Schools Could Enter Hybrid A Month Earlier After District Hears From Parents

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Photo: An update for the hybrid phase.

Saying they heard the concerns of parents, the Belmont School District has moved up by nearly a month the earliest date district schools can begin the hybrid phase.

In an update to the district’s “Return-to-Learning Fall 2020” blueprint during the Belmont School Committee meeting on Sept. 3., the district has added an additional 5th phase – dubbed 1.5 – as “a bridge to hybid” to allow “our youngest learners to meet with the peer … and to get time with their teachers,” explained John Phelan, superintendent of Belmont schools.

Phelan told the committee the most asked questions from parents was “Can we get to the hybrid phase sooner?” The guardians of elementary students also spoke urgently on the need for younger pupils “to be with their teachers.” Phelan said that the inclusion of the new phase will accomplish both goals.

In the new phase (squeezed in-between remote phases 1 and 2), approximately 1,900 Kindergarten to fourth-grade students will be divided into two groups – or cohorts – and each will meet their teachers and fellow students for two hours on a Tuesday and Thursday.

With Phase 1.5, “we could get students in quicker” into the hybrid phase, said Phelan, as the K-4 students will have had modified in-person learning and will allow all students to move into Phase 3.

Under this new guideline, the transition time between the phases will be shortened from three weeks to two and cutting two weeks from the previous “earliest” hybrid starting date of Nov. 9 to now Oct. 26.

But as Phelan has stated previous, any change between phases will depend on a pair of metrics that the School Committee agreed to last week.

Phelan said of the pair of metrics the district will use to determine when to move between phases, “we can check off” the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s recorded two-week community infection rate that is currently registering below 1 percent in Belmont which places the community in the “green” zone which allows for a move between phases.

The second benchmark, the air exchange study, is currently underway and the results will be released at the end of the coming week on Sept. 11. and go before the school committee for review the next week.

Also during the meeting, the principals from the elementary, middle school and high schools introduced the hybrid learning plans for their schools.

Belmont Boosters Holding Pats Q&A,Trivia Thursday

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COVID-19 can’t stop the Belmont High Boosters from holding its annual New England Patriots event. This year, the Boosters will be holding a Q&A/Trivia Zoom Webinar event on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.

The night will feature “Big Game” winners and their memorable stories.

Check the Belmont High Boosters or Belmont Boosters Facebook page for Zoom link, information and updates.

School Committee Drops Kindergarten Fee ‘Forever’

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Photo: Kindergarteners heading to class

With the avalanche of changes and challenges foisted upon the Belmont public schools since March, Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan told the Belmont School Committee on Wednesday, Sept. 2, he finally had some good news to announce, akin to “chocolate chip ice cream [with a] nice hot sauce.”

The $3,500 tuition fee for kindergarten is being dropped.

“This is a great news story,” said Phelan as the committee voted unanimously to approve the district’s recommendation. In fact, the committee approved the motion where the fee is eliminated “for this year and forever.”

Belmont had offered a full-day, fee-based kindergarten program or a cost-free morning program of three hours and fifteen minutes which the state reimbursed parents costs.

For the past four years, the district has been charging its youngest students tuition to attend full-time after the state took away the Kindergarten Expand Grant that supported the all-day program since 1999.

But by making a one-time “investment” of $400,000 this year, the state will reimburse Belmont in subsequent years up to $1.3 million in added Chapter 70 funds, more than the $900,000 the district spends to operate the full time program.

“It’s basically the dollars the state was willing to pay us being used for kindergarten, that we didn’t collect from them because we were charging parents,” said Phelan.

“In the long run … it’s a good story for our families who don’t have to have money be the obstacle and from an equity standpoint, it actually increases the number of families that we think will go into kindergarten this year,” said Phelan.

It wasn’t a surprise that the school committee approved the measure unanimously.

“I mean, who can possibly vote against chocolate chips and nuts and whipped cream?” asked Committee Chair Andrea Prestwich.

Opinion: It’s Time to Reopen Belmont Schools

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Photo: One hundred years ago, New York City schools opened school building windows to effectively fight the “Spanish flu” pandemic. (Library of Congress)

In a recent survey of Belmont parents, 67 percent were in favor of opening the school in hybrid or in-person. Questions remain: Is the time now to reopen Belmont school in the hybrid? Is there a right way for opening Belmont schools?  

