Following is a letter sent to Tri-County students, parents, faculty and staff from Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School from Stephen Dockray, Superintendent.

Dear Tri-County Families, Faculty and Staff:

Our School Committee unanimously approved the Tri-County Final District Reopening Plan at their August 5th School Committee Meeting. As required by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), we prepared In-Person, Hybrid and Remote Plans. The Committee voted to adopt the Hybrid Learning Model to begin the 2020-2021 school year. Phase 1 of the Hybrid Plan will be implemented starting September 16th. Under Phase I we would provide in-person vocational instruction two and one half days for underclassmen and two days for upperclassmen each week. On the other two days for underclassmen and two and one half days for upperclassmen students would receive remote vocational instruction. This would provide live instruction to 25% of our total student enrollment. If the logistics and safety protocols work out, we would expand this to Phase II with both grades in a particular vocational program attending together, or 50% of our total enrollment.  For both Phase I and Phase II, academics would start remote. Phase III would begin a hybrid model for students to transition back to in-person academics. 

We have posted our complete Reopening Plan on our website for your review at https://www.tri-county.us/news-events/return-to-school-september-2020-information/. Included with the detailed Reopening Plan is an Executive Summary and a Letter from the Superintendent.

I would like to remind the community that while we have settled on a hybrid model to begin the year, we are still awaiting significant data and direction from DESE and the state.  This includes guidance on athletics and using COVID-19 positivity rates to determine how we move into a full remote or full in-person learning.  We are also anticipating some guidance on COVID-19 testing for educators and students.  When this information is received, it will be incorporated into the plan.

We are also in the process of finalizing our school calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. The tentative start date for faculty and staff is September 3rd and the first day for students is scheduled for September 16th. Freshmen Orientation would take place on September 14 and 15, in-person, from 11 a.m. – 2:10 p.m. Once the full school calendar is approved by the School Committee, it will be posted to our website. Parents should already have received an email including a survey regarding transportation to and from school. This survey data is very important to our reopening plans. If you did not receive this survey please contact, Virginia Karpouzi in our Main Office, at [email protected]. Please routinely check for emails from Tri-County in the coming weeks as information about virtual town halls, to answer family questions about the schedule and health and safety protocols, or other important issues will be coming out.

Stay well,

Steve