Virus leaves education funding, locations in flux
PHOTO/MONICA BUSCH
Construction at the $215-million South High Community School has continued.
Members of the Massachusetts Board of Education on Tuesday dove into the plan to reopen Massachusetts schools this fall under new COVID-19 precautions, with the unknown variables associated with a still-unsettled state budget looming over school districts.
Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley and Gov. Charlie Baker last week unveiled initial guidance for the next school year, which directs schools to prioritize an in-person return to classrooms for as many students as possible while also crafting plans for remote learning and hybrid models.
"We are asking districts to plan for three possibilities and think about this as all being on a continuum," Riley told the board. "We don't know at this point either the trajectory of the virus, nor exactly what our funding will be from Beacon Hill, and so it's prudent to be able to plan for all contingencies."
Wednesday marks the start of the 2021 fiscal year, and neither branch of the Legislature has yet put forward a full spending plan as budget writers wait to see how much revenue comes into the state by the delayed income tax filing deadline of July 15 and what sort of additional aid the federal government might provide.
School districts that had been expecting a significant infusion of new state aid under an education finance reform law signed last year are now bracing for the possibilities that their allocations will instead be level-funded or cut because of the economic downturn. As they prepare for the fall, they're also facing the likelihoods of new costs from personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies, technology for remote learning, and expenses associated with keeping students in smaller groups that allow for physical distancing.
"I don't know how we can have this conversation without having a state budget," said Mary Ann Stewart, who holds the board's seat for a parent representative.
Education Secretary James Peyser said the lack of a state budget creates "a great deal of uncertainty" for school districts but said there's a need to quickly figure out what the costs will be at the local level.
"One of the things that we need to do as we engage with this is to actually go through that planning process at a district and local level in order to determine what those costs actually are for the different alternatives or the different models that are in place," Peyser said. "We can't really budget for that at a state level. It's very different. The circumstances are very different at a local level, so it's important that we start that process, and as much as it feels like a chicken-and-egg issue, we really need to get working on the plans and understanding the operational and the fiscal implications now, which may actually serve to inform that budget process at a state level, and a local level for that matter."
Peyser said state officials will take feedback from the education field as they continue their planning process.
"We all know that we may not have gotten it exactly right the first time out of the box," he said. "This is initial guidance. We will follow it up with further guidance."
The final guidance, Riley said, will be released in July. He said that in either that document or in others, the education department will address topics including transportation, athletics and extracurriculars, special programs and populations, facilities and operations, academic calendar considerations and other key policies, remote learning resources, prerequisites for in-person reopenings, and the process for handling a COVID-19 case within a school community.
Addressing the board during its public comment period, Newburyport middle school teacher Eric Schildge said he had many questions about the initial guidelines. One worry, he said, was the "thought of returning to school without regular testing" for him and his colleagues.
Schildge said he was also concerned that a situation where all school districts are buying protective equipment and cleaning supplies on their own will create competition and drive up prices, and that using overflow spaces to create more room for smaller classes "will likely stress our well-resourced districts and will likely be impossible for districts stretching for space and resources under normal, non-pandemic conditions."
Somerville School Committee member Andre Green also flagged the issue of different resource levels among different school districts.
Districts serving high-income populations with a low level of student needs will "patch together" something that works, he said, and others "will manage to cobble together something that looks like it works that sacrifices equity." He said that the poorest districts that disproportionately serve Black and Brown students, English language learners and students from low-income families are the ones that "your guidance sets up to fail."
Board member Amanda Fernandez said the health factors and science behind the guidance is only one component, and that parents and educators will have a variety of concerns and perspectives.
"There's sort of the science part, but then there's also the heart and mind part as well, and right now the guidance doesn't fully address those pieces," she said.
Riley said the initial reopening guidance was developed in consultation with Massachusetts General Hospital infectious disease specialist Dr. Sandra Nelson and American Academy of Pediatrics Massachusetts Chapter President Dr. Lloyd Fisher and the medical advisory board to the state's COVID-19 command center.
Nelson and Fisher appeared before the board members during their live-streamed meeting.
Fisher said his organization believes the guidance is "truly the best way to move forward."
"It minimizes risks while maximixing the benefits to our students," he said.
Nelson said she thinks that some members of the public are now in the stage where the medical community was a few months ago, feeling a "sense of foreboding" about the virus. After a "tremendous effort," she said, "we pulled through and we learned a lot and now we feel safe."
"I think that parents and educators are at that place where they haven't yet adapted to the idea that this is going to be part of our world, and no matter if we have vaccines or treatments, this isn't going to go away," Nelson said. "It's not going to be gone in a year. This is going to be with us for some measure, probably for a few years and maybe even longer than that."
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