The case for reopening schools is simple. Kids learn better in schools; remote learning is less effective and is disproportionately felt by lower-income students and students with fewer resources. The CDC and mental health experts agree that schools should open this fall. The psychological toll on children is mounting, and school closing, quarantining and isolation are contributing to long-lasting effects on children. The data from Europe and Asia are encouraging. They reopened schools and, while they’ve seen cases of COVID, they haven’t seen schools as major vectors of infection.    These offer real-world evidence to inform our strategies for school opening.   In a recent analysis of the risk associated with school opening, the authors concluded that reopening schools will not significantly increase community-wide transmission, provided sufficient school-based interventions are implemented. Moreover, when the incidence rate in the community is at or below 20 per 100,000, Belmont is significantly lower than this threshold, the risk of infection in schools is less than one percent.

How we reopen schools matters. Florida is a great example of how NOT to reopen schools given its rising levels of infections. We support the risk assessment metrics set by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker for school opening. The rate of infection in Massachusetts is low despite the fact that more people are socializing outdoors, going to restaurants and nail salons, driving to work, shopping, or leisure. While there will never be enough testing, we can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good. There has been an uptick in testing in Belmont and the State, and, importantly, the rate of infection remains low and stable since June (Figure 1). At the local level, Belmont and all the neighboring towns remain in “green” or “white” (see Table 1) further reducing the risk of infection at schools. These are all encouraging signs and if Belmont were to follow the DESE recommendation, schools would reopen now.  So why is Belmont not opening in hybrid?

It’s Time to Reopen Belmont Schools

Figure 1. (WCVB)
TownRisk based on average daily cases per 100,000Positive cases last 14 days% positive last 14 days% Trend
BelmontGreen90.66No change
WatertownGreen150.8Lower
CambridgeGreen340.88No change
WalthamGreen340.88No change
ArlingtonWhite50.21No change
LexingtonWhite30.24No change
Table 1: Average daily COVID-19 case rate per 100K over the past two weeks.(WCVB on Sept. 1)

It is not lost on us that assessing the risk-benefit of opening schools in the middle of a pandemic is as much a scientific and policy question, as it is personal. At the heart of it, advocates of opening the schools are looking at the data and are saying we are making the uncomfortable judgment that taking a risk with someone’s health is OK in order for us to have these benefits. In the middle of an acute crisis, history has taught us that there is a tendency to be overly conservative and want to institute extreme safety measures. On balance and with the benefit of retrospective analysis, extreme measures have rarely been effective at keeping us safe. The question is therefore how much risk are you willing to tolerate? Zero risks are not only unachievable, but it rarely makes for a good strategy or informed public policy.

As Belmontians, we make these calculations all the time. We allow our teenagers to drive cars, our pre-teens to walk to Belmont’s Underwood pool, ride their bikes to the town center, and partake in a variety of other activities that have some inherent risk. So in trying to answer how large are the potential health risks, we need to anchor the discussion in what the evidence above says, how large are the potential benefits, and the long-term impact on kids, in addition to the immediate impact on their parents, their teachers and the economy.  

We take the risk to teachers and staff seriously. To that effect, we want to end with a positive example that showcases the power of engagement with the Belmont parent community.  

Much of the discussion, especially in Belmont social media circles, has been productive, but understandably visceral when it comes to how much risk people are willing to take and how it affects teachers and staff. The school district, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and the Belmont School Committee have identified air quality as an area of major concern for opening the school. This is not an unexpected request given that the District has already run similar analyses in the past. A solution that requires the building of new schools or upgrading all HVAC systems is costly and unrealistic options as preconditions for opening schools. Two Belmont parents authored a well researched white paper that suggested a simple, cost-effective solution to mitigate the air quality concern. To his credit, Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan met with the parents and ordered 150 portable commercial filters that can be deployed as early as next week. Further, the group highlighted the results of a study done by a group from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health that showed that opening a window as little as six inches can provide superior air exchange and be used as an effective strategy to augment mechanical-based solutions to air quality control. In listening to issues like air quality that are central to the School Committee, the superintendent, and the MTA decision to reopening schools, the community has demonstrated how it can act as an effective resource to solve critical problems and support the need for a resource-constrained school district.     

The community is actively listening and wants to be part of the solution. The time is now to go to hybrid. We urge the school committee to accelerate the timetable for opening the school in hybrid. Let’s give our kids an opportunity to work together with their peers and their teachers, even if it were for a short time while Belmont is in the “green” zone. The benefits to their psychological well being and educational equity will be immeasurable. Let’s avoid creating obstacles that are red herrings, and keep the decision for opening the schools science-driven and anchored in the state guidelines and local data.

