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(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)
SEU members speaking at a community event in 2019.
We are ten months into the Covid crisis and we have a long road ahead of us before we can return to normalcy. In the current context, each of us as individuals is constantly assessing risk and making choices based on how much risk we can tolerate. Although we all long for safety, the reality is that there are no definitive answers, only varying levels of risk. The educators of Somerville have the right to determine how much risk we deem acceptable as we consider returning to in-person instruction. The Somerville Educators Union (SEU) has been clear: negotiating objective benchmarks of Covid prevalence in the community is the avenue through which we will set the appropriate level of risk. Once those are established we can continue to collaboratively develop an in-person learning model.
The City of Somerville and the Somerville School Committee have invested heavily in measures to mitigate risk, specifically regular surveillance testing and upgraded HVAC systems. While this leaves us in a strong position to return to school buildings this school year, we cannot ignore that we are in a state of “unchecked community spread.” This is due to a complete failure of our federal and state government.
It is in this context that we are considering reopening our school buildings. Educators recognize the limitations of a remote model and would love nothing more than to be in person with our students. We are all longing for normalcy but that does not mean we can return to normal. We wish that as a society we had followed the maxim that schools should be the first to open and last to close. But, that is simply not reality. If you are angry about this, please let your state representatives and Governor Baker know. If we want to open schools safely we need to recognize who is to blame for the current situation, as opposed to intimidating educators into making riskier decisions.
We must also consider the pedagogical and logistical challenges when considering instructional models. Mayor Curtatone has repeatedly said that his goal is to open schools and keep them open. This will mean classrooms quarantining and moving to remote instruction without warning during periods of high spread. This is not educationally sound and creates uncertainty for educators, students, and families. Furthermore, without time to prepare high-quality remote lessons, it could lead to similar experiences as the spring. Any decision we make will come with trade-offs between risks and benefits.
There is no definitive answer on when schools are “safe” or “unsafe,” but rather strategies for minimizing overall risk. The question before us is whether the mitigation strategies hold up regardless of the infection rate within Somerville and the greater community. Somerville’s strategies undoubtedly decrease the probability of in-school transmission, more than more districts. But, as community cases climb there will be more cases in the schools, and therefore more chances for transmission despite our best efforts. In addition, as more and more members of our community are exposed to Covid and must quarantine, it will be increasingly challenging to staff our schools, leading to a host of other safety and logistical challenges. This is why predetermined thresholds are so important.
Throughout negotiations the SEU has been very clear that there must be a set process for determining objectively when we can be in-person and when we must be remote. Mayor Curtatone announced that he would make that decision in consultation with an advisory committee. The committee includes zero educators who work directly with students. This is unacceptable. Educators will determine what level of risk is acceptable to us. Excluding educational experts is bad policy and insulting. But, even if this was addressed it would not be good enough.
The purpose of a union is to protect members’ rights and interests. Many unions were founded specifically to assert control over working conditions in unsafe environments. As we consider returning educators to high-risk environments we are in exactly the type of situation that requires strong union protections. The SEU will neither cede our power to an advisory committee nor to the mayor. The negotiating table is the place where these decisions must be made, and we welcome Mayor Curtatone to join. The SEU has proposed metrics and thresholds that will determine when we can be in-person and when we must be remote. Our hope is that on Monday, the School Committee will accept this premise so that we can continue building a model for in-person instruction with the district at the negotiating table.
The SEU is clear in our position. In a membership meeting this week, 83% of members in attendance agreed that we should not accept any proposal without metrics and thresholds. We will have a voice in creating a process that we can trust. We need a process that is transparent and predictable, rather than the proposed arbitrary decision-making process of our elected representatives and their appointees. If we cannot be heard on this, then it begs the question of whether we can have confidence in our School Committee to ensure the safety of educators, students, and the greater Somerville community.
Rami Bridge, SEU President
Megan Brady, SEU Vice President
Dave DiPietro, SEU Membership Secretary
Theresa Nickerson, SEU Treasurer
Mark Quinones, SEU Recording Secretary
Dayshawn Simmons, SEU Grievance Chair
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The SEU’s own selected expert, a Harvard epidemiologist, said that thresholds were not needed and that there was no magic number to pick. You can’t accuse the SC of having cherry picked an expert, because you were able to choose your own.
Further, many parents have contacted Governor Baker about the school situation because he has left it up to districts to decide what to do. That is why Cambridge, Medford, Boston, Everett, and Chelsea, our immediate neighbors, all have some students in-person – generally high needs SPED.
