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Date: 12/16/2020
EAST LONGMEADOW – At the Dec. 7 East Longmeadow School Committee meeting, the town’s Health Director Aimee Petrosky updated the committee in terms of where the town is with COVID-19 statistics.
Cases are surging, which Petrosky noted she anticipated, especially post-Thanksgiving.
In October, East Longmeadow had 122 cases. In November, the town had 172 cases, with three people who passed away from the virus. In addition in November, the town had 31 pediatrics cases, 79 positive cases in the 20 to 50 age range and 62 positive cases in the 51 plus age range. The town also had one long term care facility case in November, which Petrosky said it was “by and large” all community-based transmission.
For the first seven days in December, not counting the little dip in cases the town had post-Thanksgiving, the town is averaging about 10 cases a day. As of Dec. 7, they had 70 cases. In seven days, East Longmeadow had 10 pediatric cases, 29 positive cases in the 20 to 50 age range and 31 positive cases in the 51 plus age range. However, the town does have some long-term care cases – seven of the 70 are in a long-term care facility. Petrosky mentioned that this number is going up, but it’s nothing like it was in the spring.
As far as where the town is on the color metric, Petrosky stated, “It was expected that this week and last week’s report we would drop back down to yellow because the testing sites were closed for so long. The number of tests administered were just so much lower. It’s hard to know with the new metrics where our color will be in the upcoming week because I don’t have any indication of how many tests have been administered.”
In order to be considered a red community, Petrosky explained the town has to hit 10 positive cases per 100,000 residents. To figure out the percent of positivity, she has to know exactly how many tests were administered, and won’t know that number until the day the results are given.
The meeting continued with an update on the East Longmeadow Public Schools’ (ELPS) continued planning on instructional models. The remote model continues to be effective, the committee shared, and synchronous learning is delivered throughout the day at all schools. Student attendance is high, averaging 98.3 percent for the district. Meadow Brook Elementary School is at 97.6 percent, Mapleshade at 98.7 percent, Mountain View at 98.6 percent, Birchland Park Middle School at 98 percent and East Longmeadow High School at 98.5 percent.
The district started the school year with 106 students receiving in-person instruction in the school buildings, and now there are 164 students coming in for in-person instruction. The district and the Building Multi-Tiered Support System Teams are reviewing student engagement and achievement and have developed support for individual students where needed.
Superintendent Gordon Smith said, “No matter what our transition ends up being as we expand in-person learning possibly in January, all families and all students will have the option to remain in a remote instructional model. That’s something we will continue to offer and we’re working now to make sure that continues to be a robust program for students who choose that.”
ELPS explained they continue to work closely with the Department of Health to review the local health data and talk with families who may be affected by COVID-19. Currently, Hampden County has the highest positivity rate at 7.1 percent of any county in the Commonwealth.
Since Sept. 16, ELPS has had approximately 35 positive cases between staff and students and approximately 103 close contacts. Despite these numbers, teaching and learning for students has been largely uninterrupted throughout September, October and November. Due to positive cases, districts and schools in their area and across the Commonwealth have needed to close buildings or the entire district. The challenge ELPS is facing is staffing, the committee explained they are experiencing a “drought” in daily on-call substitutes. The committee indicated they are looking for creative ways of bringing on new daily on-call substitutes. Right now, they have roughly 11 people working in the district as on call substitutes.
If they transition to a hybrid instructional model, students who have selected an in-person instructional model will be placed in cohort alphabetically, A Cohort and B Cohort. Each cohort has a full week of in-person instruction followed by a week of remote connected through live streaming. This would provide five days of in-person instruction over two weeks instead of four with the previous hybrid model.
Students who choose to participate in an in-person instructional model, whether hybrid or full in-person, will come to school every day and report to their classes. Students who choose to remain in a fully remote instructional model will connect to their classes via live streaming.
ELPS is working with the Information Technology Department and the East Longmeadow Community Access Television to provide the best support for live-streaming.
The committee made a motion to accept the 2021-2022 draft for the East Longmeadow Public Schools showing the first day of school for students along with vacation days.
The East Longmeadow School Committee has scheduled a special meeting on Dec. 15 for information around each schools’ community and the decision they’re making regarding the transition to expanding in-person learning.