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Date: 9/7/2021
CHESTERFIELD/GOSHEN – During the Chesterfield-Goshen Regional School Committee meeting, the committee discussed COVID-19 health and safety protocols for the 2021-2022 school year.
To start the discussion, Hampshire Regional School District Superintendent Diana Bonneville went over the current mask policy that was initially adopted by Southampton prior to the mask mandate from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
“It just says masks are required indoors for all students and adults and are required when utilizing school transportation. Kids do not need to wear masks when eating or drinking, during mask breaks or when outdoors,” she said.
Committee Chair Don Willard said he was in favor of masks but wondered if just masks were enough.
“I am all about masks now, I do not think it is a humongous issue for our kids, but I am almost wondering if this is strict enough. Last year we were successful because we implemented masks and social distancing. Why are we eliminating the social distancing aspect if we knew that was successful?” he said.
Because of higher transmission rates in Hampshire County around the community, Willard said he wanted to keep the students as safe or possible.
“We did really well last year, I am proud of our school and our kids for working together, we have not had a case in Chesterfield since March, but in Northampton and other towns around us they are seeing this all the time now, and I am really concerned about that, so I want to keep us as safe as possible,” he said.
He added that adding additional social distancing requirements would not hurt anyone.
“We can say yes or no to the vaccine, and we are responsible for ourselves, these kids have no options for them. We are putting a lot of trust into the system and if you can maintain distancing that does not hurt anybody,” Willard said.
New Hingham Elementary School Principal Jesse McMillan said recess saw the biggest relaxation in rules for the upcoming school year, but he would be in favor of creating distancing guidelines for recess.
“Recess is probably the only thing we have loosened up on this year based on the guidance we received, last year we had to keep cohorts separate, this year we do not have to keep the cohorts separate and they do not have to wear the masks, that is the time for them to have a mask break,” he said. “I am completely supportive of including some social distancing outside.”
To start the year, McMillan suggested monitoring COVID-19 cases across the community before implementing stricter mandates.
“Perhaps we continue to monitor this and if we see an uptick in Chesterfield and Goshen, we can always revisit this and go to a specific amount of distance outside or try something different in classrooms,” he said.
Committee member Angela Thompson said she was in favor of enacting additional restrictions to start the year and then reevaluate the requirements on Oct. 1, when the current DESE mask order is set to end.
“I would rather see us go in with extra precautions and not put our children at risk of having to do a hybrid or remote learning model. We should put additional precautions in place and then see if they need relaxing as of Oct. 1,” she said.
Committee member Barton Gage said he wanted the school to be prepared to pivot on a dime if COVID-19 began to spread in either community.
“I want the threshold to be pretty low because we want to be in front of it and not behind it, whether it is four people or 10 people, I think it should be aggressive,” he said.
McMillan said he would be against requiring masks for children outside at recess.
“The biggest concern I would have is masking outside. I really worry about our kids and our families, and I have a feeling we would lose a substantial number of families to homeschooling unless we are able to provide a remote option, which I cannot even think about at this point in time,” he said. “We can attempt to maintain social distancing; I think the kids did a fantastic job last year and it is a reasonable thing to ask them to do.”
Ultimately, the committee adopted the policy with the caveat that they would meet to discuss additional requirements if COVID-19 spread increased in Chesterfield and Goshen.
While the committee briefly discussed mandatory vaccinations for teachers and staff, they did not agree to create a mandate at the meeting but did agree to investigate requiring all unvaccinated staff to get tested weekly once testing begins in school.