July 15 – Education and Taxes | NH State Representative Steven Smith

Today is Tax Day

Don’t forget that today is the new April 15. If you have not filed your taxes yet, you need to do that today or file an extension. Since interest groups will parse and debate the new education guidance framework, I included a link below so that you can just read it yourselves. Reaching Higher NH did a pretty good summary which you can find at https://reachinghighernh.org/2020/07/14/governor-issues-back-to-school-recommendations/ I pulled some bullet points from their site below ~ Steve

Governor issues back to school recommendations

“School districts should create plans for in-person, hybrid, and remote learning, recognizing that the school, a classroom, or a student or staff member may have to quickly transition to remote learning if exposed to COVID-19;
Districts should create clear plans and protocols that ensure the safety of students and staff, and should engage key stakeholders in the plan;
Students, staff, and visitors should be screened daily for symptoms of COVID-19 before or upon entering the school building, and families should screen students before allowing them to board the school bus;
Students should be kept at least 3 feet apart, and teachers should minimize the number of times that students must change seats or classrooms and should avoid seating students in groups;
Schools should encourage students and school staff to wear face coverings during the school day;
Families should drive students to school or arrange small carpools to and from school to minimize exposure to other students;
School staff and teachers should monitor hallways and encourage students to maintain physical distancing; and,
Schools should follow the CDC guidelines on school cleaning and sanitizing.

One safety protocol that will be required of all schools, is the requirement that all school visitors — including parents — wear face coverings in the school building.”

Click to access k-12-back-to-school.pdf

Task Force Details

Someone asked who the folks were that served on the task force. Here is their complete organizational document.

Click to access strrt-materials.pdf

Gov. Sununu answers questions about school reopening plan

https://www.wmur.com/article/faq-governor-new-hampshire-coronavirus-school-reopening-plan-2020/33308663

NH unemployment rate drops below 12 percent

https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/nh-unemployment-rate-drops-below-12-percent/article_b2e3f430-3ebe-579d-963c-3ae05f2b87c8.html?block_id=897573

Governor: New Hampshire won’t require schools to reopen

https://apnews.com/b86e5539a425bc23127ba2cc4bf459c

NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – July 14th, 2020

On Tuesday, July 14, 2020, DHHS announced 23 new positive test results for COVID-19. There have now been 6,091 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in New Hampshire. Several cases are still under investigation. Additional information from ongoing investigations will be incorporated into future COVID-19 updates. Of those with complete information, there are three individuals under the age of 18 and the rest are adults with 57% being female and 43% being male. The new cases reside in Rockingham (5), Strafford (4), Grafton (2), Belknap (1), Carroll (1), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (1), and Merrimack (1) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (5) and Nashua (3).

Hospitalizations

A total of 665 hospitalizations being reported today which is 11% of the 6,091 cases reported to date. This includes 2 newly identified hospitalizations and 74 additional hospitalizations identified after further review and quality assurance of previous data.

Community Based Transmission

Five of the new cases had no identified risk factors.

Deaths

DHHS has also announced one additional death related to COVID-19. We offer our sympathies to the family and friends. • 1 female resident of Hillsborough County, 60 years of age and older