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Date: 6/15/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During the Northampton School Committee’s June 10 meeting, the committee approved a return to pre-COVID-19 busing policies and received a presentation based on the district’s Education Trust Survey.
To start the busing discussion, district Transportation Supervisor Tammy Lieber said that by lifting the policy buses would go back to operating in a 1.5-mile area as opposed to the current 2-mile area for the 2021-2022 school year.
“I am here to ask for a vote to remove the temporary COVID transportation policy that was put in place last year. This policy changed our busing from 1.5 miles to the state mandated policy that is K through sixth grade only over two miles or more and later we added seven through 12,” she said.
By lifting the COVID-19 busing policy, Lieber said it would help to alleviate the traffic at some of the schools.
“Removing this policy will allow more students to ride the buses and hopefully relieve the major traffic some of the schools had problems with this year but just to go back to our regular busing schedule,” she said.
After committee member Kaia Goleman asked what the status of buses was for summer school, Lieber said the district allows 44 students on a bus and is following the public transportation mask mandate.
“DESE has lifted the caps on busing, we have kept it to 44 students, which is only two to a seat. We are also still asking students to wear their masks because of the mask mandate on public transportation. We are still keeping the windows open, and we are still doing all of the sanitizing and cleaning,” she said.
The committee unanimously approved the motion to return to pre-COVID-19 busing for the 2021-2022 school year.
Superintendent of Schools John Provost started his Education Trust Survey presentation by explaining the district had received survey responses from over 1,500 stakeholders in the district, half of which were students.
“We gathered responses from 758 students in grades 7-12, which is about 59 percent of the students in those grades, as well as 489 caregivers, 174 teachers and 14 administrators,” he said.
One of the biggest findings from the survey was that most students across all demographics in the district have at least one adult they can turn to, and Provost explained why that relationship is important.
“That is important because we now have a quarter of a century’s worth of research pointing to the power of student and teacher relationships for enhancing both academic and social emotional outcomes. Teachers are also likely to feel less isolated or vulnerable to burnout if they feel they have positive relationships with students,” he said.
Provost explained that one of the biggest areas for growth is in fair treatment and clarity in assessments.
“Almost a third of high school students report that students from other races or ethnicities have to work harder than their peers to be seen as academically capable. Since about 76 percent of the students who took the survey were white, for most of our responders the students of other races would be students of color,” he said.
He added that one of the other questions asked whether students felt they were graded fairly and there was more variance among Hispanic, Latino, and multi-racial students than with white students.
“On this item Hispanic and Latino students and multi-racial students expressed an ambivalence about whether they were graded fairly that was not seen among white students,” Provost said.
During the meeting, the committee and Provost also acknowledged retirements across the district and thanked the retirees for their work.
The School Committee next meets on July 8.