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Date: 9/2/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow School Committee met to discuss mask mandates in the district and provide an update on Birchland Park Middle School on Aug. 23.
The meeting was hosted one day before Jeffrey Riley, commissioner for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), was granted approval to mandate masks in all Massachusetts public schools until Oct. 1.
With the new mandate, all public school students ages five and up, along with all staff and visitors, will be required to wear masks indoors. Children under five are only recommended to wear masks and masks are not needed outdoors.
Previously, the East Longmeadow School Committee unanimously voted to not require and only recommend masks in schools. They were the first district in Western Massachusetts to make this decision, despite town health officials encouraging a universal mask mandate.
There were over 500,000 new COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts in the 14 days prior to the meeting. In East Longmeadow, there were 38 new cases with a four percent positivity rate, again at the date of the meeting. Superintendent Gordon Smith said that data shows cases in East Longmeadow continue to trend upward.
Many parents, guardians and citizens attended the Aug. 23 meeting to voice their concerns or praises over East Longmeadow’s original decision.
Dr. Katie Jobbins is a physician at Baystate, a mother to an East Longmeadow student and a community member. She asked the committee to reconsider their position on masks.
“As a physician in the community, I’m very concerned about not having a mask mandate in our schools….” said Jobbins. “The CDC has asked us to actually re-recognize and reconsider the fact that indoor masking should be required for every student, staff, teacher and visitor in K-12 schools. It is our shared goal this year for students to return and maintain in-person full-time learning. We have seen that our children are able to do this and they do it better than we do as adults. They don’t complain, they understand what this looks like…We need to act and place masks on our families, on our children and on our staff. I hope you reconsider your position.”
Resident Samuel Stotin advocated for frequent hand washing over masks in schools.
“Quite frankly, hand washing is far better than masks. Unfortunately for the kids, the masks are not worn properly. I see younger kids chewing their masks, they’re getting wet…how many masks are the adults supposed to send with their kids to school every day? Frankly, requiring them to wear masks, they’re going to have to be pretty heavily supervised,” said Stotin.
For now, masks will be required across the Commonwealth. However, in the new DESE guidelines they wrote that “whether and when a student should be disciplined for failure to wear a mask is a local decision, guided by the district’s student discipline policy and the particular facts. Districts should consult with their legal counsel to address these matters.”
As the school year begins, the committee also gave an update on Birchland Park Middle School.
In July, Principal Timothy Allen suffered a major heart attack. The community has since rallied around Allen and shown support through fundraisers, signed cards and personalized t-shirts.
Gordon said he has received news that Allen is now out of intensive care. Assistant Principal Conor Martin will be given the position of Acting Principal as Allen recovers. Gordon said they will continue to outline a plan to make sure that, as school starts, Birchland Park is able to have an exceptional opening.
“I know the staff is ready to make that happen and I know that Mr. Martin is going to lead Birchland forward in an incredibly productive and positive way,” he said.
Gordon said that more details are to follow.
Those interested in viewing the meeting in its entirety are encouraged to visit the East Longmeadow Community Access Television YouTube page.