Longmeadow School Committee discusses athletics, instructional model update

Jan. 14, 2021 | Miasha Lee

Longmeadow Fire Chief John Dearborn offered an update on the town of Longmeadow’s COVID–19 response and the vaccine roll out.
Photo Credit:?LCTV

LONGMEADOW – Jan. 12 marked Longmeadow’s first School Committee meeting of 2021. Fire Chief John Dearborn gave the committee an update on the COVID-19 health and safety report.

From the statewide report, Dearborn said the town is continuing in the red.

“We did experience a surge during the holiday,” Dearbon stated. “We peaked at 115 active cases during that time. As of today, that number has dropped down to 64. We are seeing an increase in the case of long-term care facilities. We’ve seen a slight decrease in community spread, however same household or groups of three, four or five people in a family all having it within the same time frame or same cycle, that does continue to be prominent.”

Dearborn also mentioned they have posted preliminary information on vaccines on their website at www.longmeadow.org. The town’s COVID-19 team has a vaccine plan in place and is waiting for more information from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to finalize the plan.

Currently, Longmeadow is in Phase One of the state’s vaccine timeline. The town is not running municipal vaccination clinics in Phase One. Longmeadow Police and Fire Department personnel are receiving the vaccine in Phase One through a regional vaccination effort with other area public safety departments. The town does not have a supply of the vaccine yet and there is no sign up list for residents. Once the state releases information on when Phase Two will begin, the town will release information on when clinics will take place, how residents will make an appointment and other general information.   

The meeting proceeded with an update on winter athletics. The major concern, the committee expressed, is the question of competing against communities that might be designated red on the state metrics.

At this time, Athletic Director Michael Capotosto said there are about 35 schools that are in the red in this area.

The committee explained their approach to this issue is that they are not looking to micromanage the idea of sports during this semester, and that Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea will be able to make decisions as necessary when he gets the information that is relevant to the situation.

“It's a challenge though,” O’Shea responded. “We’re going to run into situations where student athletes become close contacts and we have to put in place protocols we have been using since the beginning of school.”

He continued, “That’s a reality and it makes it a challenge, but that’s the challenge that every organization and school is going through.”

In an update on their instructional model, O’Shea informed the committee they are able to move forward with getting their grade 3 students back in school four days a week. The principal sent a letter home to families announcing the new teachers at each school in Cohort C. The letters for new class assignments will go home on Jan. 14. At Blueberry Hill School and Wolf Swamp Road School, they will begin the new arrangement with the new teachers on Jan. 21. Also on Jan. 21 Center School students will begin to have classes in person and will be participating in the new arrangement.

Toward the end of the meeting, the committee approved the budget revision as outlined in the document fiscal year 2021 (FY21) Grants and Special Revenues Budget Revision number two dated Jan. 12, 2021. They agreed on Feb. 2 and 9 as the set dates and Feb. 11 as the emergency date for a public hearing on the FY22 school budget, and made a motion to move the parent-teacher conference to February for the school calendar revision.

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