Please take a minute to complete our EFDM community holiday travel survey: here
COVID-19 cases in Maine are taking a startling upward turn as of late. We have made several updates to our daily school guidelines following the Governor's most recent order, adding stricter masking protocols and travel updates to our daily checklist, found below.
We would like all families to be reminded of our
Community Pledge. This document was drafted at the start of the school year to ensure all members of our community are aware of how they may do their part in keeping us safe.
Traveling increases risk, and it is strongly recommended that holiday celebrations take place within your immediate family this year.
If you must travel over the holiday breaks, please keep in mind that current policies exempt only a select few states deemed "safe" for travel at this time-- those being ME, NH, and VT. Massachusetts is no longer an exempt state as of Nov. 16th.
If anyone within our school community travels outside of these exempt states,
A 5-DAY QUARANTINE UPON RETURN, FOLLOWED BY A NEGATIVE TEST will be required to return to school.
For those families planning to host guests from non-exempt states, your guests should adhere to these same protocols before staying in your home.
If traveling, it is recommended you schedule
travel-related testing as soon as possible. Even if traveling to exempt states, Maine is highly recommending testing upon returning home.
As the exempt states and rules regarding testing/quarantining continue to update, we will keep families informed.
We realize these protocols are very strict, but our goal is safety first. If we all take the utmost care and precaution, we have the best chance of continuing with uninterrupted in-person classes.
The purpose of this reminder is to once again provide the important information regarding holiday travel, especially for those who missed it, and also to emphasize how critical a full EFDM community buy-in is to us having a safe, healthy and In-Person three weeks between this break and the winter break.
Even if it takes an extra day or a few days for you to return safely, we all are counting on each other’s vigilance for the school community to remain healthy and for the school to remain open. We have done well so far - and we thank you for all of your efforts (students, parents and staff) the past 3 months and thank you in advance for your continued efforts during the Thanksgiving break in the face of rising cases and risk in Maine and throughout the US.
Thank you for your cooperation to ensure our community's wellness.
