Newton educators report to work this Monday morning. The problem is, many of them don’t know where they’re going.
I am a Newton Public Schools teacher. I think it is important that the community know about the last-minute staffing debacle happening in the schools. Elementary teachers and Educational Support Professionals (ESPs) received troubling emails Friday afternoon regarding where they will be working, what grade level they may be teaching, and the status of their paychecks. Mind you, we staff are due to report to work this Monday – some of us remotely, some of us in person. This weekend, many educators in Newton have no idea where they are supposed to report to work on Monday or what job they are doing.
Some elementary teachers are being asked to move to other schools, teach a different grade level, or teach two grades at once. Educators need months of planning to make a change like this in order to prepare and do the job well. Now, they’re being given mere days.
ESPs have no idea where their assignments will be and have been told they won’t even have a real contract until October 1st. ESPs support the most vulnerable students in the system, implement required IEP services, and are beloved and trusted adults for all the children in the classrooms they work in.
The community deserves to know that the educators that they assumed would be working with their children, may indeed not be.
Elementary teachers received the following email yesterday:
“We have identified a number of staffing challenges within each school, which are based on the models selected by families and current staffing. This is due to the fact that we now have two different models of schooling.
In order to ensure that both hybrid and DLA within a school are staffed with qualified NPS teachers, we will need some educators to make temporary shifts. The following needs are present across the district based on the variety of situations at each school:
Shift to a different grade-level;
Shift to a different school;
Shift from hybrid to DLA; or
Shift to a split-grade hybrid class (i.e. a grade 1 cohort A and grade 2 cohort B )
Starting today, principals will follow up with grade-level teams and individual teachers for whom shifts are necessary as we create an equitable structure for our students and teachers.”
ESPs received this email yesterday that informed them, among other things:
“As we assess our needs, the district continues to work to determine your actual assignments, including school location and actual hours that you will be contracted to work. We do apologize for how late you are receiving this information. The Human Resources Office will expedite getting this information to you as soon as we know your actual assignments. Tentatively, individual contract letters will be sent by October 1, 2020.
We know how important it is for you to receive your first paycheck on September 15 in a timely fashion. In order to assure this, all Unit C members who are returning will be paid on September 15, 2020 for the same number of hours that they were contracted to work per week during the 19-20 school year until a final determination is made regarding actual assignments.”
All week, as a classroom teacher at the middle school level who is starting the year remotely, I have watched, ashamed and guilty, as some of my colleagues prepare to return to work in-person to buildings without independent HVAC assessments and without a proper surveillance testing program. Now, I also have to spend the weekend worrying that my friends may be ripped away from their school communities entirely. It is not right.
I really do not understand the demand for “independent HVAC assessments” Ms. Simpson. Teachers have been critical of NPS for failing to defer to staff expertise. Fair enough. But aren’t the NPS facilities management personnel likewise entitled to the same deference teachers are due? This is, after all their bailiwick to ensure that classrooms do in fact have functional windows, and that appropriate filtration is in place and regularly cleaned and replaced.
As for a surveillance program, I just read that Wellesley is trying to get such a program started though it is a legally and medically complex undertaking – apart from the expense. In an ideal world we would have the ability to conduct broad surveillance of our 11,000 students plus staff with 24 hour turn around but the logistics and infrastructure just don’t look to me to be available at this time.
Lisap, in fairness, I don’t think the HVAC systems in a number of school buildings are modern systems with Merv 13 filtration. It would be difficult to retrofit a high capacity filtration system into an older building. I’m sure it COULD have been done with enough time and money. But I doubt it HAS been done.
As for working windows, a lot of windows in older buildings are either sealed shut (with paint, to eliminate drafts, or just neglect). I know the windows work at Carr and Cabot. So I imagine all the newer buildings should be functional. But the older buildings? I doubt it.
I’ll also note that Merv 13 filtration is being recommended in many office settings, but I haven’t heard that Newton is requiring it or the State is requiring it in govt buildings.
@Fig-
My memory from one of the many hours of SC meetings was that the facilities people had been working on windows to make sure that every space in use will have functioning windows in addition to the 400 fans that have been purchased. If the windows don’t open the space isn’t useable.
PS -Fig,
You obviously know a lot more about HVAC than I do but isn’t a MERV 13 filter used in hospitals in their surgery suites and for hospital in-patients? I would think they, like N95 masks are in high demand by health care facilities?
Lisap, hospital use between Merv 15 for inpatient and merv 16 for surgery type facilities I believe. My own home has merv 11 (air bear system from Trion I think, very common). Lots of homes just have a filters on the registers or a merv 8. Most of what we’ve been trying to block isn’t viruses but dust and seasonal allergies.
Not that merv 11 is bad. I think it does reduce some air droplets and move limit spread within the same house.
