School Committee Approves Testing Money, Wants Long-Term Plan

MELROSE, MA — Melrose Public Schools will go remote the week after the winter break while a four-day COVID-19 testing program for most of the district's students and staff is implemented.

The School Committee on Wednesday night approved a transfer of nearly $285,000 from the staffing budget to fund the testing. Superintendent Julie Kukenberger's request passed with a 4-3 vote from a committee that much of the night appeared hesitant to move more than a quarter-million dollars for a "one-off" testing.

The committee's concerns were allayed some by an amendment that Kukenberger return in the first meeting of January with an update and testing plan going forward.

Jen McAndrew, Margaret Driscoll, Ed O'Connell and Jennifer Razi-Thomas voted to approve the transfer. Mayor Paul Brodeur, Lizbeth DeSelm and John Obremski voted against it.

Members — and the public who spoke at the outset of the nearly three-hour meeting — balked at the proposed single week of testing, though they supported a more sustainable testing roadmap.

"It's not acceptable to me to do one shot-in-the-dark testing next week and just go remote," Razi-Thomas said.

"One data point does not give you a trend," DeSelm said.

Kukenberger pushed back on the alleged ineffectiveness of the plan, insisting the information will set a baseline and help inform decisions moving forward.

"This isn't just one pointless data point in time," she said.

Kukenberger was encouraged to find a longer-term testing plan, but with funding — including money expected via the federal stimulus package — up in the air, specifics were hard to come by Wednesday night.

Kukenberger said 75 percent of the money for this round of testing would be FEMA reimbursable. The transfer moves $102,164 from the "substitutes" fund and $182,602 from the "personnel" fund, leaving $50,000 in the former and emptying the latter.

Parents expressed disappointment at finding out about the shift to remote learning from a Patch report earlier Wednesday rather than from the district. An official announcement was sent to staff after the meeting and to families Thursday morning — just four days before school resumes.

Testing will take place Jan. 5-6 and 8-9 from 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. at the high school/middle school parking lot. It is available for free to all staff and for students who attend in-person learning. Cataldo Ambulance will be administering the tests, with results expected within 24-48 hours.

Students will be excused from online learning to be tested, while teachers need to make appointments for outside instruction hours.

Families without access to devices can pick them up Monday at the high school. Lunches will be provided at the high school and Lincoln School all week from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

The district on Monday requested the transfer. Kukenberger and Director of Finance and Administrative Affairs Leia Secor called the need for testing "essential" so officials "have as much information as possible to make informed decisions."

The request came days after the teachers' union ripped the district's unsafe buildings and policies in a letter just before Christmas, saying "practices and procedures currently being employed are not working and that students, families, and staff are at a much higher risk than they may realize."

The Melrose Education Association stopped short of advocating for a full shift to remote learning, something teachers have privately pushed for.

The testing discussion has been in the works for weeks and is not in response to the union's renewed pressure.

The district has not gone fully remote since a month-long delay at the beginning of the school year.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.