LONGMEADOW – Fire Chief John Dearborn and Public Health Coordinator Cheryl Messer joined the Nov. 10 Longmeadow School Committee meeting giving updates on the regional conditions in the town and shedding light on the new metrics Massachusetts introduced.

On Nov. 6, Gov. Charlie Baker announced that the state began using a new metric system to assess coronavirus transmission rates in communities in order to keep students in school. The method will still use the number of cases per 100,000 residents as one of the measures, but differentiates communities by population. For example, towns with less than 100,000 residents is based on the number of cases, and larger towns use 10 cases per 100,000 residents. The new metric will also be used to what reopening phase a community is in. The potential penalties for school districts not following the state’s reopening and closing plans will be determined by local officials.

Dearborn and Messer presented the committee a slide show of the health and safety report. At the time of the meeting on Nov. 10, Longmeadow had 290 total case counts, a 26 two-week case count, a 12.1 average daily incidence rate per 100,000 and the relative change in case count is higher. The total tests in Longmeadow is 11,479. The total test in the prior 14 days is 1,705 while the positive test in the prior 14 days is 28. The town’s percent positivity is 1.64 percent making the change in percent positivity higher. With that said, those number increased in the State’s report released Nov. 12.

“It didn’t change our numbers. It changes the way they average them out,” said Dearborn. “I think the new system better represents our actual cases and the condition of our community. These numbers go up and down all the time. We’re a little bit more stable now, so we have a better idea of where we’re going. We’ve had a few school-age community cases in and out, but overall there is no evidence of spread within the school. This tool will be good for us to be able to maintain our situational awareness.”

The meeting continued with school updates. Grades K-2 students returned to school on Nov. 5, which Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea said was a successful return. At the Oct. 21 meeting, the committee approved the elementary catered to in-person learning proposal formed by principals Donna Hutton, Amy Stec and Marie Pratt. The district is regularly assessing health metrics to determine if it is possible to safety schedule more students and staff into in-person models.

“We’ll continue to work with families and students on an individual basis to identify students who would benefit from additional in-person learning,” O’Shea stated.

The committee moved to renew the contract with Fresh Picks Cafe with Division of Cafe Services for the 2020-2021 school year.

They also approved the annual plan 2020-2021 presented by O’Shea. He noted he wants to make sure there is alignment across the system between the School Committee goals, his goals, district goals and individual school goals. His plan focused on providing inclusive, anti-racist and identity-based educational practices this year, as well as making sure they’re managing the health and safety of students and staff in the midst of this pandemic while ensuring the learning and growth of all students.

“My hope is that I can lead this district as we expand our capacity at the organizational level and that the individual educator level to make sure we’re providing inclusive services to all students,” O’Shea responded. “Through a variety of practices that will happen through ensuring that we have curriculum materials and experiences that are representative of all groups that we have provided appropriate professional development.”

For inclement weather days, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has given the committee local discretion to treat inclement weather days as remote learning days and therefore avoiding traditional old-fashioned snow days.

O’Shea’s recommendation is to take advantage of this option. If they have some inclement weather, they will make an announcement that it’s a remote learning day. It’s counted as time on learning and the days won’t need to be made up in June.

At the end, the committee approved the use of remote instruction on the days when school will be closed due to inclement weather as long as there sufficient reason to believe there is no issue with internet or electricity cognitive impact.