Topic: A conversation with the School Committee and School Department on the Covid‐19 Emergency as it relates
to Public Health Issues in Newton Public School Buildings and the School Budget, and to ask any questions
that Councilors may have.
The City Council will hold this meeting as a virtual Zoom meeting on Thursday, September 24, 2020 at 4:00 pm.
To view this meeting use this link at the above date and time:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89598921375?pwd=T3d5Q2FpajR1emlLM0FlRmFTcnJKZz09
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US: +13017158592,,89598921375
I am struck (although I don’t know why) by how inept this City has been when it comes to these schools. Why are we scrambling now to fix windows when we had the past 5 months to work on this?
Um – I don’t think windows haven’t been looked at. There are a few they are having trouble with but they did look at those over the summer. They just didn’t get to the ventilation systems yet.
@Amy,
Ok, I will give you that. But I guess the question is still why weren’t windows looked at before now and why are we just now trying to address ventilation problems in school buildings that are older than dirt! What has the City been waiting for? It’s not like everyone didn’t know Covid was going to be with us for a long time….
@WholeTruth: Sorry – I don’t have an explanation for that.
On another note: There’s a COVID-19 Dashboard for the Newton Public Schools. Here’s the link: http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/health_n_human_services/public/covid19/data.asp
Scroll down.
@Amy – the schools dashboard isn’t useful when there isn’t systematic testing, since so many kids with COVID-19 are asymptomatic.
As to ventilation, there’s no excuse for not having started the inspection and repairs of the systems over the summer when the schools weren’t in session. We owe the NTA thanks for pushing this issue.
@Meredith: Don’t shoot the messenger! I’m just sharing what is on the City’s website! I couldn’t agree more with you about testing – which is why I am part of a coalition pushing the Administration for surveillance testing in our public schools!
As for the inaction on ventilation inspections and repairs – well – that’s a failure in leadership.
The dashboard should include the number of positive cases for students and staff who are in the buildings. The greater concern is an outbreak in the buildings.
This is so telling…I’m going to go on a limb and say that the issues of ventilation and masks would be the first thing anyone with common sense would address. The fact that mask protocols were only recently finalized and that we still don’t have a clear answer on ventilation is extremely alarming…there is no indication that having the windows open and adding filters is sufficient to address that the air circulation will be adequate. If the SC are only realizing this now, I cannot imagine the rest of the plan. This is on Fleishman, all he seems to care about is his own PR. Ruth and Ruthanne are his enablers.
Meredith,
You may not be aware of this but private schools with full in person schooling have not been testing. Not surveillance, not random, not asymptomatic, not at all. Testing healthy students in classes with social distancing in masks is not a prerequisite for school.
Craig – NPS is a school system with 12,000 students and a staff of 2000. It’s a totally different situation. The only common element is the word “school”.
Jane, while it’s true that NPS as a whole is larger than any one particular private school, a school is a school and they all face similar challenges. There isn’t a private school in MA that is significantly more modern than Newton North and there are plenty of private primary schools that are as old as even Countryside.
It bears repeating because this seems to be a foundational issue for the teachers:
Private schools are not testing kids or teachers, period.
They are suggesting a hurdle for reopening that none of the schools that have actually successfully reopened have met.
I think it may be early to say that a school has successfully opened
“Private schools are not testing kids or teachers, period.”
This could be true for some schools, but it is not trus as a blanket statement for all private schools. Newton Country Day, St Peter’s, for example, are testing every student and every staff member every single week. BB&N is testing every faculty/staff member each week through October. Several others, while not testing each week, are hybrid and don’t have all students in class every day. This is just off the top of my head.
@Craig – I don’t see private schools as the standard anyone should follow. They aren’t supported by my taxes and they aren’t an important part of my community. Saying what private schools are doing is a straw man argument, just deflecting attention from the question at hand which is the safety of my community.
Meredith,
Private schools are schools. Those of us with kids in public school should thank our lucky stars for the 1,000+ kids in Newton that attend private schools. Their unused education dollars are absolutely vital for NPS.
But leaving that aside, private schools are important to this discussion because they have been the test case for sending kids back without testing, and things are going extremely well. I’m aware the NCD is doing some testing but MAA, Rivers, Dexter, Gann, Nobles, and most of the others are not.
I recall from previous posts that you are spending a lot of time in isolation during the pandemic, so you might not be aware that kids all over Newton — public, private, and college — have been socializing all summer. Now many of them are attending class in person and they are still socializing. Thousands of them have been playing sports, including in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, for months.
