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Date: 5/26/2021
CHICOPEE – The Chicopee School Committee met May 19 to discuss a variety of agenda items such as indoor air quality and summer school options during the meeting.
Scott Chapdelaine was in attendance to give an update on the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Team. At the Feb. 17 School Committee meeting, Chapdelaine pitched the idea of reinstating an Air Quality Inspection Team, which existed many years ago in Chicopee Public Schools. Members of the school committee praised Chapdelaine’s idea and thought it was important to implement.
Since then, Chapdelaine has made progress in setting up this team as a committee. He said that he has worked with the Superintendent’s Office along with the Grants Office to come up with a job description for these positions.
Chapdelaine said he thinks the committee will consist of eight individuals and the positions will be paid.
Chapdelaine said that at the next school committee meeting, he hopes to present the official job description for approval to then begin next steps. He said that he hopes to have the positions filled by July and then meetings of the IAQ Team can begin.
All eight individuals will be diligently trained and Chapdelaine hopes that one individual will be assigned two schools to cover.
“We’ll basically show them how to check air filters, how to look at a unit to see if it’s dirty or not… we’re basically going to train the eight people so we’re all on the same page of what to look for,” said Chapdelaine.
At minimum, Chapdelaine hopes the team will meet quarterly. At most, he hopes to meet once a month.
“There will be a contact person at every school so that if someone had an issue they could go talk to that person, that person would bring it to the team, bring it to my attention and we either bring the team out to look at it or we would handle it,” he said. “I think this is going to make communication a little better and we’re going to get a lot more stuff done this way.”
Members of the school committee praised Chapdelaine’s idea and his quick planning of the committee.
“I want to thank you for getting this idea off the ground so fast. It’s amazing and it is a great idea. What you just suggested is a great idea because it can be local and any problems that arise can be addressed immediately,” said Committee Member Mary Elizabeth-Pniak Costello.
Committee member Chester Szetela agreed.
“It seems that the system being put in place is foolproof,” he said.
The topic of summer school was also discussed during the meeting.
Gov. Charlie Baker recently announced that he would be providing $70 million to summer school programs across the state. According to Superintendent Lynn Clark, she isn’t sure how much Chicopee will receive at this point, but should know within the next week.
Summer school programs are already being planned in Chicopee, according to Clark. She said that Grades 1 through 5 will have courses in English, Math and some enrichment activities where they can get outside to do art and music. This will be the same for Grades 6 through 8.
For Grades 9 through 12, there will be a variety of courses offered, with some being online.
“It would be impossible for us to offer all the courses, so traditionally we normally have that online system, but they come in school for that and then there’s teachers in school to help them with that,” said Clark.
The school year will also be extended for Special Education students as part of their IEP plans, said Clark.
The amount of students in summer school programs will depend on the amount of teachers who apply to run them.
“This year it’s difficult for us. We want to offer the most spots we ever had, but the amount of teachers that apply for the positions drives the amount of students that we can accept for the programs,” said Clark.
She encouraged any teacher who wants to teach a summer school course to apply.
“Anyone who happens to be watching and wants to apply, it’s okay to apply late. Please do,” she said.
There are 21 teachers who applied for elementary courses, said Clark. There will be three sites for these summer school programs. They will be at Bowie, Belcher and Bowe. Clark said they chose these schools because they are spread out in different locations and are also fully air conditioned.
Middle school programs will take place at Dupont Middle School. Right now, Clark said they have between six to 10 teachers who applied.
The high school courses will take place at Chicopee High School, Chicopee Comprehensive High School and Chicopee Academy. Clark said that they have enough instructors for those courses.
“Our main goal is to get students comfortable again coming in, which is one of the reasons why we chose Bowe school as well, and also to keep them in a routine and keep learning alive,” said Clark.
She said there could be about 700 students taking summer school courses, but there is no definite number yet.
Clark said that any future updates on summer school programs will be sent out to parents, guardians and posted online.
Those interested in viewing the Chicopee School Committee Meeting in its entirety are encouraged to visit the ChicopeeTV Facebook page.