School districts around the commonwealth are taking different steps — with some closing, others delaying Monday’s re-opening — as they struggle with how to come back from the holiday break amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Massachusetts’ largest teachers union said decisions to delay or cancel school to give students and teachers more time to take COVID-19 tests are being put on the backs of individual districts after state officials rejected the union’s calls for a delayed start or remote start coming back from the New Year’s holiday.
“This debacle in getting tests out to districts is even worse than we knew,” Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy told the Herald on Sunday, referencing a one-day delay in getting 227,000 state-provided rapid coronavirus tests to staff and faculty this weekend. “There are not enough tests to go around.”
Najimy met Sunday morning with public health experts and more than 200 local union leaders and members, who she said are all pushing for a one-day delay.
But Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley has refused to cancel instruction and Gov. Charlie Baker last week doubled down on his intention to keep schools open. Remote learning is currently disallowed as well.
As a result school districts are taking varied approaches to the return to school Monday. In some cases, as in Cambridge, Sharon, Burlington and Lexington, the school day has been canceled outright and set aside as a COVID-19 testing day for students and staff.
Others have decided to delay the beginning of school by one or more hours, also so that teachers and staff can get tested. Those districts include Woburn and Newburyport.
In Wareham, the superintendent canceled school citing, “the number of staff members who are ill,” in a note on the district website. Brockton schools scheduled a two-hour delay to “give us additional time to assess staff absences,” in the morning.
Najimy called the “last-minute scramble” to get schools reopened despite a dearth of tests a “debacle.” She also criticized the Baker administration’s refusal to allow districts to revert to online instruction amid the current surge in cases, calling it “completely unreasonable and irrational.”
“They must take steps to rectify this situation so we can protect the health and safety of our school communities,” Najimy said.
“What we do know is that we are seeing numbers higher than we’ve ever seen before,” she said.
Najimy said educators are also raising the alarm over the efficacy of more than 6 million KN95 masks distributed to districts by state education officials.
Officials say this will provide one mask per day for each employee, including bus drivers. Najimy said the masks are not yet approved by the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory.
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