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Date: 9/8/2020
EASTHAMPTON – During the Easthampton School Committee’s meeting on Sept. 1, Mayor Nicole LaChapelle and Committee Member Marin Goldstein engaged in a debate over her recent order extending the closure of all buildings for the remainder of the year.
Committee Member Shannon Dunham asked LaChapelle to clarify what her recent order meant.
“The extension of the order to Dec. 31 is really the extension to the original order which is outside the Board of Health and any department but goes to the building operations themselves and some sort of statement or verification that the HVAC systems in each building can be retrofitted to suppress if not eliminate the transmission of those inside the building,” LaChapelle said.
LaChapelle explained that each building will get a certificate and a list of renovations needed as they move along so they will not have to wait for all of the buildings inspections to be completed.
Goldstein then asked LaChapelle why the high school building is closed if she and her team know its air filtration system exceeds the state’s requirements.
“The blanket ‘schools are closed to the public’ is confusing if we already know that the filtration system meets expected air quality requirements,” Goldstein said.
“I will say as respectfully as possible to the state and being on their reopening committee, when I see the state stick to a guideline for more than three months around public health then I will follow that, but until then, I’m not. We are going to look at immunization and different filters that will exceed even what the state says. The state right now is saying our kids and our teachers can go back into buildings where we still meet on Zoom. It is respectful to the state, I understand no one knows what is going on here, so I am locking it down. When the companies that are doing circulation for the hospitals say we’re OK or this is what we can do, then I’ll feel better,” LaChapelle said.
She went on to say that she is waiting on science.
Goldstein said they have science in terms of air filtration expectations for the high school and mentioned that the committee just approved for volleyball to be played in the high school gyms. LaChapelle cut him off and said that she would not have voted to let them play.
“I can’t be more clear. In two years when this is less and everybody says I overreacted and spent tens of thousands of dollars on this, I will not care. I will say I have done my job. I’m sorry, but kids are being sent home from colleges right now,” LaChapelle said.
Committee Member Laurie Garcia asked Superintendent Allison LeClair what the schools would do now that the committee had voted to allow fall sports.
LeClair said maybe the team can practice outside but she would have to follow up with the athletic director as to whether or not they can play outside as well.
“Going to the mayor’s order there will be no spectators in the athletic event. It would just be that group of students, their coach, and the official that would be in there and then the visiting team. There would be one entrance, one exit, no locker rooms,” said LeClair.
Goldstein clarified that the Board of Health approved of the committee’s plans for fall sports.
“I will again, stress my order is not through the Board of Health, it is not through the schools. It is as the owner of public buildings in the city of Easthampton and there is no way in my right mind that I can look someone in the face and say it is okay to go back into those buildings. I’m sorry, no. There are buildings that are newer than our high school which have been the site of contamination, infection, transmission,” LaChapelle said.
She added that she is not frustrated, she is scared.
“We can’t go on our bike paths without a mask but we are talking about people coming into buildings that we have no certification that says on them COVID-19, it will mitigate the transmission and the fact that we have science that says that our school from 2013 is okay just does not cut it for me,” LaChapelle said.
The recent order leaves everyone to question what happens to the special population students who are in a remote plus plan, which is tentatively set to begin in October as part of the district’s phased reopening. Special population students are students who identify as “high needs” through the IEP process, students who cannot engage in remote learning due to their disability-related needs, students who primarily use aided and augmentative communication, students who are homeless, students in foster care or congregate care, and students who are dually identified as English language learners.
“My understanding is we will figure out how to arrange groupings for special populations using tents and whatever building we can while keeping the numbers low enough to stay within the guidelines for reduced occupancy,” Committee Chair Cynthia Kwiecinski said.
LaChapelle has agreed to have the high school evaluated first in order to use the building for special population students.
Other updates on items such as the lunch waiver, tents, and technology were given by LeClair.
The federal school lunch waiver has been extended through Dec. 31. She said families will receive a notice so they are aware.
Investment of federal CARES Act funds was used to purchase approximately 600 Chromebooks since March. They are prioritized for students but paraeducators and some faculty members who required new machines will receive one as well.
The distribution of the Chromebooks has begun. High school students will receive them first, then middle school, and then elementary school students. LeClair said if families have not heard from their child’s school building administrator to reach out to them to receive one.
“Don’t just show up to pick up your Chromebook, there are scheduled times so that we can keep the number of people very small and there are also additional times in the evenings for families that work,” LeClair said.
LeClair said elementary students will receive their Chromebooks on Sept. 14 because the truck carrying them was turned away at the border. She stressed that it’s an issue across the district and not that they did not order them in time.
Unlike last school year when students were abruptly moved to remote learning, this year, grades Pre-K-8 will use Google Classroom for an online platform, grades 9-12 will either use Google Classroom, Moodle, or what is appropriate for their need.
All grades will use the Remind app and/or the school email system to communicate with students and families. Zoom will be continued to be used for video conferencing district-wide.
Hot spots were purchased for those who do not have internet access. LeClair reminded participants that hot spots do not fix performance issues. She also asked that if anyone knows of someone in need of internet access to have them reach out to her office or the IT department.
With air circulation being essential, all of the school buildings are receiving window repair including adding screens so windows can be kept open. The HVAC systems are being cleaned, and LeClair said box fans will be purchased to be put into the windows to improve air circulation.
The committee agreed to purchase four large tents that will be placed at the high school and elementary schools. The tents will cost the district approximately $10,000. They will be used for things like Pre-K and kindergarten assessments, special needs evaluation and services, career counseling, college application sessions, small group instructions and activities, and a physical education and band staging area.
LeClair said a factor on whether or not they invest the money into tents is that she does not have any teachers willing to teach in them yet.
“The other thing that we have to keep in mind is that we are still in midst of negotiating with our teachers and I don’t currently have people who are going to come in and provide services in tents,” said LeClair.
Nellie Taylor, president of Easthampton Education Association said, teachers, will not be teaching until classrooms are 100 percent safe. They are waiting for air quality reports. Taylor shared that some teachers are comfortable teaching in the tents but they are still in the bargaining process regarding safety.
The Director of Special Education Sarah Mochak gave an update on where they are when it comes to their reopening plans for special population students.
Special education teachers and service providers are meeting as building teams and as special teams. Student-specific teams are developing COVID-19 special education learning plans, coordinators are providing guidance to new staff and assisting with student-specific planning, and principals are reviewing student needs and reassigning paraeducators as necessary.
Mochak shared that she spoke to parents who are asking to have in-person services because it is difficult to have remote services and many of them have been without services since March.
The Department of Education is requiring that all districts develop a COVID-19 Special Education Learning Plan for each student with an IEP. This takes the IEP and translates it to how services will be delivered remotely. Families will be contacted by Sept 11 and will have a better understanding of what to expect for their child but they may not know the specifics of their learning plan just yet.
Remote special education services must have a regular and consistent schedule or classes, interventions, services, and therapies are required by the students IEP offered live or on-demand. Each plan that the parent receives will have a weekly schedule that will have zoom links and inform them of what is going on that week. There must also be frequent interactions with teachers and other staff members.
LeClair reminded parents that teachers just returned to work so if parents have not heard from them, it will come. She also announced that if parents need to reach the superintendent or anyone else, central office staff are working at city hall. All buildings remain closed to the public but there are boxes set up outside of each school building to drop off or pick up documents.