Massachusetts Delays Public School Reopening By 10 Days

BOSTON, MA —Massachusetts schools have been given an extra 10 days to prepare for reopening, pushing the latest permissible start date to Sept. 16. This shortens the school year to 170 days, a step educators and state officials said is necessary to allow schools to prepare for a safe return of students. Some educators, however, think that this is only the first step in a longer process necessary for a safe reopening.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education signed a memorandum of understanding with the Massachusetts Teachers Association; the American Federation of Teachers, Massachusetts; and the Boston Teachers Union Monday night to make the change.

Those three teachers associations had issued their own reopening recommendations last week, afte Gov. Charlie Baker issued guidance to schools. Merrie Najimy, president of the Mass. Teachers Association, told Patch the 10-day extension was a win, but it wasn’t the end. She says that DESE Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley paid attention to only one part of their proposal, and ignored the other issues they raised.

“The commissioner was not really interested,” said Najimy. “He paid lip service to the ideas but he was not really interested in coming to a real solution. He wasn’t a true partner in tackling the hardest issues here.”

In a letter Najimy wrote to MTA members, she says that four key components of the proposal still need to be achieved: the cancellation of requiring full in-person learning, the cancellation of the MCAS, requiring a health assessment of every school building and the linking of school reopening to COVID-19 benchmarks.

The MTA will discuss the remaining proposals at a member meeting Wednesday. Najimy said 10,000 people have already signed up to participate in the virtual meeting, a number she says is historic.

“That shows both the level of fear, anxiety, and willingness on the part of educators to step up and solve those problems,” Najimy said.

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