needed.
Student Voices
- In recent days and weeks, some students have become upset or frustrated with topics such as school rules and discipline not being written or enforced fairly or consistently. Students of color, students who identify as LGBTQ, and female students have expressed a variety of concerns related to fair and equal treatment of students.
- Each high school principal is interested and very willing to meet with students to understand concerns and discuss ideas and solutions.
- Students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to have these dialogues as the most productive avenues for change and to have their voices be heard.
- Social media continues to play a key role in partial or inaccurate information sometimes being circulated that informs opinions and ideas among students and some parents. Often, reaching out to a member of the school leadership team can lead to accurate information or correct misconceptions that otherwise lead to concerns for both students and parents.
- The least productive way for a student to address concerns that will achieve change is making choices that disrupt a school environment or impact the safety of themselves or other people at school.
School Safety
- School leadership teams want to support and work with all students, but their first priority is to ensure the safety of all students and protect the ability of all students to learn. Student actions and choices, including those made online, that impact the safety of schools cannot be permitted.
- Some parents have expressed concerns about campus safety, especially in the era of social media where anonymous accounts and continual activity and sharing can make troubling posts or online threats a frequent occurrence.
- Each social media post or reported concern related to school safety is investigated, and police are involved to determine if something is credible, who is responsible, and whether additional steps may be necessary to ensure the safety of students.
- Making threats online is both illegal and prohibited by the student code of conduct.
- Parents who receive a text from their child or read a social media post during the school day that causes concern are strongly encouraged to contact the school immediately. This is to ensure the school is aware and/or for parents to be able to get accurate information from the most important resource, the school itself.
- Each RISD school has a safety and security plan, and this week the district school safety committee was asked to reconvene and review current safety plan components to provide feedback and recommendations to the district. All four RISD high school principals will work with this committee to specifically review the safety plans in place at our largest schools.
- Secondary school parents, please take some time over the long weekend to talk with your child about these topics. We want all students to have a voice, but not at the expense of their school’s safety or someone else’s voice, and schools must first and foremost be places of safety and learning.
- After Friday, RISD students will be off until Wednesday, Nov. 3. Election Day is Nov. 2, and everyone is encouraged to vote.