The SEU is the remaining reason Somerville schools are remote. Full stop. Further, threatening for remote school to be worse due to quarantines is repugnant – SPS is already providing less synchronous time than DESE requires, and less than other districts.
Please do not speak for families about what will or won’t be disruptive unless you have surveyed them. “Educators will determine what level of risk is acceptable to us” and parents will do the same.
You are losing the parental support and more families are leaving the district.
“The SEU has proposed metrics and thresholds that will determine when we can be in-person and when we must be remote.”
This is exciting news. What are they?
FACT CHECK: In response to your statement “The committee includes zero educators who work directly with students.”
***The 2 parent representatives appointed to the reopening advisory committee are both educators who work directly in person with students who are 18-30 years of age (much higher transmission rates).***
What is clear is that no static threshold set is appropriate for the evolving body of knowledge and scientific understanding of Covid. Metrics is not what is needed here – it has taken some time to understand that the fluidity of the situation requires a re-opening strategy that points to then-current understanding of Covid and a heavy reliance on Public Health recommendations. Thresholds do not lead to safety unless imposing them protects the population. Closing schools does not protect the population – schools, worldwide, have proven to be the safest place to be in this pandemic. Closing them (or in this case refusing to open – even for the most vulnerable students) is not the answer.
Educators — and all workers — have a right to know that their safety is being prioritized, and they have a right to a voice in their working conditions. The SEU is abusing this right by repeatedly obstructing the bargaining process in myriad ways (see recent statement by school committee member Laura Pitone) in order to prevent return to school for Somerville’s most vulnerable children. They are simply not bargaining in good faith.
Somerville is one of only two districts in the entire state of Massachusetts that is providing no in-person services to even the highest-needs children (the other one is Springfield). 3-and-4-year olds with autism are being asked to “access” their “education” remotely. Somerville also happens to have the most robust and extensive safety plan, including both testing and building remediation, of any district in the state: it is more robust than Wellesley or Weston, more extensive than Cambridge. We have both the BEST plan and yet are doing the LEAST for our children.
The authors cannot actually argue that it is unsafe to embark on a limited, cautious, phased reopening that prioritizes a small number of kids who cannot fully access virtual learning — children with disabilities, English learners, the very young. They are attempting to use “metrics” as a means of obstruction.
Good work, SEU. Stay strong!
Thank you for speaking up! As a longtime resident and parent I cannot believe that teachers in the district have been cut out of the decision making process. Regardless of which metrics are the right way to go about signaling change, it is crucial that teachers, who know more than anyone about the risks and opportunities in the buildings, be part of the process for making this decision. Asking a teacher to return to the classroom at this moment is asking them to risk their health and the health of their loved ones for a job. This is not what they signed up for when they chose to be teachers. The fact that they are willing to consider this at all shows overwhelming compassion for my children who desperately want to return to their classrooms.
A fact check to Concerned Community Member — there are more than two districts in MA not providing any in person services.
I would know, because I teach in one of them (Chelsea).
To Aurelia – Chelsea is absolutely supporting in-person facilitation. See linked article from Chelsea. You might be teaching remote but luckily for students and working parents, the kids don’t have to be: https://www.google.com/amp/s/chelsearecord.com/2020/11/25/success-in-person-learning-centers-a-blueprint-for-how-to-move-forward/amp/
Somerville doesn’t offer these services.
The buildings aren’t even open yet….. Stop trashing teachers, who are literally killing themselves for this community.
First thing, we aren’t all in this together. We never were.
Many parents are under incredible stress trying to keep their jobs while having their kids at home (most in small apts). Parents desperately need a solution to get their kids back into school.
Second, SPS has ensured that there will be a massive and insurmountable achievement gap for nearly all of our students. The gap between wealthier students (whose parents can afford tutors) and lower income kids who are falling behind may never get closed
As a parent who will be asked if I want my child to return to in-person learning, or remain remote, I also want thresholds. I feel I’m going to be asked if I want to give up the all-remote option *no matter what* happens in the community, which doesn’t seem reasonable to me. If I go hybrid (which I desperately want) but then our hospitals are overrun? I’ll have to pull my kid out of school entirely, right?
Let’s have thresholds, and let’s figure out what else we can close/restrict instead of schools to keep spread below those thresholds.
Parent – PR fluff. A handful of kids attend the middle school online learning center, which has had two positive student cases. The high school one records single digit participation, if any, each day.
