Chicopee School Committee conducts elections and discusses COVID–19

Jan. 27, 2021 | Carolyn Noel
carolynn@thereminder.com

The Chicopee School Committee met on Jan. 20 to discuss elections and more.
Photo Credit: Chicopee TV

CHICOPEE – The Chicopee School Committee met at Chicopee Comprehensive High School on Jan. 20 to elect subcommittee positions and further discuss COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

To begin the meeting, Director of Budget and Finance John Miarecki gave an update on the yearly budget. According to Miarecki, the FY21 Budget has been signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker. Miarecki says that they will now look forward to the FY22 Budget. On Jan. 27, Baker’s FY22 budget recommendation will be available.

The Chicopee Public Schools 2021-2022 calendar was also approved. The school year is set to end June 15. According to Superintendent Lynn Clark, the calendar does not include five automatic snow days.

“In the past, we had automatically added the five snow days, but that June 15 is without the five snow days. We will put that notice out as it gets closer, but I just wanted to make sure that was noted,” said Clark.

The meeting then moved into elections. Four subcommittees were voted a new chairperson and vice chairperson. James Tanhauser was voted chairperson of the Curriculum Subcommittee and Susan Lopes was voted vice chairperson. Lopes was voted chairperson of the Facilities Subcommittee, along with Doug Girouard voted as vice chairperson. For the Finance and Budget Subcommittee, David Schryver was voted chairperson and Tanhauser was voted vice chairperson. Finally, Schryver was voted chairperson of the Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee and Girouard was voted vice chairperson.

On Jan. 19, pre-k through first grade, vulnerable populations and high needs students who were previously in school before going remote were welcomed back to the classroom. Many committee members and Chicopee residents have voiced their hopes to get kids back as quickly and safely as possible.

According to Clark, Feb. 22 will start a new semester for all schools. This is when a new plan will begin to get kids in school, though she hasn’t disclosed what the plan is yet.

With kids returning to schools, Committee member Mary Beth Costello asked Clark to give more information on COVID-19 vaccines and when they will be available to teachers and staff.

“As of now, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has not at all brought up vaccination of school teachers. I can tell you that teachers are in Phase 2, but we are not yet in Phase 2. On the bright side, our school nurses have been vaccinated in Phase 1, but we have not heard anything about Phase 2 yet,” said Clark.

Clark emphasized that she is pushing for teachers to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

Mayor John Vieau noted that when teachers are allowed the vaccine, it will be ready for them under his Vaccine Task Force.

“Under my administration we have created what’s called the Vaccine Task Force and the Vaccine Task Force is committed to getting vaccines and vaccinations to the residents of the City of Chicopee as quickly as we possibly can,” he said.

Clark also spoke on COVID-19 testing and praised the test site within the city of Chicopee.

“Due to Mayor Vieau and his administration, we do have testing readily available for our staff and families. We are, school nurses as well as the Board of Health, referring them to the Chicopee testing site at this time,” she said.

Costello also asked Clark to explain the concept of “pool testing,” a new testing program announced by state leaders in an effort to get more students back in classrooms.

Clark gave an example where a school district takes 25 percent of a school population and tests them on a particular day. If a group, or batch, comes back with a positive, then those students or staff will have to be retested. Clark said she recently went through a webinar where she learned more about pool testing.

“It is a type of testing where we would have to have consent from all families as well as staff member consent,” she said.

Chicopee was not initially eligible to begin pool testing, as students were learning remotely. Now that there are students in buildings, Clark said they are able to get more information or move forward with pool testing if they choose.

“We’re still getting additional information,” said Clark.

To end the meeting, Vieau gave an update on the COVID-19 testing site in Chicopee. The site has moved from Chicopee Comprehensive High School to the Council on Aging Upper Level. Tests are given Monday through Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. According to Vieau, turnaround time to receive results is usually a day or less.

“We are hopeful that this is going to help with transmission throughout the city. When you identify people who are positive, they are ordered to go home and quarantine and their close contacts are as well. We feel that this is the best way to help control the spread of the virus here in the city of Chicopee as we get closer and closer to vaccines being more readily available,” he said. “I’m very proud of the way it’s been handled and run.”

Those interested in viewing the entirety of the Chicopee School Committee meeting are encouraged to visit the ChicopeeTV Facebook page.

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