City Councilor Andrea Campbell has called for Boston schools to start the year fully remote.
"There are way too many concerns and too much fear we have not responded to effectively," Campbell said Thursday on Boston Public Radio.
The school district has not decided how it will start the year but has released a proposal that outlined two scenarios: a combination of remote and in-person learning through a hybrid model, and a fully remote learning model. Campbell said that at a hearing on the plan held Wednesday, she did not hear strong enough answers from the district about how to implement the hybrid model. The district must submit its plan to the state by Friday.
"On the health front, during the hearing, the district could not respond to real concerns about high infection rates in certain communities and how you deliver a hybrid model in an equitable way," she said, citing neighborhoods like Mattapan, Dorchester, and East Boston with higher infection rates than the city as a whole.
Campbell also said the district did not adequately answer families' concerns about their own safety and the safety of educators and staff.
“Families have reached out to me to say they're concerned about the lack of attention, or more attention I should say, that needs to be given to our teachers and the adults that are expected to show up, and how we will stop community spread if somebody gets infected," she said.
Campbell called for the district to reject the draft hybrid model and immediately decide to go remote for the start of the year to avoid further confusion for educators and parents, acknowledging that a phased-in approach for in-person learning could be possible at a later date.
