Nashua School District Superintendent Jahmal Mosley welcomes teachers back to school Monday with a look to the year ahead.

Nashua School District Superintendent Jamal Mosley offered the following clarification Saturday on the extension of remote learning.

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Good Afternoon, Nashua Community,

I am writing to you for two reasons. One to express that I understand how my Friday, September 18 letter could engender confusion, and two to rectify that confusion with follow-up information that will hopefully put your collective minds at ease.

First, the administration will be following the motion as voted on in the previous Nashua Board of Education meeting. Thus, the board meets on November 9 and, pending board approval, a tentative second grade start date will be identified and voted on, taking in consideration the long Thanksgiving weekend.

At each consecutive board meeting we will re-assess for the entry of the next grade level and a start date will be voted on by the Board and communicate to our families and staff. Hence, if all goes according to plan and our staff and students remain healthy, grades K-5 should be hybrid by the end of December. (See attached calendar).

After winter break, we will begin the same process of assessing for each consecutive grade 6-12. Please understand if there is a change in the epidemiology, or PPE equipment, trajectory of the virus or staffing, we could speed up this process. Conversely this process can also be slowed down if science deems it necessary.

Please understand the delicate nature of this undertaking. I empathize with the want to return to normalcy in our lives; however, as Superintendent, I have to balance those wants with the absolute need to ensure that no teacher, parent, child or staff member loses a loved one, or they themselves become ill and suffer long term health consequences – or worse. I made the recommendation to the board on Wednesday, September 16 to extend the timeline for remote learning. I want to thank the board for voting on this decision – it was the right thing to do. The decision to recommend the extension of this timeline was not done lightly or in a vacuum. Our district is charged with keeping 11,000 students and more than 3,000 staff safe. By virtue of this virus – in terms of secondary and tertiary infection rates – the number of people we could deleteriously affect by a hasty decision increases exponentially. I will take full responsibility and the full brunt of the frustration for recommending the extended timeline; the board was simply following my recommendation. However, as I look at and reflect on the measures of success and failure, I will continue to espouse the belief that for our current climate, success must be measured by whether those in charge did everything in their power to ensure the safety of human capital and putting students’ safety first. I will continue to measure success based on this metric.

Best,

Dr. Jahmal Mosley

Superintendent of Schools