Schools
Melrose Schools, Union Reach Tentative Back-To-School Pact
The agreement opens the door for districtwide hybrid learning to begin in October, pending public health circumstances.
MELROSE, MA — The School Committee and teachers' union have reached a tentative agreement on parameters that would get educators back in school, a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Patch. The agreement opens the door for districtwide hybrid learning to begin in October, pending public health circumstances.
Details of the agreement were not immediately available. An official announcement was expected in the coming days. Any agreement would still need to be voted on by the School Committee, which next meets Sept. 8.
The school year will still start almost fully remote as part of the phased reopening plan, in which most students will return to class no sooner than Oct. 19. Superintendent Julie Kukenberger announced earlier this week that the only students who will be in class before then are tuition-based preschoolers and high-needs students, who will be back full-time, and kindergarten and first-grade students in the hybrid model.
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The implementation of Kukenberger's "Best Fit" model — in which families would choose between hybrid and remote learning — was delayed in part to allow more time for negotiations between the School Committee and Melrose Education Association.
The union representing more than 450 local teachers had called for the remote start to school, citing several health and safety concerns. The MEA said it wanted a two-week span of statewide positive test rates under 2 percent, no increase in COVID-19 cases in the city for two weeks and 48-hour test results, among other things, before returning to in-class instruction.
Find out what's happening in Melrosefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The public health metrics in Melrose continue to have the city among low-risk "green" communities in the state's COVID-19 map. As of Wednesday, the positive test rate over the past two weeks was at 0.54 percent.
Union leaders also pushed for safe buildings to return to. DPW Director Elena Proakis Ellis this week laid out an extensive cleaning plan and said school buildings are safe, but stressed that it's dependent on everyone to follow social distancing and other safety guidelines.
The district's HVAC systems are undergoing an independent review, the full reports for which are expected by Sept. 16.
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