Good Afternoon,
As a result of changes in the masking recommendations recently announced by the Mills Administration and the Maine CDC, I wanted to let you know that the MSAD 44 School Board will be reconsidering the district’s current requirement for universal masking when they meet on Monday evening. If a change is initiated, I will be recommending that any shift to optional masking take place on Wednesday, March 9 so we have a day to communicate that change to our families.
Like many other school districts across Maine, we have been fortunate to see our case counts decline quickly over the past several weeks. If approved, any change would also include masking on our school buses. At this point, we do not anticipate any other changes to our existing protocols. I will be back in touch with any additional updates next Tuesday. I know this has been a difficult issue for people on both sides of this and I want to commend our community for the civil manner in which this has been addressed by all parties over the past months.
I also wanted to remind our families that we still have a limited number of MacBook Air laptops for sale at $150 each, with a limit of two laptops per person. Please check our website for more information.
Finally, nomination papers for open school board seats are now available at your local town office or here in our office. Completed papers must be returned to the individual town offices for verification of signatures by March 22 and then delivered to this office following that verification by March 31 If you have any questions about this process, please contact your town office or feel free to give me a call. There are currently two seats open in Bethel and Newry and one in Woodstock and Greenwood.
Best wishes for a terrific weekend.
Sincerely,
Dave Murphy, MSAD 44 Superintendent of Schools