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Date: 2/23/2021
SOUTHAMPTON – The William E. Norris School Committee met for their weekly special meeting to discuss the weekly COVID-19 public health report released by the state.
Based on the data from the health report that interim Superintendent Michael Sullivan read on Feb. 18, he expressed that while the state is getting better, Hampshire County is not.
He informed the board and public that there was a 22 percent decrease in the last two weeks in the number of cases in the state, while Hampshire Country had a 14.3 increase in the last two weeks.
“In Southampton in the last week, there were 18 new cases and 29 new cases from the week prior to that. I think in the last seven days, Southampton has done better than in the last two weeks,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan shared that from the metrics, he is comfortable with keeping their learning model the way it is.
William E. Norris School is currently in a hybrid model. School Principal Aliza Pluta told Reminder Publishing that students in kindergarten and first grade have been in-person learning four days a week.
On Feb. 22, second graders were welcomed back into the building for four days a week of in-person learning as well.
“I hired a new teacher and opened up a new classroom in order to do this,” Pluta shared.
She added that grades 3-6 will continue to be in a hybrid model; two days in school, Wednesday remote, and two days of learning simultaneously from home.
“I think we are one of the only schools in the area teaching simultaneously with students in person and at home. We did this in order to meet state guidance on synchronous learning,” Pluta added.
Stephanie Faas, lead nurse for the Hampshire Regional School District, gave her update on what is going on in the community in regards to their coronavirus cases.
She acknowledged that on Feb. 16, there was one confirmed positive case in Norris Elementary. Faas expressed that this individual had been in the school building while they were potentially infectious, but they did not have any close contacts because they followed the socially distancing protocols.
Faas updated the public on older cases as well. Previously, she confirmed that there were two positive cases on Feb. 10 and both of the individuals continue to isolate themselves. After following up with the individuals, Faas reported that one of them had 17 other people who were identified as close contacts.
“I did note this in the previous report but I did not want it to get lost this week. Not all of these close contacts were exposed to the positive person in school, some of it did happen outside of school but they were members of the Norris school community so we did include them in that total of 17,” Faas said.
On the day of the meeting, 15 of those individuals were cleared with the Board of Health. The other two remain in quarantine and are being followed.
William E. Norris School Committee Chair Jon Lumbra said the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) updated their busing regulations.
According to DESE, the capacity limitations and physical distancing requirements for elementary students on buses have been lifted. Lumbra noted that they currently bus 23 percent of their students.
Committee Member Julianne Tauscher raised the concern that changing the way they do busing should be a larger conversation with the whole district because decisions may be different within each committee.
Sullivan expressed that he appreciated her thought and it was brought to his attention during a different School Committee meeting.
No decisions on busing were made at the meeting. Lumbra wanted to bring it up during their special meeting to get some discussion flowing for their Feb. 23 meeting, which took place after press time.