Governor Baker has demanded that Belmont and Watertown return their students to school. Newton will be next and it will be soon.
I should change my name to Mom of Private High Schooler since with great sadness and much regret, our child moved to a private school in Boston after 11 years in the NPS system (at their specific request I might add). This school is hybrid – 1 week on/1 week off, and is testing everyone who is on campus each week. So far, 3 weeks of this, and no positive cases. Many of the kids take public transportation, and school has all sensible social distancing/PPE rules in place. School is in an old brownstone. High schools in Newton can do this. And they don’t need massive asymptomatic testing to do so, given the low infection rate in our communities.
The Newton Public Schools have no plan to open the high schools this year. Think about that- There is still no plan. There has been no discussion about metrics needed to open the high schools.Even sadder there is never a discussion about what this is doing to the 4000 high school students who are staring at computers alone all day instead of going to school. The
students aren’t part of the equation. 70 percent of school districts are offering at least some in-person learning. Not only has Newton failed to open the schools, Newton does not even have a plan in place.
Bars are open, restaurants are open, daycares are open. Every private school in the area is open.
This is an epic failure on the part of the school committee and Mayor and thousands of kids are suffering.
Correct -they do not need massive testing, especially of asymptomatic students, they do not need hospital grade ventilation, they do not need 6 feet between students for social distancing according to the CDC guidelines. What the city needs is a School Committee, Mayor and Superintendent who will actually do something.
Where is the sense of urgency in re-opening the schools? This should be at the top of every politician’s agenda. We (taxpayers, parents) should be getting weekly updates about the barriers that remain to opening the schools, and most importantly, the action steps needed to overcome these barriers, and the timelines associated with these steps.
The fact that we’re nearly in October, and young kids are doing school only two mornings a week, while older children are 100% remote, is really hard to believe. And this from one of the supposed best school districts in the state…
There is no urgency, maybe their kids are attending private schools that are all full time in person? I am also dumbfounded by the lack of urgency by the politicians. Schools are important for everyone. This will hurt property values–
Amy,
I listened to the joint meeting and many of the counselors, including Marc Loredo were pushing for answers. I am stunned that DF is still dancing around the issues. The City needs to get a plan to get the kids back in school. And the School Committee needs to push DF for the plan or let him go. The School Committee just renewed his contract so I am sure it won’t be easy to let him go, but he doesn’t answer the questions with answers.
Newton Mom,
I am so disappointed with the city-the Mayor, The School Committee and the Superintendent. I listened to the joint meeting and I agree Marc Loredo was pushing the committee for some answers and I felt that Emily Norton was also an advocate for getting the schools open. DF was noncommittal about taking any action to open the school this year. In fact the communication DF sent on Friday specifically mentioned that “Transitioning this year” to hybrid still might not happen and that DF planned on sending another survey. Another survey. WOW, Do your job DF and get the schools open. No one is advocating for the students and no one is pushing for the school to open. What are the next steps that we as parents can take?
Any reasonable human can deduce that 100-year-old buildings are going to have multifarious problems and complications. Given that the schools are short staffed, I would encourage parents head into the buildings to volunteer their services.
Craig, comparing public and private schools is like comparing apples and oranges. This argument is moot.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/22/metro/states-emergency-child-care-centers-kept-covid-19-check-heres-how/
wear a mask and wash your hands. Happy to volunteer or work at one of our schools.
Jason, I can’t tell whether you are being purposefully obtuse or if you are actually unaware of the facts here. To say that we can’t compare public and private schools is about as dumb as expecting 19 year old college kids to stay isolated for the second half of the their senior year in high school and the entirety of their their freshman year in college.
Newton North is as nice and new as any private high school in the state. Zervas is zero years old. I assure you that there are loads of private schools with 100 year old buildings that are completely open, most of them with zero testing.
Are some of Newton’s schools in rough shape? Of course. Was school going to be a complicated problem to solve this fall? Absolutely.
Did the adults in the room — teachers, administration, and city government — rise to the task? They did not. They failed miserably.
In reading the latest update I feel like DF is laying the ground work to say hybrid is not feasible. They will have their committee but the pre-determined outcome will be the result. They will create a survey that will support that result and say that the trade offs are just too much. All the adults have failed the kids. What is occurring right now for the Hs in particular is a joke. Too bad the kids are the ones that are paying the price,