Salem Teachers Praise Vaccine News, Want To Negotiate Full Return

SALEM, MA — While Salem teachers welcomed news they are now eligible for coronavirus vaccinations they still expect to be consulted in the district's plans to return students to the classroom five days a week as soon as April.

Salem Teachers Association President Ann Berman told Patch that while "teachers should have been put at the forefront" of state vaccination efforts, she was happy to hear President Joe Biden's stated goal Tuesday of having every teacher in the country get their first shot by the end of the month. She added "it would have been nice to have heard beforehand from the governor" on educator prioritization.

Gov. Charlie Baker said on Wednesday that teachers will be eligible to sign up for appointments from state facilities as of March 11 to avoid confusion with the federal guidelines. CVS opened educator eligibility for the federal pharmacy program as of Wednesday morning.

Berman added that even after vaccinations start that does not absolve the district from the duty to negotiate with the union when it comes to bringing back students to a full day of school five days a week.

"To say that schools are not superspreaders is fantastic," Berman told Patch. "Salem has taken steps to avoid that. But what we don't know is if teachers are vaccinated whether we could still carry the virus. That doesn't mean we won't carry it home to our family members who aren't vaccinated.

"It's really hard to follow the science when it changes on a daily basis and it appears the metrics that they are using change based on what they are trying to accomplish."

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley said he will seek the authority on Friday to make only in-classroom learning hours count toward the learning requirements by April and not include remote learning hours unless a student chooses to stay remote-only.

The move would effectively eliminate the hybrid-learning model many districts have used since September and which Salem Public Schools has instituted across grades in phases starting with the youngest grades in November through high schoolers returning in February.

Salem Superintendent of Schools Stephen Zrike said the vaccination eligibility is overdue, and that intends to present a plan for a full return to the classroom at the school committee meeting on March 15.

"We've been waiting for a long time," Zrike said of the educator vaccines in his weekly Facebook Live session. "Finally, finally. I wish this had happened earlier. But better late than never.

"We are planning to open up school to many more students to five days a week as soon as possible. I am hoping mid-April but possibly sooner. Suffice to say, we are in the planning process right now of how to bring more students back to a full-day, full-week experience.”

Berman said she believes the district must do so with the priority of keeping all of the current safety protocols — including the 6-foot distance mandate —intact.

"We do have safety precautions in place and we are worried if some of those are taken away some of the (COVID-19) numbers will go up," she said. "I think the 6 feet should be upheld. That is in our memorandum (of agreement). Everything has to be looked at. Are there classrooms that can accommodate 6 feet? Some classrooms cannot. There might not be a need to remove the 6 foot (protocol) based on the number of families who choose to come back."

While federal guidelines call for 6 feet of social distancing, the state mandates only 3 feet in schools, although 6 feet is advised.

"We have a memorandum in place and that memorandum stays in place until we get back to normal," Berman said. "I feel like we did collaborate well with the district throughout this whole thing and we want that collaboration to continue."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)