Boston Public Schools' Reopening Will Bring 'Certainty And Stability,' Says Superintendent Brenda Cassellius

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius — Boston Public Schools superintendent Brenda Cassellius poses for a portrait at the Bolling Building in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston on June 28, 2019.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

January 13, 2021

Updated August 07, 2023

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced on Monday that she had reached an agreement with the Boston Teachers Union to start bringing students back into classrooms in February. Cassellius spoke to Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about what the reopening entails and about the importance of securing the memorandum of understanding with BTU.

"Reopening our schools has been quite the challenge for us as the [COVID-19] cases have continued to go up and down," she said. "So by getting this [memorandum], it allows for us to have more certainty and stability in the school district and to give parents more certainty in a timeline, which we haven't really been able to do before."

BPS will continue operating on a hybrid learning model for the forseeable future, Cassellius said. "There are still capacity issues in our buildings because we are still adhering to the six feet of distancing," she said. "So that's still going to require that we offer hybrid for two days a week with Group A and then two days a week for Group B."

Cassellius' reopening agreement with BTU comes a month after she received a vote of no confidence from BTU over her handling of reopening schools during the pandemic.

"I have a longstanding 32-year career of really good partnerships with my union partners, so it came as quite a surprise," she said. "Obviously, I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't say it was hurtful. However, I understand the pain and anxiety that all of this pandemic has caused, and we are emerging stronger."