With Teachers Hesitant To Return, Melrose Schools Starting Remote

MELROSE, MA — When Melrose Public Schools informally polled families if they prefer the hybrid or remote option for their students, about half the families responded. More than 80 percent of those who did said they prefer the one-week on, one-week off hybrid model.

But when the Melrose Education Association asked its members what they would prefer, 73 percent of the nearly 400 respondents said they would choose remote teaching.

And with the MEA making it clear they don't want to return to the class until they feel it's safe — and right now, they don't — the School Committee after midnight Tuesday voted to delay the start of most in-person learning at least a month.

The School Committee voted, 5-2, to still have Superintendent Julie Kukenberger's hybrid/remote plan submitted to the state by Friday's deadline. But the district will be fully remote through at least Oct. 16.

The only students who will be learning in class to begin the school year will be those whom the district deems high-priority in Group C of Kukenberger's plan. Kukenberger indicated during the meeting that it is possible that cohort could include students in younger grades.

The rest of the students who would attend school under the hybrid model won't until at least Oct. 16. Meanwhile teachers will be able to return to school and teach remotely from class.

The buffer will allow the district to negotiate with the Melrose Education Association, which has said repeatedly its members want a phased-in approach to hybrid learning.

"I believe that there are very real and significant opportunities for us as a School Committee, or as a wider community, to work with our educators, and, yes, with our union, to come up with a collaborative plan that works for everybody and I think we need more time to do that," School Committee member Jen McAndrew said.

Members of the MEA were outside the Horace Mann, where the School Committee met, continuing their call for a remote start to the school year.

"The MEA would like to thank the Melrose School Committee for hearing our concerns," the union said in a statement provided to Patch Thursday. "Now, we can focus our efforts on creating a distance learning model that will engage all students. Additionally, the remote start affords the district more time to make buildings safe for everyone."

>>>What the MEA is requesting for health and safety benchmarks before returning to in-class teaching.

Kukenberger said it would be a "hard sell" to transition from a remote model to a hybrid one in the middle of October.

"I just have to say for the record I feel like we're missing an opportunity," she said. "The numbers likely aren't ever going to be lower this year than they are right now. The weather is likely to not be nicer ... so our chances to maximize outdoor space and focus on relationship building and to establish that I feel will really be lost if we skip over these opportunities."

She added, "This is a really a heartbreaking conversation for me as a superintendent."

The amendment to start the school year remote was introduced by McAndrew, sparking a lengthy discussion.

School Committee members Margaret Driscoll and Jen Razi-Thomas were the dissenting votes.

"I think that what the community has called for over this period of time ... is options," Driscoll said. She said the data, including expanded community-level information from the state, "has provided and supported having a variety of options."

McAndrew acknowledged some parents may "feel blindsided" by the decision, but it's better now than waiting any longer. The first day is scheduled for Sept. 16.

"I also felt like it was really important the school committee had that in public session," she told Patch Wednesday.

The vote came well into the evening, but executive session, public comment and other Committee business ran well late, pushing the vote back.

Mayor Paul Brodeur said he doesn't think the remote start is necessarily the best for his son in high school, but thinks it's the best for the district right now.

"I think a very high likelihood that at some point over the course of this academic year, probably in the late fall, we are going to go full remote," he said.

School Committee Chair Ed O'Connell also supported the delay.

"I think we need more time as a school community to more fully prepare to be back in person," he said. "And it's abundantly clear to everyone that our teachers are not ready to be back."

The School Committee was meeting in person for the first time since the pandemic, but the live feed from inside the Horace Mann was marred with technical difficulties.

The plan still must be approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. A Tuesday memo from Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley to superintendent obtained by The Boston Globe said communities with low transmission rates and positive cases of the virus, like Melrose, are expected to have at least a hybrid model in returning to class.

"It'd be easy to say the rate of infection in school-aged children is low," School Committee member Lizbeth DeSelm said. "It is low. But it's not zero."

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Email Mike Carraggi at mike.carraggi@patch.com and follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi.