Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said Wednesday that he expects the school district will make a decision in the next week or two for how the school year will get started, with officials keeping an eye on the “slight uptick” in coronavirus cases being seen in the city.
“This is no question one of the hardest decisions that we have to make, moving forward,” he said during a press conference.
School officials are weighing a choice between starting the school year using a hybrid model — both in-person and remote learning — or kicking all lessons off virtually. Full in-person learning is not being considered to start the year. The Boston Teachers Union is pressing for a remote start to the year, with a phased-in approach to in-person learning.
“I know that many people are anxious about the decision,” Walsh said during his remarks. “Parents are concerned and also need time to make plans. Teachers have concerns, and they’re also worried and they need time to make plans. And everyone is rightly concerned about their safety and the safety of our young people. I want to be clear about the priorities that we’ve laid out here — keeping everyone safe is our first priority. That means our kids, our families, that means all of our teachers, our staff, that means our community at large. It means quite honestly everyone.”
The mayor said city and school officials are working to make sure that plans for both remote and in-person learning are “as safe and as effective” as possible.
“My concern right now with school is that we have a growing achievement gap, in particular for our Black and Latino students,” Walsh said. “And I’m concerned that if we don’t have the remote learning or the in-person learning right, that achievement gap is going to continue to grow.”
To prepare for in-person learning, all buildings will have hand sanitizing stations, thousands of pieces of plexiglass for dividers have been ordered, new filters will be installed in the HVAC systems, and ventilated isolation spaces will be created in nurses rooms, among other steps.
Walsh said similar to the city’s approach to reopening restaurants, all school buildings will have to receive a certificate from Inspectional Services before opening.
“We will not send students or teachers or staff into a building that is not safe,” he said.
At the same time, work is being done to “strengthen remote learning,” according to the mayor.
“If we’re all remote learning, and we might have to be, we need to make sure that the remote learning side of it is working,” Walsh said. “Because the achievement gap for our Black and Latino students is going to grow even wider.”
However schools end up reopening, the goal is to provide the highest quality of learning to students. The needs of the most vulnerable students, including those who rely on school meal programs, special education students, and English language learners, will be front of mind as the district focuses on equity in its reopening.
Schools are dealing with two public health crises, he said, the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis of racial inequity.
“We’ve seen them intersect in the COVID numbers and we’ve responded … We have to get this right,” the mayor said. “Our kids are depending on us doing this. So as we think about reopening, all of this is taken into account. For the safety and wellbeing of our students, we have to start the year with the same focus on equity. Families where adults are working can’t always help keep their kids engaged. Students learning english and students with disabilities depend on in-person supports. Children living in shelters need places to go. These are safety issues for many of our children. We have to meet those needs from the first day school begins or those students will suffer. We can’t and we’re not going to let that happen.”
Metrics tracking the virus will guide which plan is chosen, Walsh said. The mayor also suggested that Boston may be “more stringent” than state or federal guidelines advise.
“This is a very, very fragile issue. Very understandably,” he said. “8,700 people in Massachusetts have lost their life due to COVID-19. So it is a very fragile time. And I think that if we’re going to open schools, we — I, the superintendent, the district — have to sell and explain to people why our schools are safe to reopen. That has to be it.”
Get Boston.com’s e-mail alerts:
Sign up and receive coronavirus news and breaking updates, from our newsroom to your inbox.
