There have been so many changes in guidelines and policies just as the transmission of COVID is incomparable to anything we have seen throughout the pandemic, it is easy to look at it all with a weary heart and not know what to think anymore.  The toll that the stress and uncertainty these last few years has brought us is heavy.  Our hearts ache with your burdens, but are also filled with love and dedication to your families along with the knowledge that our community has already shown itself to be incredibly strong in what we can do together.  We, like so many of you, are stretched thin with colleagues being out sick or caring for their children, but we are digging deep to take care of each other.  From the beginning, we have pushed for strategies to get your children in school in-person, and continue to be devoted to doing anything we can to achieve it.  As schools start to diverge in their policies, we continue to support masking in school for children ages 2 and up.  There is no data that it has been harmful to children, and it is part of a layered mitigation strategy that has been very successful thus far.  While infection rates are still so high, we hope that you will continue to send your children to school in masks to help reduce transmission, keep schools open in-person, and ease the burden on our hospitals.  As much as the layer of snow outside feels so impossibly hard under our feet right now, we are holding onto the knowledge that the spring will come and that brighter days are ahead.