Jamal Saeh, Larry Schmidt, Martin Zwierlein, Kerry O’Grady, Maysoun Shomali, Patrick Whittemore, Christine McLaughlin, David Thesmar, Mikhail Zaslavsky, Ron Creamer, Carrie Bryan, Christine Regan, Liane Brecknock, Pamela Schmidt, Valerie Krempus, Robi Krempus, Danielle Lemack, Karl Ivester, Sonya Santos, Maíra Rejane Marques Samary, Alex Danahy, Olga Shyshko, Kelley Moriarty, and Alicia Dimitruk

State Requiring Flu Shots For All Students Attending Massachusetts Schools

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Photo: Now it’s required

Last week State public health officials announced that influenza immunization will be required for all children 6 months of age or older who are attending Massachusetts child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12, and colleges and universities.

The new vaccine requirement is an important step to reduce flu-related illness and ​the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Students will be expected to have received a flu vaccine by Dec. 31, for the 2020-2021 influenza season. Elementary and secondary students in districts and schools that are using a remote education model such as Belmont are not exempt.

Exempted from the new mandate are K-12 students who are homeschooled or have either a medical or religious exemption.

This new flu immunization requirement to enter school in January is in addition to existing vaccine requirements for all those attending child care, preschool, K-12, and colleges and universities in Massachusetts. The following immunizations must be documented by a health care practitioner, with dates including at least month and year; full dates are preferable and sometimes necessary. 

Attendees older than two years should be immunized for their age according to the ACIP Recommended Immunization Schedule.

Immunization Requirements For School Entry In 2017/18 School Year*
 Child Care/PreschoolGrade K-6Grade 7-12College
Hepatitis B3 doses (laboratory evidence of immunity acceptable)3 doses (laboratory evidence of immunity acceptable)3 doses (laboratory evidence of immunity acceptable)3 doses (laboratory evidence of immunity acceptable)
DTaP/DTP DT/Td4 doses 5 doses1 dose Tdap1 dose Tdap
Polio3 doses4 doses4 dosesNA
Hib1- 4 dosesNANANA
MMR1 dose2 doses2 doses2 doses
Varicella1 dose2 doses2 doses2 doses
MeningococcalNANA1 dose1 dose

*These requirements also apply to all new “enterers.”

NA = no vaccine requirement for the grades indicated.

Requirements apply to all students including individuals from another country attending or visiting classes or educational programs as part of an academic visitation or exchange program. In ungraded classrooms, Kindergarten requirements apply to all students greater or equal than five years. In ungraded classrooms, grade 7 requirements apply to all students greater or equal than 12 years. Requirements apply to all students, even if over 18 years of age.

All children entering kindergarten must show evidence of:

  • Lead screening
  • Vision screening

This law also indicates that a student without such proof of immunizations may be excluded from attending school.

District Reveals How StudentsWill Move Through The Four Learning Phases

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Photo: The title page of the Belmont School District’s presentation on the coming school year

After questions from parents and students on how and when Belmont schools would transition between the four learning phases established last week, the Belmont School District released a detailed blueprint on the health and safety criteria the community and each school building will need to meet to move from remote to hybrid and finally in-class learning.

In addition, the district produced the “earliest” date these changeovers can take place, which could occur as quickly as three weeks after entering each initial phase.

“The hope is that we have some clear understanding of what this presentation means for families and students so they can plan their lives and in their work as well,” said John Phelan, superintendent of Belmont schools last week before the School Committee. The district will start learning remotely on Sept. 16

The creation of the multi-stage approach was necessitated by the continued COVID-19 pandemic that is likely to stay active for the entire 2020-21 school year.

According to Phelan, the earliest possible dates that each transition could occur are:

  • Beginning of the school year in Phase 1: Sept. 16
  • The transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 (Remote 2): Oct. 19
  • The transition from Phase 2 to Phase 3 (Hybrid): Nov. 9
  • The transition from Phase 3 to Phase 4 (In-person): TBD by state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Phelan noted the dates provided are “best case” estimates involving a “three-week decision-making cycle.”

The district and the town’s Health Department will work closely in determining when the transitions can occur using a dual system of health measures, one issued by the state and the second a comprehensive test of air circulation in Belmont school buildings.

The first is one devised by DESE which uses a color-coded system – red, yellow, green and unshaded – that measures weekly the 14-day rolling average of daily cases of COVID-19 in each community.

If the average daily cases are less than eight or fewer (green and yellow), Belmont schools will be allowed to move to the next phase. Greater than eight will require the town to move to a remote system.

