EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow School Committee hosted their May 24 meeting outside at East Longmeadow High School. Following Massachusetts and CDC guidelines (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) they were able to go maskless for the first time in-person collectively.

Chair Gregory Thompson said, “I appreciate everyone’s willingness to come out this evening outside of this lovely summer night and have our meeting tonight so I’m grateful that some normalcy returned. I'm grateful that Mr. [Don] Mackie agreed to record us outside today.”

During the meeting, the committee voted to return the $400,000 from the FY21 budget back to general funds. Superintendent Gordon Smith explained that the $400,000 is due to the fact that their spending this school year was very different from previous years. Because of the pandemic, they began the school year with the majority of students and staff working in a remote instructional model. Smith said the remote instructional model was the predominant model in the school district until Jan. 19 when the district moved into a hybrid instructional model.

Instructional supplies that would be used by students in the classrooms beginning in late August were not used at the start of the school year. The personal protective equipment and disinfecting products for staff and the five schools were able to be purchased using grants that were established to help school districts develop safe learning environments. School districts were forced to develop new procedures for almost everything that occurred during a school day.

Smith added, “Traditional spending on contracted services such as transportation was very different this year due to safety protocols needed on buses and the instructional models used during this school year where students were learning remotely.” He continued, “The different spending this year along with the support from the federal and state grants places East Longmeadow Public Schools in the very unique position to be able to return to the town such a significant amount of money as $400,000, which strengthens the town’s general fund going forward.”

The committee also approved the Rotary Summer Concert Series starting June 30 to Aug. 11 along with an outline of how the event will be set up with the concessions and portable bathrooms. In a separate vote, they approved to have the Rotary Summer Concerts this summer at East Longmeadow High School, which Smith commented on this being a “nice sign” that they are returning to some normalcy after such a challenging year.

As the meeting went on, the committee approved the Rotary Club Foundation’s request for the use of the East Longmeadow High School grounds for the Independence Day fireworks beginning June 28 lasting through July 3, and allowed banners to be attached on the exterior fences around the tennis court between July 3 and July 5.  

In addition, Smith announced a new event the police and health department are putting together called Coffee with a Cop Car Seat Safety. This event will not only focus on coffee with the town's police officers, but during that time with each car load that comes in, the officers will go through the safety requirements and how to use car seats in the appropriate way.

“This will be a great event for our families with young children and they’re looking to be in the high school parking lot hopefully on Saturday, June 5,” Smith said. “However, the police and health department understand that June 5 is our rain date for graduation. Should the ELHS graduation need to be switched to the morning of June 5, the Coffee with a Cop’s second location will be at the Meadow Brook School.”