I believe HEPA filters are merv 18. You can buy good quality air filters in a portable air fan with 2 layers of filter (dust, large particles, then HEPA) for a few hundred dollars. They recycle the air in a room a certain number of times an hour, depending on the location and the speed. I’ve got a few of them that I bought years ago due to dust allergies. Work well, and apparently help with Covid as well.
Lisap – You missed the point of Ms. Simpson’s post. The teachers who will have to move do not yet know where they will be assigned. They will be expected to return to work in less than 48 hours to an unknown school and will have to move and unpack all their materials, a task that typically takes several weeks. Teachers who are moved to a different grade level will need to learn the curriculum for four subjects in several weeks, a task that typically takes months to master.
I ask you to focus on the core problem because, as we’ve seen on this site, on one particularly vicious FaceBook page, and in the Chat during a recent school committee meeting, the people who will be blamed for any inadequacies as a result of these moves will be the teachers. All anyone is asking for is patience as everyone makes these adjustments.
In my personal experience, most Newton parents are supportive and well-meaning. However, the challenges of teaching in 2020 aren’t well understood in the parent community. Newton parents demand excellence (as they should) and Newton teachers strive to provide an excellent education. Please give NPS teachers a fighting chance to live up to these expectations. I don’t think it’s asking for patience at this particular point in time is asking too much and ultimately, it will benefit the students.
“I don’t think asking for patience at this particular point…”
When I began writing, only Lisap had responded. Since that time, four other people have focused on MERV 13 filters. Sometimes I think it’s easier to hold on tight to the concrete known rather than think about the amorphous unknown.
Fig – your kids could be the ones who have a teacher who’s been moved to another school two days before s/he returns to school. Or perhaps your child will have the teacher who’s been changed from second grade to fifth grade without notice. Someone’s kids are going to have teachers who are working at a severe disadvantage. Those parents are not going to be happy about it, and the one who’ll absorb their upset and anger is the teacher.
@Jane,
No actually I didn’t miss the point of the post. Everything is in disarray, I get that. Teachers, parents and students are all incredibly stressed. But I think that stress may be compounded when individuals fret about matters that are within the responsibility and expertise of others (HVAC) or view issues as insurmountable stumbling blocks (the feasibility of surveillance testing in place to reopen schools). You may be surprised to hear that I actually do trust our professional teaching staff; my kids have had some wonderful educators and I believe that they want to do their best for students. Teachers ask us to put our trust in them and we should because while they are facing huge challenges, I am confident that they will make education work for NPS students. But at the same time, I’m suggesting that there are other people who have been hard at work to make the schools safe for students and staff and perhaps they deserve some trust and confidence as well.
I don’t pretend that this will be easy. This is a disaster the likes of which we have not seen since 1918. But we are in this boat for the long haul together. And we can’t stand still treading water. Moving forward will be hard but we can’t stand still.
Jane, re: “the people who will be blamed for any inadequacies as a result of these moves will be the teachers.” I wouldn’t take the few nasty comments on social media as an indication of the way parents will feel about the teachers. I dare say that most parents will be quite supportive of their children’s teachers, as they have been for years, especially because they understand the extra stresses and strains this year. If things go awry, they are more likely to blame the Mayor, the Superintendent, or the School Committee.
Lisap – Are you aware that, despite David Stickney’s best efforts, the buildings are not safe? Appropriate filtration is not all in place, many windows are not functional, a testing program is not being considered, and no one knows what the plan is when we have positive COVID cases.
@Jane,
I don’t know what an “appropriate filtration system” is for individual buildings. I profess no expertise and defer to people who work in the industry, and my understanding is NPS is consulting with such an expert. I understand from SC meetings that rooms without functioning windows will not be used.
As for surveillance testing, I understand that Wellesley will be spending somewhere between $1-2 million for testing for 4,000 students for the Fall. A simple multiplier of that would be at least $4 million for Newton to test students. The City can’t just incur expenses with no way to pay. If we expect the state to pay, I would suggest that available funds would most likely be directed towards red cities like Framingham and Chelsea where their Covid infections are in excess of 5 percent… unlike Newton which is well under 1% per 100k.
Is there any reason to believe Newton could raise funds for surveillance testing by issuing bonds? A prop 2 1/2 increase in taxes? I think not. How do we pay for surveillance testing?
If you watch the interview with Dr. Jha, he makes clear that the incidence of child abuse has dramatically increased. Returning to school carries risks, but for our high school students the risk of isolation and the attendant mental heath sequelae are extremely high. Hindsight will tell us whether we were right, or tragically wrong.
Information about the windows is inaccurate. Not all windows open. What can I say. Repairing the windows in the schools would be a massive expense as well.
BU, Harvard, Connecticut College are all using surveillance testing. Let’s see how they do compared to U. of Alabama which now has 1000 positive cases in the first two weeks students have been on campus. The question to the community is simple: do you want the schools to remain open? Once a student is symptomatic, they’ve been a vector for several days and contact tracing is impossible, leading quickly to outbreaks.