The latest data from the state puts Belmont in the green sector with 1.7 cases.

But before Belmont students prepare to move onward to “Remote 2” the town’s schools are undergoing a thorough examination of their facilities air exchange systems to determine if the machinery is working up to the manufactures standards and if they move the air at a sufficient rate to create a flow that will disrupt the concentration of coronavirus droplets in the air.

Phelan said that work, known as the Facilities Air Flow Assessment, will be completed around the time school begins and a report will be produced two weeks later in late September.

“That is why we will pause right now and not jump right into hybrid because we just don’t know that information yet and moving into a scenario without all the information,” said Phelan.

In anticipation that some areas and rooms will need to have an alternative , the district has purchased 100 filtration systems to add to the circulation of air in each room.

Only if the two safety measures are met will the district come before the school committee for discussion and a vote to move to the next phase.

The district has also committed to working towards the next phase as they prepare for the expected transition.

While the schools are in Phase 1, district officials will be reviewing data and decide on a timeline for entering Phase 2 and the air exchange assessment will be reviewed as well as the DESE metrics.

It will be during this time that parents and guardians will receive a notice of whether their children will wish to enter the hybrid phase and those who will stay in a remote-only cohort. Finally, schedules will be created for those kindergarteners and first graders which will enter the hybrid in-person learning under Phase 2.

For more information on the transition of phases and the work being that the district will conduct during each phase to prepare to move between stages, a link to the district’s charts can be found here.

Discussion among the School Committee members ranged from concerns on understanding on the extent of the interior assessments – some schools (the nearly decade-old Wellington) are in better shape than others. So far, the district has paid $25,000 in labor and parts to prepare the schools, $15,000 will go to repairing all screens and window repairs, $42,000 on HVAC updated and $100,000 to purchase 100 air purifying units.

The School Committee’s Tara Donner, who is also a teacher in Winchester, voice an issue with the focus on “plowing ahead as fast as possible” into the hybrid phase when there hasn’t been much discussion on effectively staffing that step. Speaking from her own experience, Donner said “these models are frankly fairly incompatible to good teaching” until the district has a quality educational model in mind.

“I want to make sure we’re not putting the cart before the horse,” he added.

Belmont School Committee OKs Remote Start But Questions Remain On Moving Forward, Testing

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While many neighboring communities are diving into the 2020-21 school year with at least some in-class instruction, the Belmont School Committee approved unanimously on Tuesday, Aug. 11 one of the most conservative reopening programs proposed in the state, a four-part phased approach that requires Belmont’s 4,800 students to move through a pair of remote learning stages before reaching the hybrid stage.

While acknowledging the best learning is when students are taught in a classroom with a teacher, due to the lack of testing and contract tracing as well as a recent uptick in positive COVID-19 cases in the state, starting classes online for all grades was the safest option said Belmont Superintendent John Phelan to the committee at a community forum held on Thursday, Aug. 6.

“We have to prioritize and put in an order that matched up with the priorities that we set at the beginning [of this process] which are safety, social emotional well being of students and staff. So I feel like the conversation really needs to revolve around safety,” said Phelan.

But at least half of the committee voiced their hesitation making their decision, not so much against the plan but that several important aspects of the plan appeared to them lacking on a myriad of issues such as testing and how moving from one phase to the next will be determined.

“With reluctance because I think we have a lot of work left to do,” said Committee member Mike Crowley, who had suggested delaying a vote until many outstanding issues were answered.

The 170-day school year is scheduled to start on Wednesday, Sept. 16 with students K-12 being taught online with the exception of those with complex and special learning needs.

Belmont joins many of the largest school districts in the country and nearby communities – Somerville, Wayland and Swampscott – who will open via the internet. Other districts such as Arlington, Bedford, Danvers, Plymouth, Shrewsbury, Wellesley and Woburn will start in a hybrid mode.

Based on two recent parents survey results and emails to the media and school committee members, nearly two-thirds of parents prefer some form of hybrid start for school.

The reaction among those who attended the two meetings ranged from enthusiastic support to not being thrilled by the decision.

“Smart move, Belmont! It’s important to think about the health and safety of the students, teachers and community. Not only does this protect Belmont but also the commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said Dianne Cohen DeChellis in a Facebook comment. 

“Pure BS,” noted one father – who did not want to give his name as he will likely seek to volunteer for a proposed task force. “[Massachusetts Gov. Charlie] Baker released a map showing Belmont is one of the safest communities when it comes to COVID-19 exposure. It’s depressing.”

