Lowell, Easton schools go temporarily remote after air purifier delivery delays

A shortage of air purifiers forced Lowell and Easton schools to delay the start of in-person learning at the last minute this week as districts scramble to secure the highly sought-after filtration systems that are in short supply due to the coronavirus pandemic and the West Coast wildfires.

“We exhausted all options — locally and nationally — for securing the air purifiers that we need,” Lowell Superintendent Joel Boyd wrote in a letter to families Tuesday. “Ultimately, we made a commitment to you to place student and staff safety as our top priority, and we are holding firmly to this commitment.”

Lowell officials pulled the plug on in-person learning for all students in grades one through 12 who are not enrolled in special education programs after learning Tuesday they would only have 128 of the 1,000 air purifiers the district had ordered due to national supply chain issues.

“We understand how frustrating and disappointing this is,” Latifah Phillips, chief equity and engagement officer for Lowell Public Schools, said Wednesday. “We are continuing to work on a solution.”

Easton students in grades six through 12 are spending the first week of school fully remote after officials learned late Monday the delivery of air purifiers for their middle and high schools would be delayed.

The search for air purifiers turned into a journey akin to “The Amazing Race” for the Silver Lake Regional School District, after the superintendent said a shipment was delayed due to the California wildfires.

With just days to go until schools opened, the facilities department teamed up with Plymouth wholesaler Cohen-Friedberg Associates to secure the devices from a Virginia company and have them trucked more than 800 miles by a volunteer driver in less than 48 hours.

“It was remarkable,” Cohen-Friedberg Senior Vice President Stephen Brown said. “I feel extremely proud to be able to be a part of the solution.”

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education didn’t require air purifiers for school reopenings. But districts still ordered them and several local teachers unions pushed for them amid mounting concerns over ventilation and air flow in aging buildings.

“We cannot go back into the buildings until there is a guarantee that things like the indoor air quality meets COVID standards,” Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy said. “It’s absolutely the right thing to do for a school to delay opening if what’s at stake is the environmental health and safety.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3msL1xT