BOSTON (WHDH) - The City of Somerville plans to open the new school year in the fall with fully remote learning due to coronavirus concerns, while Boston plans to utilize a hybrid learning model.
Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone said he has no plans to bring students back into the classroom for in-person instruction until he feels it’s safe.
“In Massachusetts, we are trending now in the wrong directions…we’re seeing a spike in cases,” Curtatone said. “We don’t have the testing capacity anywhere in the Commonwealth to conduct what is needed surveillance testing of our school population.”
The 2020-2021 school year will begin with full remote learning and eventually move toward a hybrid model depending on the spread of coronavirus.
“As we have said from the beginning, the safety and health of our students, staff, and families is and will remain our top priority,” the joint statement read,” Curtatone, Superintendent Mary Skipper, School Committee Chair Carrie Normand said in a joint statement. “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.”
Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said Wednesday that the school year will start with two days of in-person learning and three days of remote learning.
“To use round numbers, I’ll have 20 kids assigned to me as a teacher. I will teach 10 of them in person for part of it and then I will teach 10 remotely,” Cassellius said at a news conference. “Everybody at the same time will be learning.”
Merrie Najimy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Union, is recommending all school districts begin the year with remote learning only.
“The uptick in cases is one more piece of evidence to prove that the families, the educators, and the voting public are right on this issue,” Najimy said. “We can’t return until the buildings are safe and the virus is seriously under control in this state.”
Najimy noted that teachers in 71 of the state’s 350 school districts have voted in favor of staring the year with remote learning only.
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