School Coronavirus Protocols Face Bitter Challenges This Week

SALEM, MA —This week's bitterly cold temperatures are adding yet another layer to the challenge of keeping school classrooms open and as safe as possible during the current omicron surges.

As students returned full-time to the classrooms last spring and again in the fall, the recommendation that bus and classroom windows remain open, and students eat lunch outside as much as possible, were relatively easy to embrace at all levels. But as the winter approached, and temperatures fell, the protocols became more and more uncomfortable just as the need for them — specifically rising coronavirus cases and community spread — became greater.

"During the colder days and months, we are encouraging students to have the option — when possible — of eating outside and suggesting that classrooms keep windows open as much as reasonably possible," Superintendent Steve Zrike wrote in his weekly newsletter to families last week. "It is not our intention to create conditions where it is impossible for students to learn due to the cold, but rather to enhance airflow by cracking open a window."

Zrike also said last week that some school rules prohibiting the wearing of hats and hoods in classrooms were being relaxed because those classrooms will be a little more chilly than normal for the next month or two.

But there is a difference between opening a window on a brisk day and opening one with wind chills expected to remain below zero as is forecast for Tuesday.

In Boston, the decision was made on Monday to cancel school outright because of the arctic blast. But in the districts that choose to press on rather than call off classes for the second time in three school days after Friday's storm, the intense cold will result in the judicious enforcement of the COVID protocols.

Salem Public Schools Director of Public Relations Liz Polay-Wettengel told Patch on Monday that while open windows are advised "as much as reasonably possible" at least for one day on Tuesday that will not be the case.

"We have HEPA filters in each classroom to help circulate the air to aid the ventilation in our schools," she told Patch. "We trust our school leaders and staff will appropriately balance enhancing ventilation with shielding students from the winter elements, especially on days where we have frigid forecasts like (Tuesday)."

She added that outdoor lunches — which are encouraged most school days —will not be allowed on Tuesday. She said students have that option when it is 20 degrees or warmer.

(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.)