Victoria Greer has been approved as permanent superintendent retroactive to Jan. 1. The committee made the move unanimously, then voted unanimously to make the change ineligible for further debate.

While there’s been a high rate of student absences since the end of a winter break that saw a surge in coronavirus cases, many school district staff are also in isolation due to Covid, including nurses and medical aides, putting additional pressure on administrators and staff.

A snowstorm that blew into Cambridge early Friday provided more than a snow day off from school – it provided a respite from the risk of Covid transmission after the collapse of an ambitious plan to Covid-test staff and students returning from winter holiday gatherings.

School district rules are likely to be revised rapidly so those testing positive for Covid or who have Covid symptoms can return to school after a total five days of isolation and a negative test to confirm recovery, down from 10 days of isolation.

Cambridge Public Schools opened doors Wednesday after closing for two days of districtwide student and staff Covid tests – but due to the scale and complexity of the effort, many families and students awaited results even as schools reopened.

School Committee members were sworn in Monday, elected Rachel Weinstein to be vice chair for the term and agreed to hold off on changing the rules under which they operate until the amendments could be reviewed fully.

Cambridge Public Schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday so Covid tests can be administered to staff and students, then reopen Wednesday, a move meant to reduce “unnecessary quarantines later this week and beyond.”

A special meeting of the School Committee on Tuesday has only one agenda item: ratifying a contract for Victoria Greer to become superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools effective Jan. 1.

The town of Sharon is expected to reach a $750,000 settlement Wednesday with Cambridge’s acting superintendent of schools, Victoria Greer, over a racial discrimination complaint filed with the state.

Nearly one-quarter of the city’s high schoolers walked out of classes Tuesday to bring attention to the impact of sexual assault and harassment on students, despite a similar walkout being held more than five years earlier leading to an “action plan” that got enthusiastic support in 2017.