It is true that after school programs are using space at the Complex but again, they have had cases there.
COA, same deal. They had multiple cases in a matter of a week, but it’s definitely not school spread! /s
Can’t believe everything you read. Staff have little confidence in the superintendent.
Metrics and thresholds. So what’s an acceptable metric for speech regression of a kid who’s on the spectrum? Give me a metric for how many reading levels we should allow our second graders to fall behind? How many cases of severe depression, of crippling anxiety, of self-harm amongst our teenagers is ok? What number of attempted teen suicides do we need to reach before you take notice? What’s the level of risk are you willing to tolerate that one of these attempts will be successful? I know you don’t have any answers to these questions in the same way there are no infection rate and community spread benchmarks you would find acceptable to reopen our schools for in-person learning.
This has never been about metrics and thresholds. This isn’t about the safety of teachers and students. If it was, you would be putting forward ideas and solutions rather than pointing fingers and concocting worst case scenarios. This pandemic has given you the opportunity to assert your power and you went for it – no matter the cost to the children of this city. Your assertion that any effort to minimize the risks of in-person learning, no matter how exceptional, “will not be good enough” is telling – and pathological and manipulative. Parents aren’t demanding you labor in some 19th century steel mill or coal mine. We’re asking Somerville’s teachers to enter classrooms, where extraordinary safety measures have been taken, to provide an education to the most vulnerable and youngest children of this city.
You tell me to direct my anger at “society”, at the government, at our elected officials. I can barely contain my rage at the awfulness and incompetence of the political class. I’ve watched as our Mayor couldn’t put aside his partisan politics, grandstanding and cronyism to get our school buildings ready in a timely way. I’ve watched as our City Councilors neglected their oversight responsibilities while pandering to entitled ideologues on social media with distracting and questionable performative gestures. I’ve watched as the School Committee, at least publicly, declined to ask hard questions of the school administration like how many kids have left the district, how many kids are failing, how many are in need of behavioral health services. I’ve watch as the private, parochial, and charter schools around us have instituted some level of in-person learning without the extreme measures being implemented by the city – and without incurring massive infections. I’ve watched as both families with means and those without have lost patience and quietly pulled their kids from the Somerville public schools.
Finally, I’ve watched as my own smart, witty, engaged teen has descended into depression, anger and failure. So much of what was important to my child, kept them involved, brought them joy, gave them hope, has shut, disappeared or scaled-backed – school being one of those. From talking with councilors, doctors, other parents, from reading the statistics, my kid is becoming the rule not the exception. As a parent watching your child struggle, you can’t help but be racked by guilt over what you could have done differently. I can’t help but blame myself for believing you and this city gave a damn about its children and the families raising them.
JWE, I totally agree with almost everything you say. But I believe that in Somerville and other districts as well, the re-opening of school is being driven by the teacher unions, not individual teachers. Individual teachers are working exremely hard, under difficult circumstances, to continue to teach students. I’d like to know how many of those advocating for continued closure of the public schools happily shop at Target, stand in line at Starbucks, and buy groceries at Stop and Shop. Because there are lots of people in all of those places and none have had to close due to an outbreak.
This hard line position could end up backfiring on the union. How will they respond when 10-15% of the school district population leaves and then there is a need for layoffs? The idea that families are going to remain in the district if this doesn’t end soon is misplaced, especially if there is the real possibility of Sept 2021 not being a full return to normal.
The conspiracy theory in me thinks that this is a great way to shrink the school population to free up money for other things in the city budget.
Right now the virus is raging, but we could have had schools open in Sept-Oct and can probably have them open again in late March-April as the vaccines become available
Tom – It was never my intent to attack the teachers of the Somerville public schools. They have been given an impossible task of teaching a disparate community of students with a remote learning model based more on wishful thinking than actual proven pedagogy. Nobody, parents, students, let alone the teachers, expected this “duct tape and bailing wire” approach to be anything but a crisis measure. The ‘you’ in my comments refers to the union, the SEU, the six individuals who signed this letter and have taken a combative and uncompromising position. A lot of teachers are very unhappy with this stance. They are the ones witnessing firsthand kids struggling, regressing and failing. They will also be the ones blamed for plummeting district test scores and skyrocketing dropout rates. For what its worth, my children have had many excellent Somerville public school teachers. My fear is that many of these great teachers will choose to retire early or take their talents to school systems which aren’t as far gone.