Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/18/2021
LONGMEADOW – The Longmeadow School Committee shared an update on the progress they have made in providing more opportunities for safe in-person learning for students at their March 9 meeting.
At their Feb. 23 meeting, the committee implemented a plan to offer grades five, six, nine through 12 students four days a week of in-person learning. Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea reported much of what they presented at that meeting is actively coming to fruition.
Learning Model Update
On March 1, 84 students in grade 12 returned to four days in person, followed by 69 students in Grade 10 on March 8. Then 86 students in Grade 11 on March 11, 96 students in grade nine and 170 students in grade five on March 15, and 183 students in grade six on March 22. For Longmeadow High School a total of 382 students are attending four to five days per week, and 171 students are attending two days per week. There are approximately 347 students in the fully remote cohort, which O’Shea said that pattern is in place until April 9 when the high school third quarter ends.
“After that, we will need to make some decisions about how to honor any requests from families who would like to come out of cohort C into in-person learning beginning in the fourth quarter,” O’Shea responded.
He continued, “Principal Landers issued an election form that went out on March 9. He sent some correspondence to cohort C families asking them what their intention would be for the fourth quarter. By the end of this week, we’ll have an understanding on the number of families that would be interested in in-person learning coming out of cohort C at the high school as well as seventh through eighth grade. As we work hard to welcome additional students for in-person learning, we’re also planning forward and thinking about what the next steps will look like.”
After the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) granted Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley authority to determine when hybrid and remote learning models no longer count for structured learning time, O’Shea shared with the committee the department’s new guidance for districts across the state – specifically the expectation that elementary schools be in five days per week effective April 5, and middle schools be in five days per week effective April 28. O’Shea mentioned they’re anticipating a full in-person return across all grades next year which is important for them as educators in Longmeadow Public Schools.
The committee will sit down with the administration and their educators on what this new guideline looks like, what the new DESE expectations mean for them and where they stand relative to the state's expectation on learning time.
Approvals
The committee set the out-of-state tuition rate to $15,664 for the 2021-2022 school year, sent the daily rate for substitute teachers to $100 a day and for para educational substitutes to $85 a day, effective on March 9, 2021.
The committee also approved refunds of 50 percent for bus fees for the 2021-2022 school year, refunds of 50 percent for athletic user fees for the Fall I season of the 2021 school year, refunds of 25 percent for athletic user fees for the winter season of the 2021 school year and a 50 percent refund for the boy’s hockey junior varsity user fees for the same season.
In addition they approved Policy ACAB sexual harassment and Policy ACAC harassment, and approved the removal of JBA student to student policy from the policy manual.