School boss given power to kickstart in-person learning
The state education commissioner was granted the authority Friday to bring elementary kids back to school next month — and to decide if hybrid and remote classes will no longer count toward learning hours.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education board voted 8-3 in favor of granting DESE Commissioner Jeffrey Riley the power to open classrooms under a plan that seeks to get all elementary school children attending school in person five days a week beginning in April. The return date for other grade levels is yet to be determined.
“We are in an interesting time. We have seen our numbers go way down. We’ve seen the vaccines, and the promise of the vaccines go way up and we think now is the time to begin to move our children back into school more robustly,” said Riley during the Friday afternoon meeting.
Under the regulations, Riley could notify districts that they may no longer use hybrid or remote learning models to meet the minimum school year learning requirements.
There will be a waiver process for districts, and parents will have the option of keeping their children remote until the end of the school year.
Public comment during the meeting was split between people asking the board not to adopt the measure and leave the decisionmaking up to local leaders, and others pushing for kids to get back in school due to mental health and learning issues.
Some board members such as Mary Ann Stewart said it was too soon to move forward, “We are not out of the woods, I’m not at all comfortable with mandating that schools go back in person.”
But others in the meeting such as Education Secretary James Peyser supported the measure saying, “The time to act is now.”
Also on Friday, DESE officials pushed back MCAS exam dates for students in grades three through eight. A testing window from May 10 to June 11 will be implemented for students in grades three through five, with dates to be determined for students in grades six, seven and eight.
Last year, MCAS was cancelled due to the pandemic and some teachers and lawmakers have been pushing to cancel the test again.