What would I do in this unprecedented situation? One idea is to set up a testing fund/foundation to raise funds for the testing program. Call me naive, but I believe people of means in the city would step forward if they knew that their donations were going to maintain the health of the youngest children and keep the schools open. You and others will laugh at the suggestion that in these unprecedented times, we turn to the wealthiest in the city to help us take a step to normalcy, and that to me is just sad.
@Jane-
I’m not laughing at all. I’m wide open to ideas and suggestions. And if there’s a private foundation to collect funding for surveillance testing, I’ll donate what I can to keep children, teachers and the community safe. That’s a promise.
Could anyone explain to me why this is happening now and not 4 months ago?
“The School Committee will convene in virtual Open Session via Zoom to vote to enter into a virtual Executive Session in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 30A, §§ 18-25 of the Massachusetts General Laws, on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at 6:00 pm for the purpose of:
• Discussing strategy in relation to Collective Bargaining with the Newton Teacher’s Association (NTA) regarding reopening school.”
Am I missing something? Did the SC ever say “If we had surveillance testing, we will open the schools?” Getting the kids back to school is overwhelming for the administration and school committee. No one wants to admit that they are feeble. Rather, they make excuses. This is the same strategy used explain why we continue to start high school at 7:40 am.
If we had surveillance testing, they would just make up another excuse for why schools must be closed. Examples include; It is too hard to switch gears during the school year. Starting school back up will be inequitable. Teachers have childcare issues, etc.
@Jane Frantz – I am sorry but it’s a specious argument to compare schools to colleges/universities. The high rates of infection in colleges/universities have come from students congregating maskless at parties and in dorms. Our K-12 students will be doing neither. Moreover, infection rates in the South and in the Northeast are dramatically different. I am sorry to say this, but it’s these sorts of fears that are causing some of the issues regarding teachers returning to their jobs.
While I do agree that frequent testing is probably the best way to get schools open, as was pointed out, this is a massive and costly undertaking until rapid and cheap saliva tests become prevalent. Yes – some kind of volunteer fund-raising effort from our population would have been good. But then, we parents all believed and thought that the teachers and the NPS and the SC would make sensible decisions and policies and get our kids back to school and not in the huge mess that they are all in right now.
@Jane Frantz I am all for trying to fundraise for surveillance testing. I posted on another thread where I think this actually one situation where it makes sense to pool PTO funds and fundraising effort since we would all benefit. Maybe get some corporate donors. However I’m not sure we could come close to funding it. Colby College with 2,000 students is spending $5m. Wellesley Is looking to raise $3.5M for testing of their District of about 4800 students. We have almost 3xs the enrollment of Wellesley.
@Lucia Where did you see that information about the SC meeting in executive session on Tuesday?
Elementary students will be in enclosed spaces for sustained periods of time with other young children who have limited understanding of how to maintain physical distance. The best way to mitigate the spread of this highly contagious disease is to mimic outdoor spaces as much as possible. If your classroom has multiple windows and one or two open, that’s complying with the letter of the policy. We need to do better than that. You are wrong is saying teachers won’t go back under any circumstances. Teachers want to return when the
As for teachers stepping up to the plate, three points, two I have stated multiple times on multiple social media sites:
1. All elementary teachers who are in the ABLE category will return to in-person teaching.
2. Teachers in the UNABLE category because they have health conditions that put them in high risk categories or live with someone who does has to provide documentation from a doctor. The school system and city know it’s not in anyone’s best interest to force these people into a situation where they may get a serious case of COVID.
3. Teachers are stepping up to the plate. Just this weekend, an unknown number of elementary teachers are receiving messages from their principals that they will need to move schools and/or grade levels when students return in September. These teachers, along with their colleagues, have every intention of doing their best by Newton students despite these challenges. I don’t know which or how many, but some of our elementary schools will have significant changes in staffing because of the number of teachers in the UNABLE category. My hope is that the parent community will join in making this unprecedented situation be the best it can be.
Mom of Newton High Schooler: I’ve been in Maine for weeks because it’s safer here. But just a few weeks ago, a misguided couple decided to go ahead with a wedding and reception. No cases of COVID had been recorded in that community. None. In the few weeks since that event, the numbers of cases from that one event have spread the disease to distant parts of the state. This is a highly contagious disease, spread when large groups of people gather in indoor spaces for sustained periods of time. We’ve learned this the hard way. Respect the virus.
To comment on the question of why teachers are asking for independent evaluation of HVAC. Yes, teachers are asking for you to trust our expertise in educating your children but we are also asking you to trust our experiences in the buildings we work.
