Waltham Schools Closed Through End Of Year, Distance Learning On

WALTHAM, MA — The final few weeks of school in Waltham usually involve a flurry of activity for students - from days of MCAS and finals to prom and end of year and season sports - but this year things will look a bit different until the last day of school.

Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday that all public schools, including Waltham will be closed through the end of the school year in an effort to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus during the pandemic.

This means sports, after school activities and special events have all been canceled, or will be radically different as the town works to cope with the unprecedented state of emergency and stay-at-home advisory.

"All that I can say now is that we will continue remote learning through the end of the school year," Interim Superintendent George Frost told Patch. "We expect to get guidelines from the Department of Education later this week which we will incorporate into our practice. We also expect to get some further direction from DESE regarding graduation matters as well which we will incorporate into what we have been discussing around graduation requirements and event planning."

The statewide closure of schools was originally set to end April 7 but was extended to May 4.

For the past month students have been logging on to meet up with their teachers virtually and had classwork to help keep them connected to their school community and to support learning. Education officials have stressed the remote learning is not intended to replace school education.

Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Jeffrey Riley previously canceled MCAS testing for the remainder of the school year for grades 3-10. He's not yet made a decision regarding the competency determination for high school graduation.

Decisions about events like graduation, prom and academic awards ceremonies will be discussed in the coming days and weeks and further information will be shared as it becomes available.

"There are many decisions to be made and we need to be thoughtful about every one of them," said Frost.

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Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).