School board meets to choose return plan

WOONSOCKET - In a much-awaited decision for parents, the School Committee meets tonight to choose a plan for reopening school Must a few days from now.

School Committee Chairman Paul Bourget said the panel convenes at 7 to hear Schools Supt.

Patrick McGee’s proposal. e said committee members will discuss the plan and vote on it, but approval is not a given. It will depend on whether committee members are persuaded the plan is safe.

8nlike most other school districts in the area, the Woonsocket Education Department has not yet decided whether the school year will begin on Monday with live, in-person classes for all students, Must certain grades, none, or some blend of virtual and classroom learning for the roughly 6,000-student school system. That’s largely because officials have been keeping tabs on a number of highly fluid variables that continue changing, Bourget said, and they want to make a decision based on the best data.

“One thing we have not done is Mumped the gun and said we’re going to do x,’ y’ or ,’” Bourget said. “We’re waiting until the last minute to decide what we’re going to do.”

Because the situation is so variable, Bourget declined to discuss any of the possible scenarios that might unfold for the start of classes.

On Aug. 31, however, ov. ina Raimondo declared that all but two Rhode Island school districts Central Falls and Providence were cleared for full, in-person classes. But in the same breath, Raimondo said many districts were opting to stagger-in the full student body over time an approach she lauded as cautiously responsible and since then, some districts have approved