Weekly Message from ENSATS 12/17/2021

Good Evening Parents, Guardians, Caregivers, and Students:

Another school week has come to an end as we wait for the weather to change from unseasonably warm to seasonably cold. It is amazing that winter is just four days away! (And so far no snow.) We ask students to finish strong in the run up next week to our first school vacation that begins after our half-day on Thursday, December 23rd.

Upcoming Schedule

Here is a preview of the schedule for the next week.

Monday, December 20	Day 9: Green
Tuesday, December 21	Day 10: Green
Wednesday, December 22	Day 1: Blue 8:45 am Late Start
Thursday, December 23	Day 2: Blue 11:00 Early Release
Friday, December 24	No School

Mask Requirement Changes

As we explained in our memo last week, we plan to relax the mask mandate on Tuesday, January 18th. We wanted to provide some additional clarification regarding this:

Students and staff who are not vaccinated will need to continue wearing masks per DESE regulations.
Anyone who is vaccinated and who wishes to continue wearing a mask is absolutely welcome to do so.
The Task Force will continue to meet and monitor COVID-19 metrics to ensure that we can continue safely with this plan. If our metrics show that we should not relax the mask mandate on January 18th, we will make the decision to wait and continue with masks.
Masks will continue to be required on buses and in the Nurse’s office.

Mask Reminders

Speaking of which, we want to remind all students that masks are mandatory on buses. Students must have masks when they are picked up in the morning. We have extra masks available on buses, however the number of extra masks is limited. If the bus driver runs out of masks and a student does not have one, that student will not be allowed to get on the bus. It is required that students have their own mask and wear them on the bus both to and from school every day whether the mask mandate is or is not lifted for in-school mask wearing on January 18th.

COVID Booster and Vaccination Clinic Poll

We are polling Essex Tech staff and caregivers to determine if there is interest in scheduling an additional COVID vaccination clinic to be held on our campus. This information is needed to schedule the clinic. Names and emails are not being collected. Please complete this form by Monday, December 20, 2021, if you are interested in participating in a mobile clinic. Booster doses will also be available from Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen at this mobile clinic. Thank you.

****BREAKING NEWS****Student Cell Phones

After the holiday break, we will be rebooting the cell phone caddies. While we have some teachers who have instituted the use of the cell phone caddies as part of their classroom routine, this is not consistent throughout the building. We have seen multiple student-made Instagram sites that contain photos of students and teachers taken with cell phones during class time. It is concerning that students are photographing their peers and teachers without consent. In addition, cell phones are a distraction during class and placing phones in the caddies will allow students to focus on their work.

Class of 2025 Career Technical Program Selection Approvals

Essex Tech School Counselors met with Grade 9 students today to begin the final phase of their career technical or agricultural program placement. Parents/Caregivers should receive an email from [email protected] this evening with their student’s CTE Program Selection rankings. You are asked to review and sign this electronic approval form by Sunday, December 19, 2021, on or before 5:00 pm.

NOTE: Only one Approval Form is emailed per student. Please check other caretakers emails and your junk mail should a parent/caregiver not initially find our communication. If one parent/caregiver has not received our email by tomorrow (Saturday) morning, please email [email protected] with your child’s name and the parent/caregiver’s name.

Holiday Meals

We have received the following documents which contain several locations that are offering Christmas dinners free of charge. We wanted to share them with you:

Holiday Meal Locations (English & Spanish)
Holiday Meal Locations (Portuguese)

Baseball Survey

If you are interested in playing baseball this spring, please complete the following survey: Essex Tech Baseball Survey. Tryouts will begin on Monday, March, 21st. If you have any questions, please email Coach Beauparlant at [email protected].

Softball Survey

Please complete this survey if you are interested in playing softball this spring. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Deleskey, [email protected].

Activities: Week of December 20, 2021

The following document includes activities for the: Week of December 20, 2021.

COVID Dashboard and COVID Information Update

Here is the link to our COVID Dashboard. The Dashboard can be accessed directly on the families page of our website in the COVID-19 section. We have also added DESE COVID-19 Protocol Flowcharts and Test-and-Stay information to this section.

Have a great weekend!

HTR SBD TJO

Photos of the Week:

Last week, Kelly Auto Group generously donated a vehicle to our Automotive Technology program. We are fortunate to have such a great partnership with this local organization.

The DECA Chapter at Essex Tech competed today to move on to the state competition. There are several who will be moving on. A full list will be sent by Advisors Mr. G. and Ms. Coolen. We are proud of all of our participants!

Congratulations to these four DECA students who competed on Wednesday at UMASS Lowell in Haverhill to WIN the Difference Maker competition! They won $500 to jumpstart their business plan!

The Larkin Project

Weekly Message from ENSATS 12/17/2021