Just as some of you have said that testing/tracing is hard because of funding (even though both Dr Jha and Dr Walensky stated that would be an important part of any reopening plan) we ask you to consider that our maintenance staff can only do what is budgeted to them as well. And there’s not a lot. I cannot tell you the number of times each year myself and my colleagues submit tasks to maintenance about the HVAC or air or heat and they reply that they “fixed” it yet nothing is different. I have literally had snow in my room. Snow.
I know those are not necessarily connected to HVAC (according to our maintenance head heat/AC are not part of what is being evaluated or fixed) but I’ve experienced what our maintenance staff can do with the funds they’ve been given. I ask you to understand that this level of distrust from educators and staff at schools doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from experience.
I also pose a real question- as one of the wealthiest districts in the state, is there genuinely no way Newton can raise the funds to do testing in any capacity? People have commented here over and over than Newton has not invested in education like it should have and that’s why buildings are crumbling, etc. I’m not trying to be sarcastic or anything and maybe I’m just uninformed. I’m genuinely asking if a testing/tracing plan is so key to opening schools (according to all the experts) and MANY parents are participating as medical professionals in the collaboration of schools using the testing plan through Wellesley hospital (I think that’s the hospital) and advocating for Newton to join, why aren’t we trying harder to join? If it makes schools safer even a small margin and makes parents, kids, and staff more secure. And if not, then NPS still needs a plan as part of the SC vote. What’s the alternative?
And lastly- I understand replying to bits and pieces of the original post, but the discussion here really needs to be on how and why these elementary teachers are being asked to complete an almost impossible task. Can we discuss ways to support them? The original poster is looking for support and help.
It’s on the City of Newton electronic bulletin board. On the City website.
The School Committee esp Dr. Fleishman have lost all our trust. We trusted that they were going to work on a LOGICAL, DOABLE plan. One that included testing, contact tracing and quarantine procedures. And building readiness. (The testing “plan” was a link to a map of testing sites. I kid you not.) We could be using Loop for contact tracing for example.
The first plan had NONE of those.
The custodians admitted some windows wouldn’t open and that filters had been backordered. So I will not be placing my “blind” trust in anyone except the teachers.
Btw we have $7,8M in Covid Cares money some of which can be used for edu. There IS cheap testing out there that would be better than nothing. Until then, we dont’ have a real plan,
Anyone that has had a student in NPS in the last ten years, knows why NPS need an independent consultant to come into the schools and look at the rooms. Admitting that some windows don’t open, and will continue not to open is not a report. Rooms can be 90 degrees on a winter day in a steam heat classroom. Add leaks, and mold behind the walls. Parents and students know that the buildings have needed attention for years.
My inlaws (in the midwest) could not believe the video we shared with them 8 years ago of a sub pump hose running through a fourth grade classroom on rainy days. They were horrified. While Angier is new, Ward and others are old and should have been replaced.
If you are a taxpayer in Newton and don’t have kids in NPS now, you would be horrified at how awful the buildings are. My last two employers (private) would never have expected their employees to work in such conditions.
@Kim Smith,
Where is the cheap testing you mentioned? Link please. Any testing to be useful needs a rapid turnaround time and I’ve heard too many stories of people waiting 10-14 days for testing, but if you have information please share specifics.
As people have already written here, private colleges and universities are spending millions to conduct surveillance testing though the Broad Institute and contracted laboratories . We aren’t in the same position as schools that are taking in $70k per student and have enormous endowments to fall back on so it’s not a reasonable comparison.
A more complicated issue I think is that expecting the administration to conduct testing and contract tracing is not a function that an institution of public education is equipped to undertake. This would have to be done in conjunction with public health authorities as well as a medical institution to administer the tests and I don’t know what lab to process them. I don’t believe that school nurses can administer tests nor should they. There are also issues of parental consent and student privacy which though not insurmountable, must be addressed. But these really aren’t within the expertise of public school administrators which is why the health protocols are coming from the City’s Dept. of Public Health.
@Amanda,
Good points again. If you’re at NNHS and have snow in your classroom that’s pretty appalling considering what the City spent on that building.
If anyone is interested in more information about Wellesley’s efforts to get a pilot surveillance testing program off the ground, here is a link:
https://theswellesleyreport.com/2020/08/wellesley-explores-school-covid-19-testing-concept/
Note – testing at cost is $45-60, commercial rates are quote as $120-180
Newton South teacher here – the section of the school where I teach was constructed in the early 2000s, and when I started in 2006, there were already issues in that area with ventilation and mold started developing in the ceilings by 2010. The older parts of South are much worse, so I can only imagine the buildings that are up to 100 years old. Despite the best efforts of our custodial staff, several rooms have ventilation units failing several times per year, and then in successive years. Rarely are outside HVAC specialists called in, despite attempts by principals to get them in. This is why teachers would like outside specialists to evaluate the ventilation – the years of mismanagement in upkeep have made us very skeptical in the safety of our buildings.