CHICOPEE – The Chicopee School Committee met on Dec. 16 to discuss finances, budget updates, minutes, new business and more. One topic that sparked serious debate was winter athletics.

Athletic Director Sean Mackin spoke to the council about the upcoming winter sports season. According to Mackin, on Dec. 7 the Athletic Reopening Task Force approved the Winter Sport’s Plan. Mackin came in front of council members to ask for their approval of this plan for the city of Chicopee.

Under the plan, winter sports would begin practicing on Jan. 11 and would start games after Jan. 21. Examples of winter sports include boys and girls basketball, boys and girls ice hockey and boys and girls swimming. Indoor track has been moved to the second fall season and both wrestling and competitive cheer have been moved to the spring season.

Mackin stated that the Chicopee Athletic Department adhered to all COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines during the fall sports season, which they would do again for winter.

“Our coaches will continue to be COVID coaches first and foremost and then sports specific coaches,” he said.

With COVID-19 restrictions in mind, there would be many changes to the winter sports. Some examples that Mackin gave included no locker room usage for basketball and hockey, mandatory masks, limited contact, virtual meets only for swimming, no cheering and no spectators. Mackin said they hope to be able to livestream meets and games to the public.

Mackin emphasized how cities like Springfield and Worcester, who are also in the red when it comes to COVID-19 cases, have already approved this winter plan. He said that surveys were sent out to Chicopee fall sports players and their families to reflect on the past season. Many students responded to the surveys with praise of their season stating that it helped them exercise, improved their social wellbeing, gave them something to look forward to and allowed them to connect with teammates and coaches.

Some committee members expressed their opinion that sports were now being prioritized over in-person learning.

“They seem to take it more seriously than school,” said one committee member, Donald Lamothe. “We should not be doing this until we bring our kids back safely.”

Committee member James Tanhauser agreed with Lamothe.

“There is no way that we can allow winter sports when our kids aren’t in school and we’re talking about staff furloughs,” said Tanhauser.

Both Assistant Superintendent Alvin Morton and Mackin responded to these claims.

“Our goal is not to prioritize student athletes over students. We agree with you,” said Mackin.

Morton pointed out that winter athletics were only being discussed as it is almost their time to begin. It does not take precedence over students returning to the classroom, but a decision does need to be made and given to the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference (PVIAC).

In the end, all winter athletics were approved by the council to begin on Jan. 11. Eight committee members voted yes and three voted no.

The meeting also discussed Chicopee’s ongoing plan to reopen schools. Superintendent Lynn Clark spoke on how she understands the importance of getting kids back to school, but also that it needs to be done safely.

“We’ve done a lot of work to get students in. We can do it safely. We know what we have to do, we know it has to be done slowly and strategically with a sound plan. We know that the phase-in plan just took us too long and we would not be able to do it again. If we did, we would have to prioritize,” said Clark.

Clark said she wants to see some students back in schools beginning Jan. 11, but not all students. Clark is looking at possibilities of some K-5 students being able to return then.

According to Clark, surveys have been sent out to families to see if they would want their children to return back to school. She hopes to hear opinions from parents, students and all different sources.

“We can’t formulate a plan until we have the numbers,” she said.

Some committee members expressed their concerns that certain groups of students haven’t been back in school at all this year. Clark agreed with their concerns, but said that due to an MOA they would have to bring in only students who had already been in school before the closure.

At the start of the second semester, which begins Feb. 22, Clark said they could draft a different plan to send other kids to school. She said she wants to prioritize getting seniors into school at the start of the second semester.

The meeting ended by discussing possible staff furloughs in the future. Clark explained that Chicopee is past the point of trying to save money this year and is “really just trying to stay afloat.” One way to do this, according to Clark, could be possible furloughs.

She discussed possible furloughs of some janitorial staff and administrative staff.

“It just comes down to when we don’t have students in the building there are certain groups of people that don’t have as much work,” said Clark.

The furloughs would be from Jan. 11 to Feb. 26 if approved. This could save Chicopee schools around $300,000-$400,000. Right now, nothing is set in stone.

“It’s just something for us to think about it. It’s nothing different than every other district is doing right now,” said Clark.

The possible furloughs will be discussed at a future committee meeting at the beginning of January.