As the coronavirus pandemic surges in Massachusetts once again — with the state recently surpassing the grim milestone of 10,000 deaths due to COVID-19 — Gov. Baker says that he wants kids back in the classroom, with students returning to school at least partly in-person and the goal of a full-time return. It's been since last March, when the pandemic caused lockdowns across the region, that some of the state's largest school systems, including Boston, saw full-time attendance in public schools. Superintendent of Boston Public Schools Brenda Cassellius joined host Joe Mathieu on Morning Edition to discuss the state of BPS heading into this winter.
Cassellius began by describing the timeline for a return to school, with the highest risk students returning to in-person learning first. "We're looking to return our first group of students, that's job No. 1, for about two hundred of our very highest needs kids, on Monday, so we're very excited to welcome them," she said.
Watch: Boston's Latest Plan For Students' Return To The Classroom
The next group to return to school, according to Cassellius, will include an expanded list of students who have disabilities, are still learning English, are experiencing homelessness, or are otherwise engaged by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. "We want to make sure that we're able to open there," she said.
The remaining students, including the youngest grades, would return to schools in-person last. "As soon as we see a trend of [the virus] coming down, I would say probably sometime after Thanksgiving, would be when we would hopefully have this under control to be able to start welcoming our students back," Cassellius said. "But that's not assured, of course, because [the virus] is surging across the entire nation and we need to watch those numbers and make sure that it's safe."
In anticipation of students returning to in-person learning, BPS has been testing the air quality in its schools as well as upgrading the safety of their facilities. When asked if she feels the schools are ready and safe for children to return, Cassellius said, "We do. We feel that they were ready and they are ready for students. But we are taking some additional measures."
"We tested over 7,500 spaces, and they all came back ready to go. But we're going to be doing some additional testing as well, so we're looking at some of the Harvard research on testing, and testing when students are in the building."Dr. Brenda Cassellius, BPS Superintendent
