Wicked Local
Elementary students who remain in or transition to in-person classes will finally return to school full-time beginning Monday, April 5, according to a March 15 email from Superintendent David Fleishman.
School hours for elementary students attending in-person classes and the Distance Learning Academy will now be follows: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 8:25 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. and Wednesday: 8:25 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Although the Newton Public Schools were already working on a date to return elementary children to full-time, in-person classes, Jeffrey Riley, commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), gave the entire state an April 5 deadline to put a plan into action. The move essentially eliminated the hybrid option, the Tab reported earlier.
Julie M. Cohen
Newton Tab
Schools moved one step closer to pre-COVID normalcy as Jeffrey Riley, commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), announced that students in grades 6 to 8 must return to full-time, in-person classes by April 28.
The move essentially eliminates the hybrid model for children in elementary and middle school.
The Wellesley Board of Health issued a statement in support of the return that read in part: Our stance, as outlined above, considers the profound and growing negative impact on the mental health, emotional wellbeing, development, and education of our town’s youth. Now, nearly one year since schools were first closed due to the pandemic, we believe the growing risk of this negative impact far exceeds the threat from the virus.
Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley. (State House News Service)
Public schools in Massachusetts will have to begin offering in-person learning to elementary school students five days a week next month.
It s the first decision education Commissioner Jeff Riley made under new authority approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Friday afternoon, by a vote of 9-3. Under the regulation change, Riley can determine when remote-only education will no longer be an option for districts. The time is now to bring our kids back to school, said Riley during Friday s meeting.
State officials said the plan to open classrooms for elementary students would allow districts who have been remote-only for most of the school year to take a more graduated approach to fully reopening their buildings. Parents would still have the option to choose remote learning for their children through at least the end of this school year.
An 8-3 vote by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Friday afternoon cleared the way for the stateâs education commissioner to eventually take remote and hybrid learning models off the table for local school districts.
The board approved emergency regulations giving Commissioner Jeff Riley the authority to decide when full and partial remote schooling will no longer count toward student learning time requirements, taking a step towards the next phase of pandemic-era schooling in Massachusetts.
âWe are at an interesting time. We have seen our numbers go way down,â Riley said. âWeâve seen the vaccines and the promise of the vaccines go way up, and we think now is the time to begin to move our children back to school more robustly. The medical community believes that, and I think now is the time to make that call.â