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Date: 3/18/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow School Committee began their most recent meeting with a moment of silence in honor of East Longmeadow High School (ELHS) teacher Mark Greene who passed away a few days prior to the March 8 meeting. Greene was a Tech Ed teacher at ELHS for many years.
Chair Gregory Thompson stated, "I just wanted to acknowledge his passing. Certainly, his family and friends are in our thoughts and he will be missed by his companions at the high school.”
East Longmeadow's Health Data
The meeting proceeded with Public Health Director Aimee Petrosky offering on an update of the town's health data. She informed the committee that their numbers “look good” compared to where they were post–holiday surge. In December, the town had 351 total cases. In January, there were 288 total cases and in February, the town dropped down to 130 total cases, which 36 of those were pediatric. In reference to these numbers Petrosky said, “We are seeing students or staff members who are positive, but we are not seeing in-school based transmission. People are doing a really good job of alerting the schools of their close contact so we can remove them from the school and quarantine them before there ever gets a chance to start spreading within the building.”
Superintendent Gordon Smith added, "Each week, ELPS reports the number of positive cases to DESE [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] as do all other school districts. The reporting happens on Wednesday afternoons. From Wednesday Feb. 24 to Wednesday, March 3 we had four positive cases in the district for which we did close contact tracing. We also had seven positive cases in the C Cohort or fully remote. These individuals were never in any of the schools. The one significant factor through all of our contact tracing is that we are not seeing people who have been identified as a close contact becoming positive.”
Potential Changes in Instructional Learning Model
Smith announced at the meeting that the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education granted Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley on March 5 emergency authority to decide as to what instructional model will be counted toward the required time on learning for schools. As of April 5, districts will no longer be able to use a hybrid instructional model or a fully remote instructional model and have the time count towards the regulated amount of time on learning.
Smith responded, “Given that Commissioner Riley had outlined his proposal back in February, we as a leadership team and a school committee began planning for this possibility.”
Smith assured everyone that the district is prepared to have their students or any students in the elementary schools who want to join them on April 5 for full in-person learning. They are also prepared to allow the option for families who do not at this time want to send their students in, or students that were in hybrid, but are concerned about the reduction on spacing between the desks they can opt to remain fully remote. Soon families will have to make a decision on whether they’re coming in every week or going fully remote. In order for the leadership team and School Committee to be completely prepared, that decision will have to be made by March 22.
“With COVID[-19] here till the end of the year, it’s time to make another move I feel to get more students in-person,” voiced Thompson. “We will continue to prioritize those that are home and fully remote, but also get more students in the building and continue to follow safety protocols to keep students and staff safe.”
Thompson reiterated the social distancing minimum required will now be three feet as they move fully in-person, six feet whenever off mask, lunch time will be six feet and mask breaks will be six feet. They are in the process of ordering multiple tents for each school building and potentially will have those tents through October.
Toward the end of the meeting, the committee voted to transition the East Longmeadow Public Schools instructional model to two cohorts: full in-person and fully remote. This will begin for grades K - 5 on April 5 and on April 12 for grades 6 -12. They ask that families notify their child’s school with a decision by March 22. The decision will be for the rest of this school year.
They also approved a new addition at East Longmeadow High School’s Program of Studies. Principal Frank Paige spoke about a new course they’re offering to juniors and seniors who are interested in a career in education. The Careers in Education course will be taught by Child Nursery Management/Child Development teacher Juanita Poole and is open to all students in Grades 11 and 12 with recommendation of a child development teacher, which is Poole. It would be a course that students take after they take child development service.