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Date: 11/24/2020
EAST LONGMEADOW – At the Nov. 16 East Longmeadow School Committee meeting, a fifth grader from Mountain View Elementary School addressed the committee on why she felt she and her classmates have to go back to school in January. Her reasons included anxiety being away from her friends and teachers, many of her family members in different school districts are back in school and being home so much has gotten her in talking fights with her brother. In conclusion, she said to the committee, “Please let us go back to school.”
Next, was an East Longmeadow parent who wanted to know if the committee reached out to pediatric doctors or professionals on the anxiety and depression students are going through. The parent noted the struggles they face when they’re home alone away from their computer screens. Along with the issue of the type of education students need, he felt their mental and emotional well-being should be a factored concern as well.
Another parent addressed the committee, asking what they’re doing to make sure children and young adults are going to be ready to take the statewide exam. This topic was discussed toward the end of the meeting, with East Longmeadow High School Principal Frank Paige informing families to visit apcentral.collegeboard.org.
Moving on from public comment, the committee discussed new updates on their learning model with a slide presentation. The East Longmeadow Public Schools (ELPS) began the year with approximately 95.7 percent (2,352) of students learning remotely and 4.3 percent (106) receiving in-person instruction or relatable services. All schools followed the traditional school day with synchronous learning throughout the entire day. Student attendance through the end of October was averaging 98.5 percent for the district.
As the school year proceeded, each district and building have a Multi-Tiered Support System Teams (MTSS) reviewing student engagement, achievement and developed support for individual students where needed. The MTSS shifted to more in-person going from 106 to 150 students doing in-person learning. District planning groups such as the ELPS Health and Medical Advisory Committee, ELPS Leadership Team, ELPS/ELEA Long Range Planning committee and ELPS school committee are continuing to meet and advise operations as well as their plan for expanding in-person learning.
The committee also talked about the COVID-19 reporting. With the recent increase in community cases in the past four weeks, the remote learning has gone uninterrupted. Since school began on Sept. 16, ELPS has had approximately 23 positive cases between staff and students that impacted 93 close contacts. Of the positive cases only, a small number have been seen in their students and staff learning and teaching in-person in their buildings.
Superintendent Gordon Smith said, “We are still looking to try to make the best decision possible for expanding in-person learning. We’re always going to make sure that our focus no matter what we’re doing in terms of the instructional model is keeping all within the ELPS community safe.”
The committee’s decision-making date to potentially make a transition to more in-person learning in January is set for Dec. 15.
In moving forward, the transition to more in-person learning in January could be these models of instruction: in-person, hybrid or remote depending on information they’re gathering. Families are able to choose whether to have their student remain fully remote. The number of students interested in returning to in-person learning will determine if a hybrid model is needed. The district will continue to work on live stream instruction to students in the off-cohort group in a hybrid model and to students who decide to remain fully remote.
They’re also redefining their hybrid model to include live streaming and the chance for students in the two cohorts to have more in-person instruction.
The cohorts are still divided in alphabetical order, Cohort A and Cohort B. Each cohort will have a full week of in-person learning, followed by a week of remote. This would provide five days of in-person instruction over two weeks instead of four in the previous hybrid model. In addition to this new hybrid model, Smith mentioned it will help make contract tracing more manageable. “I wanted to make sure the East Longmeadow families have a chance to hear and see some of this on screen as well as verbally,” Smith replied.
At the end of the meeting, the committee motioned to accept the Ohiopyle Prints Incorporated’s gift donation of $193.02 and approved the East Longmeadow High School extra-curriculum activity stipend and the waiver of policy GCGA-R.