AMHERST-PELHAM EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OPPOSES PHYSICAL SCHOOL RE-OPENING IN THE FALL

COVID-19 TRANSMISSION RISKS ARE CITED/NEGOTIATIONS ARE UNDERWAY BETWEEN UNION AND DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION  

The Amherst-Pelham Education Association (APEA), a union representing staff in the local public schools, announced yesterday, July 7, that it will fight the district’s plan to re-open school buildings part-time in the fall. 

“We … stand strong in opposition to returning to in-person learning in the Fall of 2020. We call on the district to work together with us, without further delay, on improving, refining and setting standards for distance learning,” the union wrote. The APEA’s full statement was posted on Facebook, and submitted to the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee, which met last night along with the Amherst and Pelham committees. 

The APEA represents teachers, clerical workers, and paraeducators who work for Amherst Regional High School, Summit Academy, Amherst Regional Middle School, and Crocker Farm, Fort River, Wildwood, and Pelham Elementary Schools.

Virtual Town Halls on fall plans, hosted by the Amherst Regional Public Schools will be held tomorrow, Thursday July 9 at noon and 5 p.m. for the public to attend. Further information on the Town Halls is here.

The APEA opposition to physical re-opening comes despite the administration’s plan to dramatically reconfigure schools in the fall in order to reduce potential COVID-19 transmission. The district is adding walls and new duct work at Fort River and Wildwood, and is reconfiguring use of the space in all school buildings to maintain a six-foot distance between desks. District officials have outlined plans to repurpose cafeterias, music rooms and other spaces as classrooms to enable distancing. Additional changes, including part-time in-person attendance, leading to shorter physical school weeks and days, are being discussed, along with full-time remote learning for those who cannot attend for health reasons, and hybrids of remote and in-person instruction. Meanwhile, $240,000 in personal protective equipment, including thousands of disposable masks for staff (and students who need them) along with hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer have been purchased. 

At July 7’s School Committee meeting, District officials outlined a plan to move Crocker Farm’s 5th and 6th grade students into the Amherst Regional Middle School building in the fall, stating that all children (including those who attend a district-wide preschool on the site) can’t be accommodated at Crocker Farm with six feet between desks. However, Superintendent Michael Morris also said later that the middle school itself won’t have sufficient space to enable all 7th and 8th grade students to attend simultaneously, and discussed operating at about half capacity with students on attendance rotations.

Generally the School Committees have agreed to prioritize in-person learning for elementary school pupils, along with students with special needs and English-language learners. 

School Committee member Kerry Spitzer of Amherst inquired about whether portable classrooms were considered for Crocker Farm. Morris said several would be needed and would likely be very costly. 

The APEA, in opposing physical reopening, has gone somewhat farther than the umbrella Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), which  represents 110,000 members in close to 400 local associations statewide. The MTA, which announced its disappointment in late June with re-opening guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, has stopped short of blanket opposition to physical re-opening. 

Morris read the APEA statement aloud at Tuesday’s meeting, among other public comments, including a handful from staff in support of the APEA’s stand. Morris expressed reluctance to address detailed prospects for balancing remote learning with in-person attendance, referring to union negotiations now underway. However, Morris noted that it is difficult to run two parallel systems well simultaneously. 

The APEA cites the current rise in COVID-19 cases throughout much of the U.S., and the surge’s link to “premature re-opening of communities,” as a main reason that its members believe it is “unsafe”  for students and staff to return. 

Morris and the School Committees acknowledged that the fall plans will be dictated by the pandemic’s status at the time, and that if physical schools reopen for a while, they may need to close again in case of an outbreak. Individuals or groups of students or staff might be quarantined periodically. “We are going to have to plan for all contingencies,” Morris said. 

The APEA lists “grave concerns” including staff traveling between multiple buildings, and cites an unspecified “lack” of district-provided personal protective equipment. The union predicts it would be “unmanageable” for staff to enforce state guidelines on social-distancing and mask-wearing, and claims the guidelines “create an environment where teachers become little more than enforcement officers, tasked with policing students’ bodies and behaviors as opposed to being educators.” 

The APEA said its members include staff who are older, medically vulnerable, or who live with people who are high risk. The concerns listed include disproportionate danger to people of color from Covid-19, and environmental issues such as fumes from disinfecting products, and poorly-ventilated buildings. As the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly throughout the U.S., “the only safe option is to plan for improving distance learning and use the remainder of the summer and early September” to do so, the APEA said. 

School Committee member Peter Demling of Amherst said the Covid-19 health concerns are certainly valid, but must be carefully weighed against the  “potentially unrecoverable” educational loss if children cannot physically return to school. 

“Any model that we’re talking about implementing is going to increase the health risks for students and staff,” Demling said, adding that a difficult balance  is necessary. “We’re trying to thread this needle,” he said. 

Regional School Committee Chair Allison McDonald of Amherst noted that despite surging cases in many states, Massachusetts appears to be holding steady with a low daily case count. “We’re not Florida, we’re not Texas,” she said. 

Spitzer urged the committee to think about the potentially vulnerable family members of both students and staff, saying that she did not want teachers or children to have to socially-distance themselves from their families at home.