When Newton Elementary Students Will Return To In-Person School

NEWTON, MA — Newton plans to begin full in-person learning for elementary school students either March 29 or April 5, Superintendent David Fleishman said Monday.

"What we don't know are the school hours, but we plan to have those school hours set by March 15," Fleishman told the School Committee.

Fleishman said that as the district plans for the full, in-person school model for the youngest grades, he expects some families will be interested in making changes from the distanced or hybrid models they might currently be in.

"Whether it's hybrid, we may have people who aren't interested in changing to full class, it's possible if there's space available, they could move to DLA [the fully remote option]," Fleishman said. "It's also possible that DLA [Distance Learning Academy] families could move to hybrid. That being said, our in person learning space in our school buildings is extremely limited."

Officials stressed the district wouldn't be able to accommodate everyone switching to full, in person school five days a week, in large part because of space constraints, lunch scheduling and specialist lesson delivery, even following a 3-foot distance model, rather than 6 feet, except for lunch.

"We have classes in many grade levels at schools that are full," Fleishman said. "We've had families enroll their students in other schools to enroll in hybrid."

He said families had already started reaching out to the district lining up to switch to in-person school and the district was making the decision on requests based on space and availability of teachers. If families are interested in switching models they should email their principal, or Jen Shore for remote learners.

Some families said there had been some confusion earlier and were told they couldn't change from DLA to in-person, but school officials said this was not exactly true.

"We will have very few spots to accommodate changes from DLA into hybrid spaces," School Committee member Tamika Olszewski clarified.

School Committee member Kathleen Shields asked, given the upcoming state regulation amendments, what happens if the state doesn't allow districts to deny access to in person learning based on space constraints.

"We will wait and see and will certainly follow the guidance, but we also have to follow health and safety. And we've been really clear that we are going to follow health and safety guidance," Fleishman said. "This is a real conundrum."

He also criticized the timing of last week's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announcement that they planned to effectively phase out hybrid and remote learning models by the end of April.

DESE Commissioner Jeff Riley is expected to amend the emergency rules surrounding allowing online hours to count toward school learning hours.

For months prior to that, families and community members criticized it as being slow to come up with a plan to return students full time. In Brookline, for example, the district had already announced plans to send its youngest elementary students back full time, followed by the older grades.

In Newton, the teachers union has pushed for weekly surveillance or pool testing before going back.

"The big summery is look: It's far better for students to be full, in person more. It's actually better for our teachers, too," Fleishman said. "That being said like everything with COVID there are trade-offs and nothing is simple. We will do this and communicate more in the next couple of weeks."

Previously:

• Newton Schools Plan To Follow State Guidance To
• Newton Schools Gathering 'Key Ingredients' For More In-Person

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how.