But MTA leaders argue that the state has not done enough to ensure that school buildings are a safe environment for students and staff, even if everyone wears masks, practices good hand hygiene, and practices social distancing. Of particular concern is that many school buildings across the state are many decades old and have outdated ventilation systems and ramshackle windows, particularly in urban areas affected by the pandemic.
“Sending people back to buildings only increases the risks that our most vulnerable students will contract the virus, and it also puts staff members at risk,” Merrie Najimy, the association’s president, told the Globe on Thursday.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association made its presentation at a virtual meeting Wednesday night that brought together about 7,500 members and other observers. The association is asking its affiliates to vote over the next week on a resolution supporting a remote-only learning approach, at least during the first few weeks of school, a position the MTA board formally adopted on Wednesday night.
More than three dozen teacher unions had already voted on such a resolution before Wednesday night’s meeting. Locals will use the resolutions as the basis for negotiating with local school committees and superintendents about working conditions this fall.
The MTA’s stance immediately sparked a series of reactions from parents across the region.
“It is devastating news,” said Natallia Hunik, a Lexington mother who has advocated for a complete return to school and whose son will enter kindergarten. “We should not make decisions based on fear. It should be powered by science. “
Hunik was among a small group of Lexington parents who met on Friday night to return to school. In neighboring Winchester, some parents will hold a similar rally on Thursday night at the Town Common.
Keri Rodrigues, founder of Massachusetts Parents United, who often criticizes teacher unions, said her organization partially agrees with unions this time: Conditions are not right for children and adults to return to classrooms, while Local school officials lack the experience to develop the appropriate safety aspects of the plans.
“Too much precious time has already been wasted trying to make education officials experts in infectious diseases,” he said in a statement. “Our focus should be on making remote learning worthwhile.”
That effort, he said, should include measures such as ensuring that every child has access to wifi and chromebooks, investing more in high-quality remote learning platforms, providing more training for educators who need to overcome technology skill gaps.
But Rodrigues, whose children attend public schools in Somerville, added that this is not the time for unions to exploit “these unprecedented challenges as an opportunity to advance long-standing political agendas,” such as removing MCAS testing and accountability. school.
Dr. Lloyd Fisher, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who endorsed the state’s school reopening guidelines, said he was disappointed that the state’s largest teachers union blocked efforts to bring students to classrooms at the beginning of the year. .
“We know there is significant harm in continuing remote learning,” said Fisher, a pediatrician in Worcester. “There have been significant increases in depression, anxiety and undiagnosed childhood abuse and neglect, and social isolation in children. We have also seen a dramatic regression in educational progress, in typical children and especially in those with developmental delays and disabilities. ”
Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said a continuation of remote learning could have even greater consequences than when the change originally occurred in the spring. With the start of a new school year, students gain new teachers and classmates, making them feel even more alienated from school.
“Do we really want children and teachers to be presented on the first day of school in a remote session and let’s say we are concerned about children’s social development?” he said.
With good weather in the fall, Scott said, schools have the opportunity to take teachers and students outside and build relationships with each other, which should translate into a critical ingredient for success when students are learning remotely.
More broadly, he said, many school district leaders wonder why students cannot return to school when COVID infection rates in their communities are less than 1 percent. She said unions must be clear about benchmarks that must be met to make them feel safe when they return.
The impending clash over classroom instruction this fall comes as districts across the state compete to present preliminary plans for reopening this Friday with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. State officials have asked districts to come up with three scenarios for reopening schools: a full return to classrooms, a combination of face-to-face or remote learning, or a remote learning only quote. Final plans are due on August 10.
Districts have been struggling to satisfy Baker’s desire for full return. Many school buildings are already at capacity, making it difficult to practice social distancing, even after the state in June gave districts permission to reduce social distancing to 3 feet by publishing initial guidance on reopening the school.
Superintendents, such as those in Boston and Lexington, have increasingly determined that a full return is not feasible and have pointed out to their school committees that the only viable options are a combination of in-person and remote learning or the continuation of just learning remote.
Launching remote learning in the spring was difficult. Districts had little time to prepare, many teachers lacked the technical skills to deliver online lessons, while many poor students lacked devices, and the state, concerned about widening achievement gaps, initially told districts that they didn’t teach any new material. In May, the Globe reported that 10,000 Boston students, representing about a fifth of overall enrollment, had not entered classes that month.
The MTA agrees that remote learning has had its difficulties, but says security remains a major concern. Union officials argue that even reducing the number of students and staff in school buildings is not enough to protect them from the coronavirus.
“It is not safe to be in buildings even with a hybrid approach,” said Najimy.
The organization wants the state to oversee a rigorous environmental and safety assessment of school buildings and address any deficiencies before reopening them, such as ensuring that ventilation systems can circulate air in and out of buildings. They are particularly concerned about the emerging research that coronavirus particles may remain in the air in crowded and poorly ventilated spaces.
Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said district leaders are also concerned about the safety of buildings. He said some districts are already exploring the idea that remote-only instruction continue for the first few weeks of the new school year to give them more time to institute all necessary safety measures and improvements for the building’s air flow.
“I understand where the union comes from and they want to be safe, but there is more to their agenda than the safety of those who return,” Koocher said.
In particular, he said that unions are using the pandemic as an opportunity to negotiate additional job security provisions in their contract and are applying other measures not linked to the reopening of the school, such as the abolition of MCAS tests.
The MTA emphasized that educators are eager to return to their classrooms and be with their students. But the conditions of too many buildings are problematic, as well as a recent increase in coronavirus cases in Massachusetts. They would like to see improvements on both fronts.
“Until such time as districts and the state can meet these criteria, we will refuse to return to unsafe school buildings and will use the additional 10 days at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year before student instruction begins to redesign learning, “the MTA said in a statement, referring to a new move by state officials that will allow districts to use 10 school days for teacher training.
Correction: Due to incorrect information being supplied to the Globe, an earlier version of this story erroneously expressed the number of people who attended an MTA virtual meeting on Wednesday night.
James Vaznis can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @globevaznis.
