Coronavirus Forces Braintree To Halt School Reopening Plan

BRAINTREE, MA — The school committee has halted plans to expand in-person class time due to a jump in the number of Braintree's coronavirus cases in the last week.

Marybeth McGrath, the town's health director, told the school committee Monday that Braintree had 213 new COVID-19 cases in the last week. School officials also reported 13 cases among students Monday. Braintree has now seen more than 1,900 residents get infected with the virus.

Originally, the Mayor Charles Kokoros and the school committee set a goal of returning to full in-person learning by Jan. 4, but the recent spike forced the school committee to push back this goal for the foreseeable future.

"The timing right now, with the influx of new cases, has made it impossible for us to do that safely," Kokoros said. "We know we are going to see an even bigger spike."

McGrath said the new cases were from community spread and did not come from Braintree's nursing homes. She said many of the town's recent cases were people who became infected at Thanksgiving gatherings. McGrath said she expects more cases over the next two weeks because of Christmas and New Year's gatherings.

"Behaviors are a huge factor here, and we have to change our behaviors," McGrath said.

Kokoros said the district also won't be implementing a change approved a week ago to reduce the distance between students from 6 feet to 3 feet. The goal of this change was to unify classes by having more students in them.

For now, Braintree remains in a hybrid model for schools. Elementary students attend in-person classes four days per week, while middle and high school students are in-person for two half-days per week. The other days involve remote learning.

But after Friday, there will be no in-person classes before winter vacation, and a remote schedule will be in place.

The school committee is expected to reconsider further reopening measures at a meeting scheduled on Jan. 11.