AGAWAM –   The Agawam School Committee met on the morning of Aug. 17 where the start to the school year was discussed two weeks after the decision was made to start the year with a hybrid model.

The meeting began with more than a dozen letters from parents and other members of the community who wished to voice their various opinions regarding the committee’s decision on the hybrid model. The first letter to be read on the matter was from Michael Perry, the father of two school-age children in Agawam. Much like each of the letters that followed, he thanked the school committee for their “diligence and care” involved in making choices for the school.

Perry said throughout the process of deciding how children should go back to school, he had been “a vocal proponent of getting our kids back to school as safely as possible.” He said, “I want to thank our school committee for providing some in-class learning to start the year. Having our children present in the classroom is vital to their education and even those who prefer our remote option can see as much.”

He stated his belief that “our Agawam children will be far better served because you have allowed them to be with their teachers.” Ultimately, Perry said he believed that “by choosing the hybrid model we have been head of the curve,” and the leadership shown by committee members “is the envy of parents in surrounding communities.”

Another community member voiced their opinion opposing restrictions such as masks and social distancing when children return to school. In the letter, she said her reason for her beliefs that no restrictions were needed was due to the town’s number of active COVID cases being “very, very low.”

“I’m not worried at all for these kids coming in contact with COVID, if anything they get sick with little things like a cold or a tummy ache,” she said, adding that she believed that students should be able to “be around students to be building immune systems without a mask.”

“No masks, no restrictions whatsoever,” she said.

Another community member spoke out against children returning to school at all. “If you’re sick you wouldn’t ask the CEO of the hospital to operate on you, you wouldn’t ask a hospital administrative to diagnose a condition, you wouldn’t ask a fellow patient if you need medicine. You’d ask a doctor, a person with years of training and experience,” she said. She explained her belief that teachers were the only ones trained, experienced and “qualified to determine if the original plan is viable or not.”

“Now teachers all over the country are speaking out against in- person learning, they don’t believe it’s safe and they don’t think they can teach effectively under the conditions required to reduce spreading the virus,” she said. “If we disagree and disregard their opinions, that means we don’t trust our teachers’ judgment.”

She said there was a new normal that needed to be adapted to, if not she said it would only cause more consequences than originally intended. “We must tailor our approach to the reality we live in now, not what it was before,” she told the council.

Included in those who sent in letters voicing their concerns regarding the partial return to school were former high school teacher Richard Joseph and a letter written on behalf of a current teacher who wished to remain anonymous. The individual who submitted the letter on behalf of the teacher said they wished to have their opinions read during the meeting, but was “concerned about the repercussions of doing so.”

Following the numerous letters written to the committee, Interim Superintendent Sheila Hoffman announced that the district had been awarded a $93,500 grant that “will provide added contact services for mental health support such as family grief programs and tele-therapy services; the purchase of software to collect social and emotional data; professional development for staff; and continued work on an online district family resource center.”

Hoffman then said the district reopening plan was submitted to the state on Aug. 14. She said many aspects of the plan are “dependent on impact bargaining with the Agawam Education Association,” which she explained had already begun.

Additionally, Hoffman said there were still some details that needed to be addressed and communicated, but “so many of these details are dependent on one another and can’t be answered as standalone questions.” She also explained some small revisions that had been made to the initially approved hybrid plan. However, she again emphasized that a lot of changes were “still being worked out” with the teacher’s union.

Committee member Shelley Reed then gave an update on the negotiations and bargaining that had been taking place with the teacher’s union. She said so far the committee and the union had met two times “and are making progress, but we have a lot of work left to do.” She said, so far, “everyone has been working collaboratively and respectfully.”

Committee member Carmino Mineo, who attended the meeting via phone and who serves on the board of directors for LPVEC, said students in the career tech program would be able to go back to school four days a week and special education students would be able to return five days a week if they chose.

School committee member Anthony Bonavita, who serves on the budget sub-committee, questioned how the district would be paying for the additional safety measures that would need to be implemented within schools. Agawam Mayor William Sapelli, who also serves as the school committee chairperson, said “adjustments would need to be made” and costs were being calculated. Additionally, Sapelli pointed out that there were “some significant grants both federal and state.”

He said he estimated that in September when they could truly calculate everything that it would be “a time to take a good look at that,” but at the moment they didn’t have all the information they would need.

The committee then went on to approve the revised version of the 2020-2021 academic year calendar to accommodate a later start date due to COVID-19. With the changes to the calendar approved, the committee then moved onto approving the first read of policy EBCFA, which provides guidelines for face coverings needed to be worn in school due to the pandemic.

Committee member Kerri O’Connor said she did not feel comfortable and believed the policy’s guidelines for “mask breaks” was not detailed enough. She said in her opinion, “just based on information and questions from the community and some parents about these mask breaks, I don’t feel as though it would be in the best interest of our students and teachers to be taking their masks off within the classroom setting based on not every classroom has proper ventilation and/or windows.”

She continued, “We have many school buildings that there are classrooms with lack of proper ventilation and I really think that we need to work out during mask breaks what that looks like for our students because our students need to take a break.”

Sapelli said the building maintenance director had private contractors come in to inspect the ducts, coils and roofs to ensure there was proper ventilation.

Bonavita asked if at some point during the year a teacher felt like ventilation wasn’t appropriate, if there was a way for them to get their concerns addressed. Sapelli said, “Not only can they, but they should be and will be.” He commended the building maintenance director at the work he had put in thus far and should teachers ever be concerned about ventilation at any point during the year, the teacher “should report that immediately to the principal of that building and they will follow up with that.”

It was then explained that there was a process in place to submit work orders electronically so that they are addressed in a timely manner. Committee member Wendy Rua questioned if documentation available was from the outside agencies that had been inside the schools so that they may be shared to the public. The mayor said these were being compiled and would be finished shortly.

She also questioned if it was possible to add the language of “and at school events” to include wearing face coverings at all school events, instead of in the previous language which stated they must be worn “all school buildings, on school grounds and on school transportation.” Sapelli said a note was made of the suggestion. The first reading of the policy was approved.

During his final remarks Bonavita asked how many parents were requesting the remote only option for their children to start the year. Hoffman said out of 2,700 students within the district 2,873 people had responded and there were “28.3 percent of parents who are asking for the remote only option.”

However, she said she had conversations with parents throughout the week who had been debating changing their mind before school began. Hoffman said they would be able to change their mind if they decided, and the survey was “just preliminary to get our principals information so they can start looking at transportation, mask breaks, all those specifics.”

Rua also confirmed with Hoffman that parents would be allowed to change their minds at any time. Additionally, she questioned what the procedure would be should a child and/or teacher test positive for the coronavirus. Hoffman said should that happen the plan states, “any student who is a classmate of or a teacher has been in a class with a student who tested positive is required to quarantine for 14 days. So parents will be notified.”

Hoffman said all parents or guardians who had been identified as parents of students in direct contact with the student who tested positive would be notified, should that happen. Additionally, she clarified that direct contact meant “part of a class.” She said this included, “A classmate, a teacher or a staff member in that class.”

She said “In our model it would be the students in person class, in that cohort with them.” Rua also asked about a question she’d previously had about the number of COVID cases being displayed on the district’s website.

Hoffman said there were a couple of reasons why the counter was not possible. She said she believed they “could look into a link to the health department’s page that has the current active number of cases.” However, with a number of students participating in the school choice program, which allows students from neighboring communities to attend school in Agawam, the case would not be reported to the Agawam Public Schools right away. Instead that case would be reported to the town where the student resided, and then eventually to the Agawam Public School District, making the count inaccurate. Hoffman said it was the same with teachers who live outside of the district.