BPS Requests Waiver To Delay Return to In-Person Learning

Boston MA

24 March, 2021

12:27 PM

Description

BOSTON — Boston Public Schools requested a waiver to delay the return to full time in-person school mandated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the district announced in a tweet Tuesday. It wants to push that full-time start date to the week of April 27, instead of April 5 as the DESE said. BPS requested the waiver on Monday and said it would update families when it gets a response from the DESE. Parents spoke to the City Council at a hearing Tuesday night, expressing their frustration with a lack of communication from the district. "If a parent didn't read the Globe article that came out about the waiver late last night, they have not heard that their school district wants to push back this five-day start for three more weeks," said Megan Castro, a parent of three elementary school students in BPS. "They did not know that they should be calling DESE to urge Commissioner Riley to deny the waiver." Castro spoke on behalf of a group of parents that she said formed organically in the fall to advocate for a return to in-person schooling. "These parents have been left in the dark by the district," she said. "Parents do not need time to plan, as the superintendent said now. Parents are ready to start full time on April 5. We've been desperately waiting for a year." Other parents, though, said they were concerned about school building conditions and the safety of an in-person school day. Pamela Rose, a parent of a student at the Sarah Greenwood K-8 School, said that the #BPSReady plan doesn't address inequity, and that her child's building doesn't have windows in all rooms and fans are inadequate to circulate air. "The pandemic and the subsequent lack of transparency around the extremely poor building conditions of the Greenwood left many of us parents shocked and angered that the city has allowed this neglect to go on for so many years," she said. Rose said that BPS hasn't made the most vulnerable students and the buildings with the worst infrastructure a priority. "We just heard from families who want their children in school, who are ready to put their children back in school," Rose said. "The parents at the Greenwood are severely concerned that the conditions at the Greenwood, with regards to the facilities, are not adequate for our students." Students in kindergarten through third grade returned to part-time learning in-person the week of March 1, and grades four through eight returned to part-time in-person learning on March 15. High school students are expected to return part-time the week of March 29. BPS has students split up into groups A and B, to limit the number of students in the building at one time. Waivers are most likely to be granted when the district makes a "compelling case that they must take an incremental approach to implementation," the DESE said in a reopening document. The CDC said last week that students can safely sit just three feet apart in school when masked, down from six feet in previous guidance. It still recommends they remain six feet apart when at lunch, assemblies, sporting events, and in classes such as chorus. Parents will still have the option to keep their children remote full-time.