Baker stated at a Friday, Aug. 7 press conference the facts, data and science doesn’t support “everybody” reverting to a remote model in reopening schools.

The decision also prompted a petition on change.org calling for Belmont to start the year with the hybrid approach for all students. The petition authored by Christine McLaughlin garnered approximately 500 signatures.

The divergence between the district’s supporters and critics is shadowed by the wide variety of opinions promoting either caution or a green light approach to reopening schools. An interactive map from the New York Times dated Aug. 14 suggests Belmont – “where the rate of new coronavirus cases may be low enough, and testing rates in the state high enough” – can safely open its four elementary school and the Chenery Middle School and allow Belmont High to begin the year in a hybrid option. On the other side, a report by WGBH had a Harvard epidemiologist calling the hybrid model for reopening ‘is “Probably Among The Worst’ Options.”

Tuesday’s vote, which attracted 500 residents viewing the meeting on Zoom, came five days after the Belmont school superintendent surprised the community by recommending starting the new school year remotely, emphasizing the health and safety of pupils and staff.

“We can create a robust and remote environment that can continue learning and moving forward, engage students academically and we can connect with children as best we can,” said Phelan. “But we can’t do that in-person until we know it’s safe.”

The district’s decision – which was originally set to be presented to the school committee at the Aug. 11 meeting – was a jolt to those attending the forum.

“I have to say I’m suffering from whiplash just a little bit,” said a clearly surprised Andrea Prestwich, chair of the school committee, after the announcement. “Just a few weeks ago … we were absolutely certain that we were going to go back into hybrid mode. And now here we are going back from it.”

The district’s recommendation on using a remote plan comes just two days after at a school committee meeting in which it went into details of the hybrid and remote plans, spending a majority of the presentation emphasizing a hybrid option in which students would attend school in-person for two consecutive days and learning the remainder of the time via Google Classroom.

Thursday’s meeting was originally a Q&A with parents and students questioning school officials and committee members on the three education options – remote, hybrid and in person – required of each district by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. But Phelan said he gave the recommendation early so parents would have the weekend to review the decision.

In the view of the district, the four part reopening plan creates “a pathway” so that all students “in a very methodical way” towards the “total goal … to have all student back in school. But that strategy can only move forward by securing the safety of the students and staff,” said Phelan.

The district’s recommendation for the school year consists of four phases; two remote, a hybrid and in-school options. [see table below]

Phelan said remote learning in 2020-21 will not resemble the haphazard approach in the final three months of last school year closed due the COVID-19 pandemic. The out-of-class learning in the fall will be a robust real-time “virtual school” with synchronous educator-led learning in which instructors will collect and assess assignments provide feedback and grade assignments including tests and quizzes.

Students will “attends” classes for the entire day based off a synchronized schedule. Assignments will be found on an academic hub with homework expected from each student.

“I believe parents want to know two things; … what’s going to happen in the fall so they can plan and they want to know what each phase will look like so they know what’s going to happen,” said Phelan.

Phelan said the district’s next step is to create detailed remote and hybrid schedules for the School Committee to vote in the next few weeks.

“We know our families want more detail on these models, and we have been planning our models with our educators,” said Phelan in a statement.

During the discussion between committee members at Tuesday’s meeting – public comment was reserved to Thursday’s forum – a major concern for several members would be the mechanism in which the district will move from one phase to the next.

“I know people want that information now and we have some of it, but we don’t have all of it, saying they will have that detail in the next week, maybe two weeks,” said

Phelan said the district will establish a Metric Task Force made up of residents, health experts and educators (see below).

The first issue facing the task force will be determining what data will be used in the rubric and the measurable level or condition that “opens the door” to allow the district to move to between phases.

While still in its genesis – no members have been named – it appears the task force will only have an advisory role to the school committee, making recommendations on which phase the district should be in to the committee which will likely have the final say. Another unknown is how long it will take from when a recommendation is accepted to when it’s implemented.

Another issue is surveillance testing students and staff for the virus which Prestwich has spearheaded. Through her research Prestwich has discovered many districts are looking at daily testing a one percent random sample of students – about 50 students in Belmont – to determine the absolute levels of infection. The cost for six months of testing is $250,000, a price tag Prestwich said “will be money well spent.” She also believed that less accurate but much faster daily tests – approximately 90 percent accurate at $1 per test – could be better for the district’s purposes of identifying and containing any outbreak.

But a source of funding remains a stumbling block as the district faces a $9 million deficit and it’s uncertain additional funds to cover COVID-19 costs from the federal government or the state will arrive.

