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Date: 2/3/2021
EASTHAMPTON – On Jan. 26, Superintendent Allison LeClair informed the School Committee of her plans for returning students into the classrooms as soon as possible.
LeClair announced that she would like special populations, preschoolers, kindergarteners, English language learners (ELL), and students in remote learning centers to return in February to their normal school buildings, not the high school.
“The trend is going in the direction that we wanted it to go in. The cases that peaked about two weeks ago are starting to go down, starting to stabilize so we do not have a crystal ball but we are keeping our fingers crossed that we are going to be at a point in mid-February,” LeClair said.
Considering that the winter vacation is in February, it is likely that students will return after their break. She announced that she hopes to have more information at the Feb. 9 School Committee meeting.
A survey will only go out to the parents who have a student in the first group to determine how many students they anticipate having back in the classrooms.
While there is no set plan or timeframe, LeClair said the other grades will systematically begin to return to their buildings after the first group.
Students will not have lunch in their school buildings. Under the hybrid model, students will receive their bagged lunch and take them home with them to eat.
On behalf of parents asking why other districts have returned their students to the classrooms, School Committee member Marissa Carrere asked that LeClair or committee member Laurie Garcia speak on that topic because Carrere felt parents deserved some sort of answer.
“I would also like to mention that many communities that did go back at some point had to turn around and go into remote. Needham recently this past weekend closed after there was a significant spread in their high school. I think it is worse to treat our children like ping pong balls, going back and forth. We tried to bring our first graders in and then the numbers rose so dramatically that we could not, we tried to get them back in,” Laurie Garcia added.
LeClair noted that the agreement with the teachers union is to have 23 cases to return the first group to their classrooms and at the time of their meeting, the city had 32 cases.
“Once again I am telling the community you are the ones who are going to drive the number down and get your students back into the classrooms,” Garcia said.
The committee is also anticipating meeting on Feb. 23 to make sure they are still on track to let kids back in the classroom.
LeClair presented the air quality reports to the committee and the public.
The district had a contract with Colliers Project Leaders (CPL) who performed an in-depth review and analysis of the systems in all five schools and provided recommendations for improvements.
The district’s goal is to have four air changes every hour as a benchmark minimum exchange rate.
To meet the air exchange rate at Center Pepin and Maple Street schools, they have added two portable air purifiers to each classroom, installed new exhaust fans, or adjust existing exhaust in the bathrooms, and identified a space for a COVID-19 isolation room with three-speed wall exhaust fans to achieve 10 air exchanges per hour.
Since the buildings are older, they were not built with mechanical ventilation or filtration systems.
At Pepin Elementary School, all classrooms have existing unit ventilators that bring in outside air and recirculate room air and they installed MERV-13 filters. The basement afterschool room now has portable air purifiers.
Before the engineers began their work, the district’s maintenance staff installed MERV-13 filters in all air handling unions at White Brook Middle School. CPL recommended to rebalance or adjust airflow, which has been done by the district’s maintenance team and an air balancer.
At Easthampton High School, the district’s maintenance staff installed MERV-13 or MERV-14 filters in all locations before the air measurements. CPL also recommended securing an air balancer to work with the maintenance staff to complete the necessary actions.
The maintenance staff has also repaired or replaced window screens and windows at the elementary schools and prepared isolation rooms in each school with separate air exchange.
LeClair also spoke on the free meals and pool testing.
She wanted to remind families that free meals are available to any children from 0 to 18. They do not have to be a student in Easthampton Public Schools and they do not require any personal information when you receive your meal.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m., families can pick up their meals from either Easthampton High School or Maple Street School and they are reviewing the option of opening another location for meal pick-ups.
On the scheduled pick-up days, the child will receive two breakfasts and two lunches to make up for the days that there are no pick-up options. On Fridays, the child will receive six meals to get them through the weekend. Those who would benefit or know someone who would benefit from these free meals should call Dayle Doiron at 529-1500, ext. 128, or email her at ddoiron@epsd.us. If transportation is an issue, then in their email or phone call to Dayle they should let her know that they have a hardship and require delivery. LeClair said if the timeframe for the meal pick-ups is a challenge, to let them know so they can work to problem solve.
When meals are being delivered, your address will be given to the driver but there will be no other information involved.
To spread the word about their free meals LeClair plans on having postcards sent to the families with children enrolled in Easthampton Public Schools.
LeClair announced that Easthampton Public Schools will not be participating in the free pool testing program that the Department of Secondary Education (DESE) is offering for two reasons. The first being they are not in a hybrid model, which districts have to be in to participate. Second, they would have to hire an additional nurse to conduct the pool testing and have to spend $10,000 per week on pool testing.
LeClair feels as a district that is being cautious about where their money goes, it is something they want to be thoughtful about doing and wait until they know more from other districts who have participated in it.
Easthampton High School Principal William Evans and Athletic Director Brian Miller spoke on sports and requested a few changes.
The School Committee voted to move swimming to fall II, which will run from March 1 through April 22. The swim team will swim at Westfield State University with virtual meets. The committee is also allowing Hampshire Regional High School swimmers to participate with Easthampton as well.
While basketball is currently practice only, Evans and Miller are asking the committee to move to a competitive season during fall II.
Evans told Reminder Publishing that hockey is currently practice only in the school’s gym, and they would like to have hockey be able to practice in an ice rink during the fall II season. He said they are not asking for a competitive season because they do not believe there will be any teams to compete with.
No vote was made on basketball or hockey; the committee decided to continue the conversation to their Feb 9 meeting.
During the meeting, LeClair read a letter from Samuel Garcia Jr.’s family asking for some sort of Garcia memorial. In the letter, they recommended naming the new Mountain View School’s sporting facility after him.
Garcia died on Dec 16, 2020, from injuries he sustained in a motor vehicle accident on Southampton Road in Holyoke.
LeClair expressed that she does not recommend naming the facility after him because historically, it has not happened for many years. She shared that names were brought forward on previous projects but they were never voted on. She suggested that the committee thinks of other ways to honor Garcia.
The full committee also agreed with the superintendent.
The committee agreed to visit their options to honor Garcia and work with the family and friends of his if they would like. They will discuss this topic at their first meeting in March.