BOSTON (WHDH) - City officials are working with Boston Public Schools to ensure that students get high-quality education amid the coronavirus pandemic no matter what learning model they choose to go with at the beginning of the school year.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh said during a press conference outside City Hall on Wednesday that officials are deciding between starting off the school year with a hybrid model or a period of remote learning, depending on coronavirus trends and data.
“Whichever we take in September, we are doing the work now to make sure both remote learning and in-school learning will be as safe and as effective as they can be,” he said.
The city has been preparing schools for the possibility of in-person learning by:
- Providing schools with plexiglass and vinyl separators
- Creating nurses rooms with properly ventilated isolation spaces
- Making sure HVAC systems are working and have new filters
- Adjusting windows so learning spaces have fresh air
- Ordering each school an electrostatic sprayer to be used to disinfect surfaces
- Installing sanitizing stations at school entrances and exits
- Making sure foot traffic is properly marked to encourage social distancing
Every school must also receive a certificate of inspection before they can reopen.
“We will not send students or teachers or staff into a building that is not safe,” Walsh said.
The city is also preparing for remote learning, which Walsh says students can expect to take part in during the school year.
He added that they are putting forth numerous measures to try to close opportunity achievement gaps between students during this time by:
- Expanding technology and internet access
- Creating new outreach and support plans for families
- Developing solutions for English-language learners and special education students
“If we start all remote, and some of it will be remote, we have to make sure that we get it right because my concern right now with school is that we have a growing achievement gap in particular for our Black and Latino students, and I’m concerned that if we don’t have the remote learning or the in-person learning right, that achievement gap is going to continue to grow,” he said.
Walsh went on to say that the city is now more prepared to deal with a non-traditional school year.
“The spring was a crisis response,” he said. “This fall will be more planned and more supported because we had the time to sit down and work.”
A small group of protesters gathered outside the State House Wednesday calling for the schools to reopen fully in the fall chanting, “Bring kids back!”
The group called Bring Kids Back MA is calling on Gov. Charlie Baker to show more leadership and to provide a data-based blueprint for the return of students.
“He needs to come out and be very, very clear about when schools should move through different learning models,” Antigone Grasso said. “Otherwise, we are going to be in this process for many, many months.”
Scituate Schools Superintendent Bill Burkhead issued a three-page open letter criticizing Baker’s leadership.
On Open Letter to @MassGovernor @massupt @MASCSchoolComm https://t.co/77CtytdQpe
— Bill Burkhead (@BurkheadBill) August 11, 2020
In his letter, Burkhead said Baker was a smart man and strong leader but that he had thrown superintendents into “shark-infested waters.”
Yesterday, Baker noted that it is important for him to get as many kids back into the classroom as possible.
The Boston City Council on Education is holding a meeting Wednesday evening on preparing and planning around the coronavirus.
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