A major priority for the district is the effectiveness of the movement of air in the ventilation system in each school. New research has found more evidence that COVID-19 can be spread through aerosol transmission rather than through contact with surfaces. Phelan said the district has yet to begin the process of assessing the air handling equipment in the district’s six school buildings which will likely take up to a month to conclude just as classes start.

Committee member Kate Bowen had hoped to review the eight hybrid options to reach a consensus on “what is the right hybrid situation” since having a preferred option would allow families to plan ahead their employment and child care issues.

But Phelan said the question on the community survey was not to select a preference on a specific hybrid plan but to register “how the impact of any hybrid model will have on your family.”

“I will take full criticism for not having full baked hybrid and full baked promote plans, even though we’ve been discussing this internally at great length,” he said. But absent testing and a complete air movement assessment, Phelan said the overriding question is “are we able to enter school to even entertain a hybrid model?”

School Committee member Tara Donner agreed with Phelan. “I think the benefit of moving forward with the face plan today is that we free up our administrators to focus 100 percent on developing these metrics … and I know that [Phelan and assistant superintendent Janice Darius] are committed to having these kinds of meetings, even if we start in a remote plan.”

But, she added, “We should move as fast as we can from phase 1 to phase 2 and I’m fully in support of robustly immediately devoting a lot of resources to developing the metrics that we can use to go forward.”

Belmont Likely To Start School Year With Hybrid Learning Option

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Photo: Burbank Elementary School

The doors will be opening at Belmont’s six public schools in approximately 45 days and according to the educators in charge, the hows and whys of beginning the new school year remain, in two words, quite fluid.

With the COVID-19 pandemic in the US continuing unabated, the idea that simply ringing the bell and teachers welcoming school children into the building is a faded memory.

“These are going to be late decisions. These are going to be hard decisions,” said School Superintendent John Phelan at last week’s Belmont School Committee meeting.

Interest on how learning will take place in Belmont is sky high. A parents survey sent out last month by the school district had 880 respondents with 2,100 comments. And more than 100 residents swore off a beautiful summer afternoon to attend the remote committee meeting on Wednesday, July 16.

Opening day planning by the Belmont School District is about a third of the way through a feasibility study that will be sent to the state by Aug. 10 that will determine which of three models – in person, hybrid and remote – will use when the student’s first day of the 2020-1 school terms begins on Wednesday, Sept. 3.

While many parents and students can’t wait to have all students go back to a “regular school year,” more recently say they are “very nervous” about returning, said Phelan.

But as of mid-July, Phelan said all three options remain in the running. And “it’s very clear to us … that the year that we face in ’20/21 could quite frankly involve all three models,” said Phelan.

A June parents survey found that 70 percent of residents would prefer the traditional in-person school opening, many of those same residents also acknowledge that a full-day education is not be in the cards come the fall.

Since receiving the state’s guidelines on reopening schools on June 25, each principal created a master schedule – class and teaching and student – for in-person schooling with all the state restrictions including three to six feet social distancing, moving furniture, providing space for teachers, and how to create lunchroom distancing.

While telling the school committee he has not discounted any of the three options, Phelan did say that due to the district’s over-enrollment – accepting between 700-800 students in the district over the past five years – and limited class space, attempting to fit all students into the building under the state’s social distancing limitations and other restrictions would be “very challenging.”

“The class sizes just don’t fit [an in-person opening],” said Phelan.

The space constraints of the in-person option is leading the district to focus its efforts on a hybrid plan in which half of the students will attend school while the other half are schooled remotely in a digital classroom setting.

In a hybrid option, it’s easier to achieve social distancing since only half the number of pupils are in the building, which allows for better circulation of students between classes and airflow. The district has also purchased $200,000 of personal protection equipment for teachers and staff when schools are opened.

Sometime in the week ahead, a decision on which hybrid schedule will be used; one which students alternate days in school versus a week in school and a week at home. In the parent’s survey, both schedules were equally supported by parents.

With the likelihood the remote option will be used, the district is distributing computers or tablets to all students to allow for true synchronous learning which will allow for students and teachers to collaborate and learn in real time in virtual classrooms. A major complaint from parents when the district shut down in mid-March during the initial wave of the coronavirus was that students were unable to interact with classmates and teachers, which Phelan attributed to a lack of computers to each pupil.

When the doors do open, the first few days could be for “teachers only” so they can prepare rooms for the new health protocols, accommodate social distancing requirements and to set up new technical equipment.

