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Date: 10/18/2022
NORTHAMPTON – During a busy meeting on Oct. 13, the Northampton School Committee voted to send their policy on face masks, as well as a recommendation from the COVID-19 Advisory Subcommittee, to their Rules & Policy subcommittee for evaluation.
The hope is that the Rules and Policy subcommittee returns with an idea of that these changes would look like, according to Ward 4 member Michael Stein. “I think there’s a lot of unknown questions in the DESE [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] guidance about what does and does not fit our policy,” said Stein. The goal is for the subcommittee to bring forth recommendations to the full School Committee for a future vote.
Reminder Publishing reported on a masking policy for the coronavirus pandemic that the School Committee accepted in August. However, the committee also noted during that time that they would review and update the policy at their September meeting, which never happened. During the Oct. 13 meeting, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra said that this made it difficult for the district’s health staff to implement the August policy as written, which is one of the reasons why the COVID-19 Advisory Subcommittee conducted a special meeting on Oct. 3.
The meeting was also conducted at the request of interim Superintendent Jannell Pearson-Campbell and the city’s attorney.
Ward 5 member Dina Levi said she was supportive of sending the policy with the COVID-19 Advisory Subcommittee’s recommendation, but also expressed some frustration due to a lack of expert medical guidance. “I’m not sure how many times we’re going to vote on our masking policy,” said Levi. “We did have the DESE guidelines in front of us when we made the decision to go with the policy we did, and we chose to go with the CDC guidelines, in part because they offered to me what felt what was more in line with what I was hearing from the community.”
Back in early September, Reminder Publishing was provided with the most recent approved face mask policy at that time, which stated that a universal indoor masking mandate in schools would be required if Hampshire County’s transmission level reaches “high,” and rescinded if the transmission level reaches “low” for two weeks.
Ward 7 member Kaia Goleman told the School Committee a recommendation was made during the last COVID-19 Advisory Subcommittee meeting that the Northampton Public Schools policy going forward should conform with all DESE guidelines “relevant to COVID-19 precautions, and that the language of those guidelines should be included in the Northampton Public Schools policy.”
A couple School Committee members, such as Ward 1 member Meg Robbins, found it peculiar that the COVID-19 Advisory Subcommittee decided to take an unexpected turn by voting to recommend the DESE guidelines, rather than sticking with the CDC-centric policy the full committee already accepted in August.
“We voted on a policy, and that policy should be being implemented,” said Ward 1 member Meg Robbins. “When we create a policy and approve it…and we create an Ad-Hoc committee with a specific charge, and the Ad-Hoc committee decides to overturn that policy, we do need to send that policy to Rules & Policy.”
Robbins also mentioned how she was “tremendously confused” about the direction the COVID-19 committee was going in and added that the committee appeared to not understand what the charge was. With the advisory subcommittee approving a recommendation that DESE guidelines be implemented in the district’s policy, Robbins felt that the policy approved in August was “moot” at this point.
“I’m very frustrated,” said Stein. “I hope in the future, if there is feedback and there does need to be changes to any of our policies…that those things can be brought to the School Committee so that we can actually act upon them.”
Goleman accepted the comments from Robbins and Stein as “opinions,” and emphasized the fact that the committee should always listen to the medical experts when it comes to COVID-19. She also added that the positive vote for the DESE recommendation was from a combination of School Committee representatives and medical experts.
“I would like to begin by thanking our nursing staff at our schools who are taking time to be on this [COVID-19] committee that we’ve asked them to join to advise the [school] committee on making recommendations,” said Goleman. “I believe fully that their votes and contributions are solely because the welfare and safety of our students and staff is their livelihood and priority.”
According to Goleman, all of the members in that subcommittee felt that DESE was providing the best all-encompassing protocol for COVID-19, especially when it comes to contact tracing.