BOSTON (WHDH) - Mayor Martin J. Walsh on Friday announced that Boston Public Schools will begin the new school year in September with fully-remote learning due to coronavirus concerns and will allow for a phased-in approach to returning kids to the classrooms.
Remote learning will begin on Sept. 21 and Oct. 1 will be the earliest date students will be allowed back into the classrooms, Walsh said during a news conference at City Hall.
Walsh explained that “students with the highest needs” will be allowed to return to class for in-person instruction on Oct. 1 as part of the second phase of the return-to-school plan, which will mark the start of hybrid learning with less than 50 percent classroom capacity.
“We are working, all of us, to keep equity at the forefront. We need to have a balance of safety around COVID with a duty to educate a student population with high needs,” Walsh said. “To balance those needs, I’m announcing that we’re moving forward with a responsible, phased-in approach to start the school year.”
Kindergarten students will have the option to return to school on Oct. 15. On Oct. 22, opt-in hybrid learning will begin for grades 1-3, followed by grades 4-8 on Nov. 5. For older students, including grades 9-12, opt-in hybrid learning will not begin until Nov. 16
Notice that your child’s first day in school for hybrid learning will depend on which group they are placed in, the A or the B group, for their 2 days per week in school. pic.twitter.com/bMXqMtVfVB
— Mayor Marty Walsh (@marty_walsh) August 21, 2020
“We feel this is the best approach to educate our children. It creates a staggered approach for students to return to the classroom in a safe and careful way,” Walsh said. “We’re going to continue to make remote learning as high quality as possible.”
In each phase, parents will be given a choice to begin hybrid learning or stay fully remote, according to Walsh. He also said public health data will dictate if each phase can begin on time.
“We’re going to continue to follow the science and the public health data,” Walsh said. “Every family will have the choice about when to send your kid to school. If you’re a parent and you’re not comfortable with sending your child to school, you don’t have to send your child to school.”
The hybrid learning model will include remote learning three days a week and in-person learning for the other two days, according to Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius.
The Bay State’s COVID-19 risk map shows Boston shaded in yellow. Guidance for reopening code yellow schools calls for hybrid or remote learning.
“The bottom line is we need to contain this virus and keep our community safe,” Walsh said. “If we want to have in-school learning this year, that is one of the most important thing we can do.”
If the average positive coronavirus test rate climbs above four percent, students will not be brought back to school and the phased-in plan could be rolled back, Walsh noted.
Boston Public Schools have invested millions of dollars to replace more than 7,000 windows in an effort to ensure that at least one window in every classroom can be opened and crews are installing more than two dozen new HVAC systems, according to Walsh. Thousands of fans have also been purchased.
“Whether or not we have kids in them, we still need to make sure that our schools are ready,” Walsh said earlier this week. “At some point in this upcoming school year, we have to bring kids back into school.”
More than 370 of the 400 Massachusetts schools districts had submitted reopening plans as of Monday and 70 percent of them involved either a full return to in-person learning or a hybrid of remote and in-person instruction, Baker said Tuesday. The remaining 30 percent of the districts are planning on fully-remote teaching.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday announced that a rapid COVID-19 testing program will be made available at schools across Massachusetts when students and teachers return to the classroom to help manage outbreaks in the event they should pop up.
The state’s “Stop the Spread” testing initiative is also being extended through the end of September “in several communities with the highest rate of COVID” to ensure there is sufficient access to testing as teachers and students return to school.
Dozens of teachers who feel it’s unsafe to return to the classroom amid the pandemic rallied at the State House on Wednesday in support of beginning the new school year with fully-remote learning. Leaders of teachers unions made it clear that their members may not return to class if in-school testing and contact tracing is not made available.
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