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Date: 8/10/2021
WESTHAMPTON – During an Aug. 3 meeting, the Westhampton Elementary School conducted initial discussions about what COVID-19 guidelines may look like to start the 2021-22 school year.
As of press time, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) requires all districts and schools to be in-person, full time, five days a week in the fall, and all previous DESE health and safety requirements will be lifted to start the school year.
The current guidelines state that DESE and the Department of Public Health (DPH) strongly recommends that all students in kindergarten through grade sixwear masks while indoors, except for students who cannot do so because of medical conditions or behavioral needs. They also recommend that unvaccinated staff in all grades and unvaccinated students in grades 7 and up should wear masks indoors. Masks can be taken off outdoors, as well as indoors when eating. As of press time, DESE and the DPH recommend that schools allow vaccinated students in grades 7 and up to remain unmasked.
On Aug. 1, the Massachusetts Teachers Association’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to support the mandatory use of face coverings in public schools from pre-K through higher education. Aside from the mask requirement, the board also calls on Gov. Charlie Baker to increase efforts to vaccinate students who are eligible, provide access to free and regular in-school COVID testing, and provide funding to continue to repair ventilation systems in public schools and colleges.
With these regulations in mind, Hampshire Regional District Superintendent Diana Bonneville joined the Westhampton Elementary School Committee to provide updates on what direction the school and district may be heading come September. She also added that DESE planned on providing a more specific direction on Aug. 6. Bonneville said that she would meet with the Department of Public Health on that day to discuss guidelines in depth.
“Our legal council does suggest that we follow DESE guidelines as they are written now,” said Bonneville during the meeting. “Doing anything more or less could create a liability situation for the school district.”
In her report, Bonneville delineated each of the different organizations that are offering different guidelines. For example, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that everyone wear masks indoors in schools, regardless of vaccination status, mainly because they want to focus on people being present. The organization also feels that it would be difficult to monitor vaccination status if there is no consistent messaging regarding masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people wear masks in schools, regardless of vaccination status, and to maintain three-feet of social distancing when applicable.
In a statement to Reminder Publishing, Bonneville said her administrative team are continuing to examine the ever-changing guidelines from the AAP, CDC and DESE, and will discuss safety protocols at each school committee meeting leading up to the new year.
“Our fear is that with increasing COVID cases, that these organizations will revise their guidelines as school approaches, which would alter our protocols,” she said.
Despite wanting to wait for more updates, Bonneville said that the consistent narrative across all organizations is students between pre-K and grade 6 are recommended to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. Bonneville, however, believes that it is best to require them for those ages.
“I worry that certain families will choose not to mask their unvaccinated students, which puts our most vulnerable population at risk,” said Bonneville. In her guidelines presented to the committee, Bonneville wrote that all students pre-K through grade 12 would be required to wear a mask indoors except those who cannot do so due to medical conditions or behavioral needs.
The CDC and AAP suggests that all staff wear masks indoors, while DESE and DPH does not require vaccinated staff to wear a mask. Anyone who rides a school bus will also have to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. Bonneville plans on following DESE guidelines to avoid legal trouble, but also wishes that every organization would get on the same page at some point.
“Whatever we put in place come September could change on a dime,” said Bonneville, who added that contract tracing will still occur when the school year begins. “I think we’d like to use common sense…we’d like to separate the students from each other as much as feasibly possible in a classroom.”
As of press time, DESE guidelines have no restrictions on lunch or distancing, but Bonneville suggested that students in her district are separated indoors or dine outside as much as possible. According to Deane Bates, the principal of Westhampton Elementary School, the school will look towards hiring a daytime custodian to make sure thorough cleaning is being done throughout the school.
“The other thing I would look towards doing is probably continuing to use desks, and splitting up lunches,” said Bates. The school plans on conducting three different lunches rather than two big lunches to keep numbers lower. They also plan on hiring a lunch monitor and allowing more mask breaks when it is warm out.
Bates believes the school can continue to keep the students safe, especially since none of the classrooms exceed 19 students. “What I saw last year is that parents and students did an amazing job at being vigilant around handshaking, around following mitigation strategies, around mask wearing. I’m hopeful that we continue on that positive trend.”
The committee in general agreed with the sentiments from Bonneville and Bates. School Committee Vice-Chair Peter Cleary said he would be comfortable if everyone in the building was wearing masks to show consistency, and because the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to pose danger to all people.
“Everyone wearing a mask helps with transmissions,” said Cleary. “Since our goal is to have a safe environment for our students so they can learn; it seems like if we’re not doing what we can to protect our students, we are not necessarily putting student safety first.”
Bonneville plans on spearheading a meeting with the teachers’ union in the near future to see where they stand on the situation.
Elsewhere, the William E. Norris School Committee plans on discussing their initial plans during their monthly meeting on Aug. 11, according to committee Chair Jon Lumbra. According to Bonneville, the Hampshire Regional School Committee will talk about COVID-19 guidance during their Aug. 23 meeting.
According to Easthampton School Committee Chair Cynthia Kweilins, the school committee would have two meetings to discuss COVID-19 guidelines. One meeting took place on Aug. 10, after press time, and another will take place on Aug. 24.