BOSTON (WHDH) - Massachusetts and New Hampshire may share a border but they are taking different approaches when it comes to getting students back in the classroom.
Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker is focusing on a new pooled testing program coming to some K-12 school districts next week, while New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu plans to issue an executive order stipulating all school districts in the state have at least two days of in-person learning.
The new pooled testing program bundles together several samples and allows them to be tested at once. Anyone in a group that comes up positive will be retested as a way to screen schools more widely and rapidly.
“We’ve had hundreds of school districts and schools that are very interested in doing this, and we’re actually very excited about the possibility here,” Baker said on WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio,” later adding, “We are offering schools, I think, a very valuable tool that many, I anticipate, will sign up for based on the enthusiasm we’ve seen so far to start getting back in the classroom.”
Some Mass. lawmakers have been pushing to get educators access to a vaccine faster but Baker defended the state’s rollout plan, saying teachers are included in the third part of Phase 2.
“Teachers are part of the first group of working people who are in line after that, with transit workers, grocery workers, and a whole host of other people who are in fields that people felt were important to get vaccinated,” he explained.
In New Hampshire, Sununu announced Thursday that he’s going to issue an executive order that would take effect on March 8, requiring schools to have at least two days of in-person learning.
“It isn’t just so the kids come back and have a more fuller, robust learning model,” Sununu said. “It really is for the behavioral and mental health, the isolation issues, that so many of our students have been bearing with.”
School employees are in the next vaccination group for New Hampshire.
“The data is all very clear, whether it’s the CDC, the state, everyone has said that there’s no reason that these schools cannot open without a vaccination,” he said.
Sununu added that there are only about a half-dozen districts left in the state that aren’t offering a hybrid schedule.
Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, says Sununu’s announcement is too little too late with many students already back in class.
“He should have come out with this much sooner and worked with the districts and administrators to make sure these safety protocols and procedures were put in place,” she said. “It’s too late.”
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