Well, the other shoe has finally dropped: The Newton Public Schools are now closed, starting tomorrow and lasting at least through next Friday and possibly longer. Here’s a link to the Newton Report’s article: https://mailchi.mp/bostonglobe.com/newton-officials-revisit-sites-for-senior-center-399841?e=75a9ebf2ff
Though not surprised by the decision, which all of us viewed beforehand as inevitable, I received a second blow to the gut shortly afterward: girls tennis at Newton South will not begin as planned because the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) has postponed all spring sports until Monday, March 30 at the earliest. Here is part of their statement:
After much discussion, the BOD decision is to delay the start of the 2020 spring season to March 30, 2020. Respecting the fluidity of this situation, this decision will be revisited prior to March 30.
The following guidelines must be followed during this delayed start time:
-Out of season coaching is not allowed during this period
-The start date for the first competition will be consistent with MIAA Handbook Rule 35.4.1
-The first team competition may not occur before the 11th calendar day after and including the first day of practice.
In all likelihood, if schools reopen by then and teams hold tryouts and practices, actual matches and games probably won’t be played until Spring break or afterward. And how can anyone predict if school will have reopened at the end of March anyhow? This pandemic is so distinct that to say the situation is evolving hardly does justice.
For safety’s sake, life has been put on hold for most of us in Massachusetts…and many other places.
Closing school without quarantining the students for 14 days is futile. All the students that have been released from a single facility are now all going out and spreading all across the community. They will be gathering at restaurants, malls and movie theaters.
NewtonCares,
As far as my two teenagers, they will NOT be gathering at malls and movies. My daughter has already turned down a play date. The whole part of social distancing is to be social from a distance. Thankgoodness, she has FaceTime and House Party on her iphone to be social.
Lots of quality family time – family movie night! We will have walks or backyard time.
But I want to re-assure you that not all kids will be out of the house.
I’ve told my kids they can do some outdoor activities such as going to a field (usually when they do this they are the only ones there) to practice their soccer skills, going for runs and walking the dogs but other than that no going over friends’ houses, etc. I was driving my son and two friends home yesterday and one said “I don’t think my mom is going to let me go anywhere if we don’t have school”. My response was that is the point of no school in this situation.
@NewtonCares– I think it’s likely that those gathering spots you mentioned–restaurants, malls and movie theatres will close for a time during this crisis. This is going to be a very tough financial hit for those businesses. I’m particularly concerned about the many individually owned restaurants in Newton.
As soon as testing is more readily available I’d like to see a protocol put in place to assure the public that restaurant food preparers are healthy. I noticed on the news that similar protocols were implemented in China. This would allow restaurants to safely serve takeout and delivery food with an ongoing testing regimen for food preparers and deliverers.
Latest CDC guidance on these matters. Not posting this to be critical of the decision at all, but just to show how fluid things are and what is being learned around the world as this thing progresses. Also, what makes this so hard to think through is that there is not widespread testing to know exactly how pervasive the disease is in a given geographic area.
Considerations for School Closure
Recommendations on school closure based on available science, reports from other countries and consultation with school health experts.
1.There is a role for school closure in response to school-based cases of COVID-19 for decontamination and contact tracing (few days of closure), in response to significant absenteeism of staff and students (short to medium length, i.e. 2-4 weeks of closure), or as part of a larger community mitigation strategy for jurisdictions with substantial community spread (medium to long length, i.e. 4-8 weeks or more of closure).
2.Available modeling data indicate that early, short to medium closures do not impact the epi curve of COVID-19 or available health care measures (e.g., hospitalizations). There may be some impact of much longer closures (8 weeks, 20 weeks) further into community spread, but that modelling also shows that other mitigation efforts (e.g., handwashing, home isolation) have more impact on both spread of disease and health care measures. In other countries, those places who closed school (e.g., Hong Kong) have not had more success in reducing spread than those that did not (e.g., Singapore).
3.In places where school closures are necessary, the anticipated academic and economic impacts and unintended impacts on disease outcomes must be planned for and mitigated. Provision of academic support (e.g., tele-ed), alternatives for school-based meals as well as other services (e.g., behavioral and mental health services) for economically and physically vulnerable children, support for families for whom telework and paid sick leave is not available, ensuring that high risk individuals continue to be protected must all be addressed. Special consideration must be given for health care workers so that school closures do not impact their ability to work.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/considerations-for-school-closure.pdf
There will not be any sports affiliated with the MIAA this spring season. NCAA set precedent. Sorry folks but sports are over til fall.
The Worcester Public Schools announce that all schools and programs, including the Parent Information Center, will be closed until at least Monday, April 6, 2020. The Durkin Administration Building will be open to employees and closed to the public but available by telephone
CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS CLOSURE
Cambridge Public Schools will be closed through Friday, March 27. Visit https://www.cpsd.us/coronavirus to learn more. All distance learning information will be available on the school websites under Academics.
All schools and district offices closed until 3/27/2020.
Mayor Walsh just announced Boston Public Schools closed until April 27th.
Sorry – my second post after Cambridge closing was Somerville closing.
Dr. Fauci said today that “hopefully”, if things go well, we could be on the downswing in 8 weeks (mid May). The momentum this has will not slow for awhile. I would expect “abundance of caution” risk aversion will make a decision to reopen difficult until summer. Ultimately we need to protect our older teachers, as well as reduce community spread, so that has to be considered.
On the positive side, I have seen reports that neither South Korea or Italy has had a death of someone under 29.
I have been very worried about children as a vector to grandparents, but this article suggests they have not be identified yet as the primary transmitter of a new case:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-comprehensive-ars-technica-guide-to-the-coronavirus/
“The WHO-China Joint Mission report also noted that children appear largely unscathed in this epidemic, writing, “disease in children appears to be relatively rare and mild.” From the data so far, they report that “infected children have largely been identified through contact tracing in households of adults.”
“Still, as the Joint Mission report noted, given the data available, it is not possible to determine the extent of infection among children and what role that plays in driving the spread of disease and the epidemic overall. “Of note,” the report went on, “people interviewed by the Joint Mission Team could not recall episodes in which transmission occurred from a child to an adult.”
Dr. Fauci said today that “hopefully”, if things go well, we could be on the downswing in 8 weeks (mid May). The momentum this has will not slow for awhile. I would expect “abundance of caution” risk aversion will make a decision to reopen difficult until summer. Ultimately we need to protect our older teachers, as well as reduce community spread, so that has to be considered.
On the positive side, I have seen reports that neither South Korea or Italy has had a death of someone under 29.
I have been worried about children as a vector to grandparents, but this article suggests they have not be identified yet as the primary transmitter of a new case:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-comprehensive-ars-technica-guide-to-the-coronavirus/
“The WHO-China Joint Mission report also noted that children appear largely unscathed in this epidemic, writing, “disease in children appears to be relatively rare and mild.” From the data so far, they report that “infected children have largely been identified through contact tracing in households of adults.”
“Still, as the Joint Mission report noted, given the data available, it is not possible to determine the extent of infection among children and what role that plays in driving the spread of disease and the epidemic overall. “Of note,” the report went on, “people interviewed by the Joint Mission Team could not recall episodes in which transmission occurred from a child to an adult.”