‘Thrown in shark infested waters’: Mass. school superintendent calls on Charlie Baker for more clarity regarding school reopenings
"Will Governor Baker’s name be on the right side of the v. (defendant) when we are sued?"
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William Burkhead was working on yet another Sunday — and he had something to say.
“I am here in my office on a Sunday again away from my family responding personally to the 500+ emails and correspondence sent to me and cc’d to our school committee on people’s opinions on our recent reopening plans,” the Scituate Public Schools superintendent wrote down. “I am not complaining about working on a Sunday, or every Sunday, many of us do that — my point of this letter is to share with you my frustration that I believe we are working harder not smarter.”
So begins Burkhead’s open letter addressed to the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Gov. Charlie Baker, and state Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley.
In the three-page correspondence, an exasperated Burkhead implores his colleagues in education to demand answers from state executives on the “tough questions” regarding the need for a comprehensive state plan for reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Open Letter to @MassGovernor @massupt @MASCSchoolComm https://t.co/77CtytdQpe
— Bill Burkhead (@BurkheadBill) August 11, 2020
The superintendent’s letter, which he posted on Twitter Tuesday, arrived days after Baker said he is “deeply concerned” about the impact exclusively remote learning has on students, particularly elementary school children.
Baker offered that many areas of the commonwealth are in “very good shape” in terms of the rate of infection for the virus, and emphasized the importance of local leaders looking at the COVID-19 data in their own communities.
“If you look at the data across most communities in Massachusetts, there’s plenty of opportunity there based on the science and what we know for them to consider reopening in some way, in person,” the Swampscott Republican said during a press conference last week. “And I really do worry about kids who are going to be dealing with classmates they don’t know, if they’re full remote, and with teachers that they don’t know and with teachers who don’t know them.”
School districts across the state are required to submit final plans — for several options, including a hybrid model of in-person and virtual learning — for the coming school year to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Friday.
Burkhead has many questions for Baker: What are the public health metrics for when schools should open or close? Has he considered the impact capping public gatherings at 50 has on school officials trying to craft reopening plans for outdoor learning? What are his policies to support the notion that schools should reopen?
“Responses to our fall school reopening plans (insert x, y, z it doesn’t really matter the plan) have been — if you don’t bring kids back they will continue to experience trauma, social emotional deprivation, loss of social interaction with peers and continue to widen achievement gaps, and it’s our fault,” Burkhead wrote. “If you bring our teachers back and one gets sick or dies, well that is on you too. So, either way your decisions are harming the people you are hired to protect. Lawyers respond to the question of ‘are superintendent’s liable if someone gets sick, dies?’ with ‘as long as you aren’t negligent.’ Will Governor Baker’s name be on the right side of the v. (defendant) when we are sued? You don’t have to be a fan of Boston Legal to answer that one.”
But Burkhead is not only questioning the governor. The superintendent also wants to know why superintendents and school committees have not pushed Baker harder for answers as well.
“We have three weeks before teachers show up to our schools and the governor’s frequent televised press conferences are absent the commissioner of education,” the letter reads. “Wouldn’t it be a good time for the governor to have weekly, if not daily, updates on his vision for education alongside the commissioner to put us all at ease and to unify us around one message? It is not too late for us to push back and start holding our Governor accountable.”
DESE has released guidance to districts this summer for reopening brick-and-mortar schools. The guidelines focus heavily on the details of the school day, such as seating arrangements, rules for mask wearing, and how schools should serve lunch.
On Tuesday, DESE released further guidance aimed at aiding schools in deciding when they should take classes fully remote by offering instructions for how school leaders should interpret public health metrics.
“I feel superintendents (along with our school committees) have been thrown in shark infested waters with each declaration by the governor that restricts advancement of the phases or contradicts his directive to open schools akin to throwing chum in the water,” Burkhead wrote. “Where is his accountability? Ben Franklin once said, ‘We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly we shall all hang separately.'”
Asked for comment on Burkhead’s letter Friday, a Baker spokesman referred to the governor’s remarks during a press conference Tuesday, in which Baker said Riley has a “regular ongoing dialogue with superintendents.”
“I mean I think he’s talking to them practically every day at this point,” he said.
Baker also referenced the state’s color-coded city and town health data map released this week, where municipalities shaded in green have recorded an average daily COVID-19 case rate of less than four cases per 100,000 people, and those shaded in white have recorded less than five reported cases.
The numbers reflect the case rate between July 22 and Aug. 5.
“If you’re in a green or a white community, I can’t imagine a good reason not to go back, whether it’s full time or in some sort of a hybrid, because for all intents and purposes you meet all the benchmarks that are being used across the country and across New England to make decisions about whether it’s safe to go back to school,” Baker said.
The DESE guidance sent to schools was developed with input from the state Department of Public Health and other health experts, Baker noted.
“It’s a good set of guidance and it’s the right kind of advisories, and, contextually, those communities are in a perfectly appropriate place to have kids back,” Baker said.
Whether school systems will begin classes online or in-person next month has been left to the discretion of local leaders. Educators have mobilized in many communities to appeal to school committees, school administrators, and elected officials, largely in hopes of persuading them to back a fully-remote start to the academic year.
Through a 4-1 vote, the Scituate School Committee this week backed a hybrid reopening plan, under which students and school staff will return in phases, The Scituate Mariner reports. Students can also opt for a fully-remote education.
Scituate is shaded in white on the state’s data map.
Burkhead extended his call for action to parents, caregivers, and community members, asking them to write to Baker, a “bright man and strong leader with unlimited resources who can fix this mess,” he said.
“Your voice matters and now is the time to get involved on behalf of our children,” he wrote.
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