By Aug. 10, the district must pick one of the three options and get ready to move forward but there remains plenty of unknowns that haven’t been addressed by the state such as the use of buses, utilize outdoors and large indoor space such as cafeteria or gymnasium.

And the district will need the help from volunteers in Belmont such as the PTOs and PTAs, the Foundation for Belmont Education and the various Friends groups to assist in material and educational needs.

“As the Commissioner of Education Jeff Riley has said to all the superintendents … is we need to be flexible,” said Phelan.

“So we’re trying to plan flexibly in where we’re trying to communicate with our community as well as we can so when we get back to making decisions in August that people are up to date and feel like we’re making decisions … preparing for a safe entry to school.”

With State’s Guidance In Hand, Belmont Schools Writing An Opening Day Scenario

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Photo: The cover page of the Massachusetts DESE guide to reopening public schools in September.

With guidance from the state now in hand, the Belmont School District is beginning in earnest to put together a blueprint for opening the school year in less than two months.

But no one should believe this will be an easy process in a world dominated by COVID-19.

“This will be unlike any September that school systems have ever faced with trying to open school under a pandemic,” said School Superintendent John Phelan at a virtual Zoom meeting of the Belmont School Committee recently.

Belmont joins districts and systems across the country determine the optimum playbook to follow in the coming school year, as “families are ready to fall into that familiar ‘back to school’ routine where parents go back to work and students are in front of teaching and developing their own social emotional growth and development,” said Phelan.

The district with guidance from the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is currently creating three learning options for educating students in the 2020-1 school year:

  • a traditional in-school model,
  • the hybrid system which students participate both in class and learn from home, and
  • an on-line remote setup similar to the final weeks of the previous school year.

For Phelan, it doesn’t appear Belmont will be picking one option and sticking with it for for the 2020-1 school year.

“It is our potential expectation that next school year we could run the range of having all three of those option be put in play,” said Phelan, attempting to service the district’s pupils well “but also with safety in mind.”

One of the first things principals, educators and staff are doing during this feasibility phase is measuring every available inch of space in the district’s six schools to determine how many students can be safely taught in each building which will decide which option(s) the district will use to educate its approximate 5,000 students beginning Sept. 2.

“We will set up a schedule where we could try to limit contact between students,” said Phelan as the schools prioritize in-person learning.

The answer is far from certain. “Can it be done with existing staff, do we need more space, will extra buses be needed, can students pass safely between classes, where will lunch take place?”

“Are our class sizes just too big with 26 students in a classroom and still keep the minimum separation in social distancing?” said Phelan.

As the traditional opening is being tested, the district will also provide a more detailed blueprint on a hybrid option with a remote learning portion.

After the three models are completed in the next weeks, the district will return to the state “the data with our assessment” of the options, showing DESE the challenges and pointing out the resources the schools will need to mitigate those challenges” as well as demonstrating the situations that can’t be resolved.

An example is that a teacher with 29-33 students can not run a class under the regulations imposed by the state. “[the class] would need to be split up and a teacher brought in. if not that’s an un-achievable challenge,” said Phelan.

The Superintendent revealed that the state said ‘out loud’ there could be dollars for each district to find added classroom space and to purchase equipment so each student can be equip with computer for hybrid or remote learning.

But Phelan said he found it “concerning” that funds can not be used to add personnel to assist in educating students.

Evelyn Gomez Selected To Fill Vacant School Committee Seat

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Photo: Evelyn Gomez, newly-appointed member of the Belmont School Committee.

Evelyn Garcia Gomez, a relative newcomer to Belmont, was named to the School Committee Thursday, June 25, to fill the final nine months of the term of Susan Burgess-Cox who resigned in April.

An engineer and educator with degrees from MIT, Harvard and UCLA, Gomez – who arrived in Belmont in 2017 – is believed to be the first Person Of Color to serve on the Belmont School Committee.

“I think my being selected for the School Committee represents that Belmont is willing to put in the work to have a truly inclusive and equitable town,” said Gomez in an email to the Belmontonian after she was voted to the board on the third ballot by a joint meeting of the Select Board and School Committee. The other finalists included Meghan Moriarty, Jeffrey Liberty, Seeth Burtner, and Vicki Amalfitano.

Gomez’ background includes teaching math and physics for nearly two years in California and working as an adjunct associate professor at Pasadena City College. She also holds teaching credentials for high school math in California and Massachusetts.

