Somerville first district to declare remote only learning as state pushes for in-person
Somerville will start the school year with all its students learning from home, one of the first public school districts in Massachusetts to do so while others grapple with hybrid and in-person models favored by the Department of Education.
Somerville school officials wrote to families Tuesday that assessing ventilation and filtration systems in schools along with setting up a virus surveillance testing plan for students and staff would be key to reopening schools for in-person learning — measures that are not yet in place.
“We do not believe that opening school for in-person instruction without these two important safety components of the school reopening plan in place and resolved is safe or in the best interest of our school community,” read a letter to families.
The school system will try to move toward a hybrid model with an eventual return to full-time in-person education, according to school officials.
Somerville is one of the first districts in the state to announce a remote learning plan, which was released ahead of the state timeline for schools to submit finalized plans to the Department of Education by Aug. 10.
A few hours before the Somerville schools announcement, DESE Commissioner Jeff Riley said getting kids back into school is “the best course of action.”
“The vast majority of the superintendents are interested in either a hybrid or in-person model, based, I think, on the best medical advice,” said Riley in a virtual meeting with the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
With no formal reporting process for tracking coronavirus outbreaks in schools at a state level, teachers unions have wondered how health officials plan to prevent outbreaks, as previously reported in the Herald.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday revealed few details about how the state plans to meet the demands of the state’s two largest teachers’ unions, which have threatened to keep teachers out of schools unless safe buildings with proper ventilation and rapid, on-demand testing can be provided.
Baker said the state is working to increase the availability of rapid testing, but said only that more information would be forthcoming “in a few days.”
Riley said, “I do think that we may have some cases that will come up and it’s just a question of how we manage those, and how we deal with them appropriately and swiftly.”
The state’s biggest school district, Boston, is still working out the details of its draft “Hopscotch” hybrid plan that drew criticism from teachers regarding a simultaneous in-person and remote teaching model.
Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius acknowledged in Tuesday’s virtual meeting, “this is not going over too well with our teachers,” a sentiment she also noted in the district’s initial draft reopening plan.
“I think there’s just this kind of difficult block between trying to see how it could be, and and what it actually is,” Cassellius said of the teaching model.
The draft reopening plans states BPS parents will be contacted this month to choose which learning model they prefer for their student.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3fxZcNA
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