EAST LONGMEADOW – Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jefferey C. Riley recently sent a letter to 16 school districts including East Longmeadow requesting that they return to in-person learning, citing the state’s low-risk COVID-19 numbers.

DESE isn’t the only organization calling for East Longmeadow to return to in-person learning. A resident of town, JC Maccarini, posted a petition to the East Longmeadow, MA Forum Facebook page calling for residents who have children in the district to sign the petition, calling for in-person learning for ELPS students. The petition requested that families be given the choice for their child to participate in a hybrid model, or for the school committee to reassess their choice to remain remote in October.

At the Sept. 21 school committee meeting, Chair Gregory Thompson addressed the issue, “I just wanted to state publicly that we have a plan that we have made. It was one of the three plans that was approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to go remote. We will make a decision by mid-December on whether or not we are able to change that model and that will be for Jan. 15 [2021].”

He went on to say, “We know exactly what our educational process will look like for the next four months. We do have multiple students back in many of the schools. Those students that have to be in the buildings, so we have brought them back successfully to some extent or another. We will get back to the commissioner and keep moving forward the best we can.”

The meeting continued with the committee receiving a request from the East Longmeadow Marlins Swim Team to use the high school swimming pool for practices.

Marlins Parent Board representative Charles Gray stated their plan is to either have three or four sessions a night. Sessions will be 50 minutes long, and swimmers will be at practices in two cohorts (cohort A and cohort B). Swimmers in cohort A will practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday the first week.

Swimmers in cohort B will practice Tuesday and Thursday, but will practice on Friday the next week. There will be three swimmers to a lane. One swimmer on the deep end of the pool, another at the shallow end and one more in the middle.

Marlins head coach Cora Gauvin said they have built their coaching staff of five to six members.

“It gives us flexibility, so that people are really only expected to coach two nights a week,” Gauvin replied. “It also gives us the availability to switch times or cover for people if they can't make one practice which we didn't have before.”

The committee then motioned to approve the Marlins swim practice at East Longmeadow High School.

The meeting carried on with the Athletic Sub-committee’s recommendation for fall athletics pertaining to sports fees.

Athletic Director Kevin McGee and East Longmeadow High School Principal Frank Paige presented two outlined proposals for athletic user fees.

The first one was reducing the field hockey, golf, soccer, cross country and volleyball athletic user fee to $100, which was originally $149. This user fee will not apply to football and cheerleading level 1 practices. The reason for this reduction is due to the district not providing athletic transportation and athletic schedules will be reduced anywhere from 25 to 50 percent compared to previous years.

McGee said, “I do believe the reduction to a $100 for those sports will not have a negative impact on the winter or spring season or on the athletic budget for this year.”

It also recommended that if any athletic season is shut down due to COVID-19, then the athletic user fee will be prorated based on the time of shut down, and a credit will be issued to the family.

The second proposal was setting the level 1 athletic user fee for football and cheerleading to the amount of $50 per athlete. This athletic fee will not apply or carry over to their competitive season in March and April. Cheerleading and football practices will be set three times a week for 1.5 hours. The cheerleading and football level 1 coaches will have an approximate ratio of 15 athletes per coach.

The committee approved the athletic user fees of $100 for field hockey, golf, soccer, cross country and volleyball and $50 for football and cheerleading as presented for the fall 2020 school year.

McGee and Paige continued the presentation with a proposal regarding spectators.

The Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference (PVIAC) decided not to allow any spectators at indoor volleyball competitions and any ­”away team spectators” at outdoor competitions. Based on their policy, ELHS parents are not allowed to attend any away athletic events.

However, the PVIAC left it up to the home team’s school committee, administration and health department to decide if they are going to allow “home team spectators.”

McGee informed the committee that town health director, Aimee Petrosky has received clarification from the Massachusetts Department of Health that each athletic participant is allowed one spectator.

Based on her clarifications, McGee and Paige proposed one spectator per ELHS athletic participant for all home games. The athletic director will give each athlete an athletic pass to be used by one of his/her family member to attend home outdoor ELHS athletic event or that particular sport or level.

There was a lengthy discussion on having parents 20 feet off the field and watching their child’s game in their car instead of the stadium.

“I just don't like the idea,” said Thompson. “I think we’re not being very host like. It’s a slap in the face to the visiting team and we are basically saying because we control this stadium you can’t come in. I almost think we should not have any spectators if that’s the way we’re heading, and I want to be a spectator.”

Eventually, the committee decided for the fall 2020 season they will allow outside spectators to attend games, one parent per home student athlete, and indoor events will take place without spectators through Oct. 19 when they will revisit this matter.

Reminder Publishing reached out to JC Maccarini via Facebook to discuss the petition, but did not receive a comment by press time.