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Date: 1/12/2022
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM – Nurse Leader Kiara Fryer reported the COVID-19 update to the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) School Committee at their meeting on Jan. 6.
With help from Melissa Lonczak and Public Health Nurse for Eastern Hampden Shared Health Services (EHSHS) Ashley Boudreau, Fryer told the committee that the school district saw 163 cases in the first three days after the return from winter break. She said positivity rates for Hampden and Wilbraham were 12 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Fryer, Lonczak and Boudreau all agreed the post-holiday surge was due to community spread, rather than in-school transmission.
Lonczak urged parents to reach out to their school nurse if their child is sick. She also said any help parents can give with contact tracing is appreciated.
HWRSD Superintendent Albert Ganem praised the district nursing staff and asked, “Let’s be patient and kind.” He said interactions that were neither of those things have occurred with school nurses recently.
Director of Finance and Operations Aaron Osborne said the district usually sees 40 to 50 staff absences per week, but absences steadily increased from 66 staff members on Jan. 3 to 93 on Jan. 6. He explained that on top of staffing challenges from educators out sick, if a school nurse is out and no replacement can be found, the school must close under state law. Osborne said every district in the state is facing the same problems.
Ganem said that people have asked about synchronous learning for students who are unable to attend class, but he said the district is, “Having a hard enough time,” finding staff to fill outages that, “synchronous is not possible.”
The committee discussed options, recalling that Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey Riley has prohibited full-remote education time from counting toward the required 180 days of education.
Committee member Bill Bontempi opined, “This is the safest place for kids to be,” because of low in-school transmission. “My guess is if we run this out another 10 days,” the spike in cases would subside.
Osborne said it would need to be a “one day at a time,” approach regarding which schools can stay open based on what staff is available. Committee member Patrick Kiernan asked him if symptomatic positive people were returning to work. “If you’re positive, you’re out,” Osborne said.
School Committee member Sean Kennedy asked Student Representative Jacqueline Dolaher if she felt safe going to class. She responded she did, but many students did not. “I’m a little alarmed by how many people have been absent,” Dolaher said.
The School Committee extended the in-district mask mandate to the end of January, but days later, Riley extended the state-wide school mandate to Feb. 28.
Booster Club
Minnechaug Regional High School Booster Club President Ron DeCurzio spoke to the committee about the Booster’s role in the school’s athletic community.
DeCurzio has worked with the Booster Club for over 15 years. Before the Boosters, he said, one or two sports teams “got all the fundraising” support, DeCurzio said. The organization, which is under School Committee oversight, was created to help financially support more sports.
DeCurzio shared that he had not been a good student in high school and were he not able to play lacrosse and stand out athletically, he may not have attended college. Making sports affordable for everyone was, therefore, important to him.
“Keep those user fees down so every kid can play sports without those shackles,” of expenses, DeCurzio said.
For a team to be eligible for fundraising from the Boosters, 50 percent of player families must join the organization. The fee is $25 per family. Those dues and money raised from concessions and other fundraising activities are split among eligible teams, and combined with team specific fundraising, pays for infrastructure and equipment costs.
The most recent Booster Club project was the turf at Falcon Field. Fundraising has been difficult since the 2019 project due to the pandemic.
Bontempi told DeCurzio that the structural integrity of the bleachers at Falcon Field were “dangerous.” While the price tag to replace them is $1 million, he said the cost would be far higher if someone is hurt.
DeCurzio told the committee replacing the bleachers had been a part of the original concept when the field was turfed, but it had been cut to keep costs down. He suggested selling bricks upon which people can have names engraved or naming rights for the field as options to raise money. Kiernan said there is already a policy in the district that would govern naming rights. Bontempi added, “There is so much room,” for banner ads, as well.
“We need to move on this,” Ganem said, noting the bleachers may not last another year.
Equity Audit
Ganem told the committee he planned to present them with a few potential firms to perform the equity audit. Osborne said there will need to be a bidding process and the district can choose to hire a firm the state has determined is qualified, or it will need to determine the firm’s qualifications in addition to the best price.
Bontempi urged Ganem to keep the choosing of the firm as transparent as possible and to make sure the vetting process is stringent. Ganem assured him that choosing the firm would be public.
Teacher Retention
Following up on a previously asked question about teacher retention, Osborne said HWRSD ranks 180th out of the state’s roughly 300 public school districts. “We are pretty much in the middle,” Osborne said. “Some people are going to leave.” He noted that in smaller districts, the loss of one teacher is a larger percentage of the whole.
The district is working on an exit interview that they expect to roll out at the end of the academic school year when most staffing changes happen.