EASTHAMPTON – As emotions ran high at an emergency meeting on Nov. 17, the Easthampton School Committee voted 4-3 to revert to remote learning.

This decision meant a delay to the start of grade 1 in the hybrid model, which was supposed to begin on Nov. 19. All programs that were in hybrid learning at the high school ended on Nov. 20 and moved back into the remote learning model as of Nov. 23.

The committee will re-evaluate this decision at their Dec. 8 meeting.

Superintendent Allison LeClair said she is frustrated by the increase in cases in the Easthampton community, regionally, and across the state. While she thinks they are doing the right things to keep the students safe in school, she indicated she believes the community is not.

“If the community does not cooperate then we have a problem and right now the community of Easthampton is not cooperating because there is a high number of cases. If the community does not value our schools and getting our kids back in school then we have a significant issue,” LeClair said.

When asked by committee member Shannon Dunham if there have been any positive cases within the school, LeClair said there has been no transmission due to in-school participation.

Epidemiologist Megan Harvey addressed that question and said to understand if there is transmission occurring in school there has to be weekly testing done of symptomatic and asymptomatic cases in the entire town because students are more than likely going to be silent spreaders of the virus.

Maggie Herbert, the chair of the Board of Health, spoke and shared that she agrees students should not be in school right now because there is so much that people cannot predict with the virus. She added that there are many manifestations of it because some people are sick and do not know it is the coronavirus because it is not a respiratory illness for them.

Harvey added that the long-term effects of having coronavirus are still unknown so they have to worry about all types of cases.

Mayor Nicole LaChapelle said she would rather have the opportunity to address the mental health issues than lose the opportunity because someone died or they are traumatized by someone who died.

“I don’t see this decision as a balance, I see it’s public health is first and foremost. We understand there are consequences throughout our community, especially for children and families. Rather than thinking about taking away somebody’s senior year or their first experience in first grade, I see it as we are preserving their health and trying the best we can with no guarantee,” LaChapelle said.

When committee Chair Cynthia Kwiecinski made her vote, she shared that because of the health reports and what Harvey and Herbert had to say, she supports reverting to remote learning.

Kwiecinski assured the public that they will look at the health reports, talk to the Board of Health, and their coronavirus response team and hope that the numbers go down. She said when they can get students back into the building, they will.

After the vote was made committee member Marin Goldstein expressed that he felt the committee had done a disservice to the students.

Committee Secretary Marissa Carrere said that, as a representative of the public, it is hard to say that they are not going to provide this public service to students who need it the most.

“I feel like kids have been asked to sacrifice so much,” Carrere said.

Before the meeting was adjourned, LeClair spoke to reiterate her point that reducing the number of cases is a collective effort.

“This breaks my heart as an educator and I have made no bones about that. I will go back to something I said at the beginning of the meeting ­– if people do the right thing in the next couple weeks and we can get these numbers down, we can get these kids in school. It takes a village, it takes all of us doing our part to make this work. I think as a community we need to get that message out there. I want to get kids in the building, I want teachers to be safe, I want staff to be safe, I want students to be safe but I cannot do that if this virus is running rampant in this community,” LeClair said.

LeClair later told Reminder Publishing special education evaluations will continue; families will be offered either virtual or in-person evaluations.