BOSTON (WHDH) - Mayor Martin J. Walsh on Friday said all city “schools are safe,” one day after the Boston Teachers Union filed a lawsuit that challenges the decision to continue some in-person classes amid a recent surge in positive coronavirus cases.
“Our schools are safe. We’re cleaning them down and we have all the proper protocols in place and PPE,” Walsh told reporters after receiving a flu shot at City Hall. “There has been some talk that we don’t have enough personal protective equipment, but that is just simply not true…There has been some talk that we don’t have the cleaning supplies in buildings and that is not true.”
Walsh noted that the city has installed fans in classrooms to assist with air circulation and ventilation. He also said air quality tests are routinely conducted.
Walsh announced Wednesday that the next phase of the public schools’ reopening plan would be delayed by a week because the city’s COVID-19 positivity rate had reached 4.1 percent.
Preschoolers and kindergartners who were scheduled to report to school the week of Oct. 15 instead will now start Oct. 22, according to Walsh. Students who had already returned to the classroom, including those with high needs, will continue with in-person learning.
Teachers allege the decision to move forward with some in-person instruction is in violation of an agreement that requires all-remote learning if the city’s coronavirus positivity rate climbs above 4 percent.
In-person work is now optional for all teachers because of the high infection rate, according to a memorandum of understanding between the union and the city.
In their legal challenge, the teachers union cites a clause in the memorandum that states, “If the citywide COVID-19 positivity rate rises above 4% citywide, BPS will transition to full remote learning for all students, and BTU bargaining unit members will have the option to be remote as well.”
A statement issued by Walsh’s office on Thursday said, “The Mayor wholeheartedly believes that special consideration must be given to our highest needs students who rely on the in-person instruction and support offered by their teachers in a classroom setting, and that we cannot take this away from them when there’s an opportunity, backed by public health, to have them in schools.”
Walsh’s office has also highlighted a sentence in the memorandum that clearly states “BTU bargaining unit members will be expected to return to BPS buildings” when the city determines it’s OK to reopen the district.
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