“I want to use this time of COVID-19 to reimagine what education can be because, while this current system of AP classes and standardized testing worked for me, it certainly didn’t work for many of my classmates or my students,” said Gomez, who lives with her two young children who have yet to enter the school system.

(Editor’s note: The complete interview with Gomez is at the bottom of the article)

Gomez arrives as the school district and committee are juggling a pair of daunting issues: opening schools in September during a continued COVID-19 pandemic and a looming budgetary gap that could result in massive layoffs.

“This is like parachuting on the deck of a ship to steer it through a really big storm,” said the Select Board’s Adam Dash. In responding to a question from the joint committee, Gomez said after speaking to School Committee Chair Andrea Prestwich, she has an understanding “about the time commitment and how hard it is to do this job.” While acknowledging she has her hands full with two small children, her flexible schedule allows being on the committee “this would be one of my top priorities and I don’t do anything at 50 percent.”

Gomez spoke poignantly how her inclusion to the committee would bring diversity to the group and how that “would be a blessing, and it makes our town stronger.”

Gomez is currently part of the education staff of the Lemelson-MIT Program which recognizes emerging collegiate inventors whose inventions could impact important sectors of the global economy. Before coming to Boston, Gomez was executive director of LA-based DIY Girls whose mission is to increase women’s and girls’ interest in technology, engineering, and making through innovative educational experiences.

Born and raised in the northeast San Fernando Valley, a predominately Hispanic region of Los Angeles, Gomez was her class valedictorian at San Fernando High School in Los Angeles.

Gomez matriculated at MIT where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. She received a Master of Science in the same degree from UCLA. Gomez also holds a Master of Education in secondary education from Harvard.

Interview with newly-appointed School Committee member Evelyn Gomez.

Belmontonian: You said just after being selected that you were not expecting to be named. Why do you think you were selected?

Gomez: Timing is everything. At this moment, in this country, and in this town, I think we are all realizing that there is a lot of work to do if we truly want to strive for “a more perfect union.” We are at the intersection of so many monumental events: Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, and lacking trust in our public entities. In this particular moment, many white people are starting to examine their privilege and implicit biases, understand what it really means to be a Person of Color in this country, and how our reality is vastly different than theirs. As I said during the meeting, I have a lot of internalized biases and anxieties about being a minority, but I am learning to overcome those anxieties thanks to anti-racist literature by Ibram X. Kendi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and so many others. They are teaching me how to have the courage to speak openly about my identity and experiences as a woman of color, as a daughter of immigrants, as an English Language Learner, and how these experiences bring value to my community. 

Belmont has a lot of work to do, but I think my being selected for the School Committee represents that Belmont is willing to put in the work to have a truly inclusive and equitable town. 

Belmontonian: The Select Board’s Adam Dash said with all that is happening in education during the COVID-19 pandemic and the budget issues the town and schools are about to face coming onto the committee is like parachuting on the deck of a ship to steer it through a really big storm. What do you see your role in helping to steer this ship?

Gomez: It’s been said that we need to “scrap the blueprint and revolutionize this dangerously broken system.” As an educator, I think we need to use this forced disruption in the education system to stop and reflect on what we truly value in education and what students value. I want to use this time of COVID-19 to reimagine what education can be because, while this current system of AP classes and standardized testing worked for me, it certainly didn’t work for many of my classmates or my students. Belmont can lead to integrating novel and innovative approaches to schooling that work better for teachers, parents, and students than the old system. Let’s not waste this opportunity in the disruption of schooling, let’s use it as a time to strategically think about what we value in education and what we really want our kids to learn. 

Belmontonian: I believe – although I will have to ask the Town Clerk to confirm this – that you are the first Person of Color to be a member of the School Committee. What in your life’s experience and background will you bring to the committee that it may not have currently? 

Gomez: I have over a decade of experience working with students of color and can relate to their experiences and struggles because I once was one. More importantly, my experience as a Person of Color and a teacher to students of color has forced me to be creative in the ways that I reach my students. I have seen firsthand how empowering students to use their lived experiences to solve problems in their own community engages students in a meaningful and authentic way. While this is true for all students, I believe it is especially true for students of color and women. In 2017, Belmont Public Schools presented findings of the Achievement Gap. Back then, there were 205 students that self-identified as Black. Those students had 3-4 times as many Cs, Ds, or Fs as the total student body and were more likely to report negative social-emotional experiences in Belmont Public Schools. This tells me that something is not working in Belmont Public Schools and we need to work together to fix it. I continue to seek an understanding of how to support students of color and raising the next generation of White allies. I bring this lens to the School Committee and to the forefront during decision making.