@NipmucRegional

We wanted to wish you a Happy New Year. We hope you and your family were able to enjoy the holiday season and are looking forward to the year ahead. With the new year comes new hopes, new goals, and new opportunities. We are looking forward to all the possibilities that 2021 will bring.

As you read in the message from the superintendent and in our email from the weekend, we will have a week of full remote learning from January 4 - 8 as a proactive measure to keep everyone safe as we return from vacation.

Our district will continue to monitor the statewide, community, and district data. Should the data warrant it, we may extend this period of full remote learning beyond January 8; however, our target to return to the hybrid model is Monday, January 11.

Some reminders about remote learning include:

• This week we will use the full remote schedule that was put in place at the beginning of the school year.

• All students - including those in the Stand Alone Remote Program - will use the remote schedule during the week of January 4.

• All students, regardless of their cohort, should attend their scheduled class meetings every day (Mon-Fri) this week.

• Advisory groups will meet during WIN block on Wednesday.

• Term 2/Semester 1 will come to an end on January 29. We encourage students to check-in with teachers if you have any questions about assignments, make-up work, or grades.

As a reminder, students will have an early release day on January 15. Teachers will participate in professional development in the afternoon that day. Additionally, there will be no school on January 18 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Adjusted schedules for these weeks can be found at here.

Prior to vacation, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education changed its guidelines for the amount of “live” instruction that needs to be provided in remote and hybrid schedules. As a result of their updated guidelines, we will need to increase “live” instruction by 2.1 hours per week. We will also be providing students with opportunities for daily, live check-ins with their teachers on asynchronous days.

Our scheduling committee has reconvened to determine how to adjust our schedule. We will share an updated schedule during the week of January 11 and put the new schedule in place during the week of January 18.

We are currently in the process of finalizing schedules, cohorts, and programs for all students at Nipmuc Regional for semester 2, which begins on February 1. While we are hopeful that there will be minimal adjustments, we recognize the need to balance class and cohort sizes. We will let students and parents know when schedules are finalized for semester 2. If you have questions or would like to discuss a change in requests, please reach out directly to school counselors.

We have worked with Lifetouch and picture retakes have been rescheduled for the following dates:

Cohort 1 - Monday, January 11 from 9am-12pm

Cohort 2 - Thursday, January 14 from 12pm-3pm

Stand Alone Remote Learning - Thursday, January 14 from 2pm-3pm

Students will have a chance during that time frame to work with their teachers to go to the media center to have their picture taken.

With the beginning of the new year, we are excited to restart Nipmuc’s Lead Learner Workshops. Lead Learner Workshops are leadership opportunities that are available to any student and any teacher in the school. They provide opportunities to shape the future of teaching and learning at Nipmuc.

Our next Lead Learner Workshop - “The Mastery Transcript: Helping Our Students Tell Their Story of Learning” - will take place from 12pm - 1pm on Wednesday, January 27. The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) is a network of schools that are using a digital transcript that “that opens up opportunity for each and every student - from all backgrounds, locations, and types of schools - to have their unique strengths, abilities, interests, and histories fostered, understood, and celebrated.” By creating a digital, clickable, and personal transcript that highlights what students can do with their learning rather than their grades, MTC has shifted the national conversation the criteria colleges and universities use to accept students.

Although at this point Nipmuc will not use the Mastery Transcript for college applications, we are excited to explore its use as a portfolio tool to showcase the unique stories of learning that each of our students has to tell.

Students will receive email reminders about the next Lead Learner Workshop. All are welcome!

During the week of January 11 - 15, Nipmuc will be partnering with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to gain student feedback about learning at our school. All students will receive an email with a link to a voluntary, anonymous, multiple-choice survey that should take approximately 5 - 10 minutes to complete.

Students are not required to take the survey; however, we appreciate their participation. Feel free to reach out with any questions about this opportunity.

Per the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, influenza immunization will be required for all children 6 months of age or older who are attending Massachusetts child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12, and colleges and universities. The new vaccine requirement is an important step to reduce flu-related illness and ​the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

All MURSD students will be expected to have received a flu vaccine by February 28, 2021* for the 2020-2021 influenza season, unless either a medical or religious exemption is provided.

Also exempted are K-12 students who are homeschooled and higher education students who are completely off-campus and engaged in remote learning only. This new flu immunization requirement to enter school in January is in addition to existing vaccine requirements for all those attending child care, preschool, K-12, and colleges and universities in Massachusetts. Elementary and secondary students in districts and schools that are using a remote education model are not exempt.

Please forward documentation of your child’s flu vaccine to the school nurse prior to February 28, 2021.

*Please note that this deadline has recently been extended by the state from the initial date of December 31, 2020.)

Please click here for more information on the flu vaccine requirement.