Pittsfield School Will Return to Hybrid Learning After Winter Break

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — All Pittsfield Public School students will return to in-person hybrid learning on Feb. 25 and 26 after district-mandated COVID-19 health and safety training.

"There are some teachers who I think desperately want to go back to school, and I think there are some teachers who are scared to death to return. There's parents who are concerned over their child’s safety, I think there are other parents begging us to open back up because we are losing their children. All that we and I can do is to try and make the best decision with the information we have at hand," Committee member Daniel Elias said.

"There are many responsibilities of a School Committee member, but the No. 1 responsibility is to educate its students, we are currently failing some of our students despite tremendous efforts by our teachers and staff to engage students."

In a 6 1/2 hour meeting on Wednesday attended virtually by more than 200 people — teachers who delivered heartfelt testimonies, parents afraid for their students' safety, and some from students in support of the return — the School Committee voted to return all students for in-person hybrid learning after the winter break.

On Thursday, Feb. 25, all elementary school students will return to their schools along with Group 1 of the secondary school population. On Friday, Feb. 26, Group 2 of secondary school students will return to school.

Elementary schools follow an morning/afternoon schedule for the return of in-person learning, while secondary school students are split into two groups.

On Friday, Feb 12, interim Superintendent Joseph Curtis will share the timeline for the return of all students with the families via phone call, text message, email, and website posting. Families will receive another reminder of the change on Sunday, Feb. 21, and will be informed that their child will receive training of the district's health and safety protocols and self-certification will be emphasized.

All staff will return to their schools on Monday, Feb. 22, for a professional learning day with a focus on health and safety procedures and preparedness.

On the Tuesday before students return to the classroom, they will be trained in safety protocols using a slide presentation provided by the district. Principals will inform teachers as to who should do this to ensure all students are trained before entering the building.

On Wednesday, Feb, 24, Curtis will call all elementary and secondary families with a welcome message and a reminder of the self-certification process, masking, and additional health and safety protocols that must be followed daily on the buses and schools.

Also in this meeting, the committee unanimously rejected a proposed amendment to the memorandum of agreement with the United Educators of Pittsfield.

At the point the state's COVID-19 Public Health Report indicates that the city of Pittsfield has reached a positivity rate of less than 5 percent for a total of two consecutive reports:

• CTE teachers and student seniors will return to the school building the following Monday.  Student seniors will attend two days in person of the 4-day rotation.
• Seven days later, juniors and sophomores will return.
• Juniors will attend two days in person of the four-day rotation.
• Sophomores will remain in their assigned cohorts and attend one in-person day of the four-day rotation
• There will be no change in the learning model considered until at least two health reports have been publicized unless the superintendent deems it necessary.
• Students and staff will be provided with a KN95 mask every two weeks until the positivity rate is less than 3 percent.
• All CTE teachers will perform a temperature check of students before entering the shop. CTE teachers will be provided with a thermometer.

Committee member William Cameron opposed this agreement, saying there is no direct correlation between the MOA's metrics and the safety of the school.

Cameron claimed that many students who are excluded from attending school are suffering negative physical, social, and psychological consequences. He believes that a positivity rate and cases per 100,000 people matters considerably to a community, but does not apply to schools that take extreme precaution.

With the use of personal protective equipment, 6-foot social distancing, and extensive sanitizing, Cameron said the rate of school transmission is minimal and does not correlate with a higher community positivity rate.

He reported that communities with rates in excess of 10 percent are open on a hybrid model without large in-school transmission because of contact tracing and isolation.

Cameron previously made the assumption that there was a high correlation between the likelihood of school infection and the community positivity rate and said his assumption has been substantially undermined by research over time.

He referenced the United Educators of Pittsfield’s accusation of the School Committee violating the Open Meeting Law and the memorandum of agreement between the two bodies in relation to a Jan. 27 vote.  

"United Educators of Pittsfield alleges that a violation of the MOA and the School Committee's response to that is that the MOA has not been violated and that matter will be resolved in an appropriate forum," he said. "But there is no sense in abetting harm to many students when the science to support the reason for the metrics is not there."

The School Committee re-voted on two previous petitions for the sake of the Open Meeting Law.

A petition for the resumption of career vocational technical education students and teachers in Grades 10, 11, and 12, on Feb. 1 unanimously passed along with a petition warranting the resumption of in-person substantially separate special education classes on Feb. 8.

Pittsfield is at a 2.11 percent positivity rate for the last 14 days, has had 102 new cases and remains in the yellow level. 

Toy Library Installed at Onota Lake